Wednesday, November 25, 2015

St Catherine of Alexandria

Praesens dies expendatur in ejus praeconium, cujus virtus dilatatur in ore laudantium, si gestorum teneatur finis et initium.

Imminente passione Virgo haec interserit: Assequatur, Jesu bone, quod a te petierit suo quisque in agone memor mei fuerit.

In hoc caput amputatur, fluit lac pro sanguine: Angelorum sublevatur corpus multitudine, et Sinai collocatur in supremo culmine.

Gloria et honor Deo usquequaque altissimo, una Patri Filioque, inclyto Paraclito, cui laus est et potestas per aeterna sæcula. Amen. (The hymn for Lauds of the Office of St Catherine of Alexandria.)

The Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria, by Guercino (Francesco Barbieri), 1653; now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.  
Let this day be spent in proclaiming her whose virtue is enlarged by those who praise her, if the sum of her deeds be kept in mind.

With her passion imminent, the virgin adds this words: “Good Jesus, let each man who remembers me in his own suffering obtain whatever he may ask of Thee.”

At this, her head was cut off, milk floweth instead of blood; her body was taken by a multitude of Angels, and placed at the height of Sinai.

Glory and honor in everyplace to God most high, and with Him to the Son, and the glorious Paraclete, to Whom are praise and might for eternal ages. Amen.

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