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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Now, this is a power I envy

St. Catherine of Alexandria: Jedi Mind Trick

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
St. Catherine was a princess in Egypt in the 3rd century and received a good education. Though raised as a pagan, when she was a teenager she claimed that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her, told her that she had been wed to Christ in a mystical marriage, and she was converted to the Christian faith.
Soon after, she got a personal audience with Roman Emperor Maxentius and tried to convince him to stop persecuting Christians. The emperor brought out his best philosophers and rhetoricians to debate Catherine – but, amazingly, she won their debate. Several of her interlocutors were so impressed, they converted to Christianity.
Furious, the emperor had her imprisoned. But her persuasiveness just continued in prison. Among those she met in prison and those who visited, 200 people were converted by her evangelism. When she refused to stop converting people to the Christian faith despite being tortured, the emperor tried to persuade her to stop by asking her to marry him. She refused, and he sentenced her to death. But when she touched the the spiked breaking wheel that was going to be used to kill her, it shattered spontaneously. Finally, the emperor ordered her to be beheaded, which successfully ended her life.

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