Mystical marriage of St. Catherine with the Child Jesus

Public Domain Photo: Mystical marriage of St. Catherine with the Child Jesus, lime wood sculpture with gold coloring and gilding, Master of Morlin-Epitaphs, Augsburg (1510), Bavarian National Museum, Munich

According to tradition, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (also known as ‘The Great Martyr Saint Catherine’ and ‘Saint Catherine of the Wheel’) became a martyr when she was beheaded on the orders of the Roman Emperor Maxentius.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 282 AD as the daughter of Queen Sabinella and King Costus who governed Alexandria, she was of extraordinary intelligence and a reputed scholar well-versed in sciences, arts, philosophy, etc. Though born a pagan princess, she became a Christian in her teens, and vowed to remain a virgin throughout life. Catherine had a vision of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary who gave her to Jesus in mystical marriage.

On reaching adulthood, Catherine visited the Roman Emperor Maxentius and tried to convince him of his moral errors in persecuting Christians who refused to worship pagan gods. In response, the emperor asked his best pagan orators and philosophers to debate on the issue with Catherine. She defeated them in the debate and converted them to Christianity. But, enraged at this, Maxentius executed all the converted philosophers and orators and tortured Catherine by imprisoning her.

During her imprisonment, over two hundred people, reportedly, visited her, including Empress Valeria Maximilla (wife of Maxentius) and all of them too converted to Christianity. The emperor responded to the conversions by executing all of the converted people.

Convinced that imprisonment and torture did not change Catherine’s views, the emperor tried to win over her by proposing to marry her. But she told him that she had consecrated her virginity to Jesus Christ. Upon this, the emperor sentenced her to death on the breaking wheel (also known as the Catherine wheel), a torture device used for capital punishment. But, miraculously, the wheel was destroyed and Maxentius had to order her beheading in 305 AD.

According to some traditions, angels carried her body to Mount Sinai where, Emperor Justinian (483-565, the Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565) built the Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula at the foot of Mount Sinai (now in the city of Saint Catherine in Egypt). In fact, it was dedicated to the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, an event in which Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant atop a mountain.

Over the years, the monastery has become an important pilgrimage center and repository of early Christian architecture and art that is open to visiting scholars and tourists.

The Holy Monastery of Varlaam

The Holy Monastery of Varlaam is the second largest monastery in the Metéora complex. A church dedicated to All Saints is in the Athonite type (cross-in-square with dome and choirs) with spacious esonarthex (lite) surrounded by a dome. It was built in 1541/42 and decorated in 1548, while the esonarthex was decorated in 1566. The old refectory is used as a museum while at north of the church there is the parekklesion of the Three Bishops built in 1627 and decorated in 1637.

The Varlaam Monastery was built by Saint Nectarios of Aegina and Theophanes. Access to the monastery was originally difficult, and it was deliberately built so, requiring either long ladders put together or large nets used to haul up both goods and people. Climbing up required quite a leap of faith; the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only when the Lord let them break. In the words of UNESCO, "The net in which intrepid pilgrims were hoisted up vertically alongside the 373 meters (1,220 ft) cliff where the Varlaam monastery dominates the valley symbolizes the fragility of a traditional way of life that is threatened with extinction."

Meteora Complex of Greek Orthodox Monasteries

Meteora is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second to Mount Athos. The now-existing six monasteries were built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios River and Pindus Mountains in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka. The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The exact date of the establishment of the monasteries is unknown. It is believed, in the 9th century, an ascetic group of hermit monks moved up to the ancient pinnacles. They were the first people to inhabit Meteora. They lived in the hollows and fissures in the rock towers, as high as 1800 feet (550 meters) above the plains.

By the end of the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire's reign over northern Greece was being threatened by Turkish invaders who wanted control over the fertile plain of Thessaly. The hermit monks, seeking a retreat from the expanding Turkish occupation, found the inaccessible rock pillars of Meteora to be an ideal refuge and built more than 20 monasteries, out of which only six exist today; five are inhabited by men, one by women, with fewer than 10 inhabitants in each.

The six monasteries are The Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron (the largest of the monasteries at Metéora), The Holy Monastery of Varlaam (the second largest), The Holy Monastery of Rousanou/St. Barbara, The Holy Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas, The Holy Monastery of St. Stephen, and The Monastery of Holy Trinity.

In the 1920s there was an improvement in the arrangements. Steps were cut into the rock, making the complex accessible via a bridge from the nearby plateau. During World War II the site was bombed and many art treasures were stolen.

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