Nov. 25 Wednesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time; Optional Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria, virgin and martyr, Opt. Mem.

From time immemorial St. Catherine had been venerated at the monastery on Mount Sinai when, in the fifteenth century, the monks discovered her body. Legend has made of her a young Christian of Alexandria who rejected the advances of the Emperor Maximinus and routed a meeting of learned men gathered together to induce her to deny Christ. This feast was restored to the calendar in 2002.