[A] According to this legend, Catherine was a noble maiden of
Alexandria, distinguished alike by birth, riches, beauty, and the
rarest gifts of genius and learning. In the flower of her life she
consecrated herself to the service of her Redeemer, and cheerfully
suffered for his sake the loss of wealth, friends, and the esteem of
the world. Banishment, imprisonment, and torture were in vain tried to
shake the constancy of her faith; and at last she was bound upon the
torturing-wheel for a cruel death. But the angels descended, so says
the story, rent the wheel, and bore her away, through the air, far over
the sea, to Mount Sinai, where her body was left to repose, and her
soul ascended with them to heaven.