Kon­takion 1

With songs of praise let us hymn Cather­ine, the bride of Christ, the vir­gin mar­tyr cho­sen from the im­pe­r­ial house and crowned in heaven; for she is the most glo­ri­ous van­quisher of the tyrant, the most wise in­struc­tor of philoso­phers, and a guide to Christ for many. As thou hast bold­ness be­fore the Lord, O great mar­tyr Cather­ine, mer­ci­fully in­cline Him to the right need­ful pe­ti­tions of those who cry out to thee:

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Ikos 1

Having pre­served a pu­rity equal to that of the an­gels, O holy vir­gin Cather­ine, thou didst has­ten to the choirs of the an­gels, and with the an­gels thou hast been ac­counted wor­thy of di­vine il­lu­mi­na­tion; and whilst chant­ing with them a hymn to the Trin­ity in the heav­ens, hear­ken unto us on earth who chant these things:

Rejoice, thou who from in­fancy wast set aside as a ves­sel of grace by the elec­tion of God the Fa­ther; re­joice, thou who through the won­drous econ­omy of God wast in­structed in the un­der­stand­ing of the great­ness and glory of Christ the Son of God! Re­joice, won­drous sign of the fore­knowl­edge of God, which was made man­i­fest in thee; re­joice, for when the Holy Spirit called thee, thou thy­self didst earnestly has­ten to His sanc­tity! Re­joice, thou who wast il­lu­mined by the light of pious faith; re­joice, thou who wast re­born in the holy font! Re­joice, hon­ored dwelling-place of the sanc­tity of the Spirit; re­joice, ful­fill­ment of the suf­fer­ings of Christ! Re­joice, thou who on earth didst wash thy gar­ments in the blood of the Lamb; re­joice, thou who didst join cho­rus with the holy vir­gins in heaven! Re­joice, most ra­di­ant star, shin­ing with the glory of mir­a­cles in the fir­ma­ment of the Church; re­joice, thou who like a dove art also re­splen­dent with meek­ness in the blessed king­dom of Christ!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 2

Seeing her­self found wor­thy to re­ceive a vi­sion, the blessed Cather­ine has­tened to the holy elder who had be­fore en­trusted the icon of the Mother of God to her; and she re­counted to him how Christ, Who had ap­peared to her with His all-holy Mother, had hid His face from her, call­ing her fool­ish, poor and of mean birth, until such time as she for­sook the in­famy of idol­a­try. And hear­ing this, the ven­er­a­ble one in­structed her in the mys­ter­ies of the Faith and bap­tized her; and in the re­newal of the Spirit, she chanted to God in thanks­giv­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

Having ac­quired in her spir­i­tual re­birth a good in­tel­lect, true no­bil­ity and im­per­ish­able riches, the holy Cather­ine was shown to be wor­thy of Christ the heav­enly Bride­groom Who, ap­pear­ing again to her, loved her and be­trothed her to Him­self with the ring He gave her; and rec­og­niz­ing the mag­ni­tude of God's good plea­sure, she was so stricken with love for Him that she no longer pon­dered earthly things, but thought un­ceas­ingly of her Beloved. Hav­ing been ac­counted wor­thy of such grace, hear­ken thou unto these things from us:

Rejoice, for in the nat­ural wis­dom given thee, thou didst seek from God spir­i­tual gifts which tran­scend na­ture; re­joice, for thou didst make fool­ish the wis­dom, glory and riches of the world! Re­joice, for thou didst not wish to take to thee a bride­groom from among the men of the world; re­joice, thou who in a vi­sion wast be­trothed by the Lord Christ Him­self as His un­blem­ished bride! Re­joice, for thou didst have the all-pure Mother of God her­self as guar­an­tor for thee and me­di­a­tor with God the Son of God; re­joice, for thou didst truly re­ceive from Christ a most mar­velous ring for thy right hand, as a token of thy be­trothal to thy heav­enly Bride­groom! Re­joice, for hav­ing been trans­formed by a won­drous trans­for­ma­tion, thou didst put aside all thought of worldly things; re­joice, for thou didst dili­gently pur­sue the fra­grance of the myrrh of Christ! Re­joice, good lover of the im­mor­tal Bride­groom; re­joice, re­cep­ta­cle of the fra­grance of the Most High! Re­joice, olive tree planted in the house of God; re­joice, cedar of Lebanon grow­ing to a great height!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 3

The power of the Most High then gave to the holy Cather­ine the bold­ness fear­lessly to de­nounce the im­pi­ous Em­peror Max­imi­nus for of­fer­ing sac­ri­fices unto idols; and he was struck mute for many hours, un­able to gain­say her words; and she chanted unto God in thanks­giv­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 3

Pos­sessed of wis­dom im­parted to her from on high, when the im­pi­ous Em­peror set her be­fore him­self the holy Cather­ine con­fessed her­self to be an em­peror's daugh­ter, and one who had mas­tered well the sci­ences of phi­los­o­phy and rhetoric; and fur­ther­more, as an open re­jec­tion of the wor­ship of idols, she de­clared her­self to be the bride of Christ. Mind­ful there­fore of this thy bold con­fes­sion, we offer up to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, bee who didst es­cape by flight the reek of idol­a­try; re­joice, dove who didst ever strive earnestly to pre­serve the pu­rity of thy soul and body! Re­joice, thou who, hav­ing strained thy whole mind to com­pre­hend the mys­ter­ies of sal­va­tion in the Lord Christ, wast en­riched with spir­i­tual trea­sures; re­joice, for, ex­ceed­ing zeal­ous for the glory of Christ thy heav­enly Bride­groom, thou didst strive in every way to lure erring peo­ple into the net of the Faith of Christ! Re­joice, for, guided by the mighty arm of Christ, thou didst es­cape the tem­pest of idol­a­try; re­joice, for, di­rected by the di­vine com­mand­ments of the Mas­ter and afire with love for Him, thou didst earnestly has­ten to the strug­gles that awaited thee! Re­joice, for, in­vested with di­vine help, thou didst coura­geously make thy stand be­fore the god­less tri­bunal; re­joice, for by thy mighty bold­ness thou didst daunt the tyran­ni­cal em­peror him­self! Re­joice, fortress of faith erected by Christ to set un­be­lief at naught; re­joice, most ra­di­ant morn­ing-star, herald­ing the dawn of sal­va­tion for those who through thee came to be­lieve on Christ! Re­joice, ath­lete who over­came the ruler of this world as a bea­con over­cometh dark­ness; re­joice, sanc­ti­fied wall of the fold, guard­ing the sheep of Christ against the raven­ings of the noetic wolf!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 4

Stir­ring up a tem­pest of wrath against the holy vir­gin, the em­peror said to her: "Speak not evilly to me against our gods!" But the holy Cather­ine replied: "If thou de­sirest to shake the dark­ness of delu­sion from the eyes of thy soul, un­der­stand that thy gods are evil, and ac­cept the true God Whose name, when merely ut­tered, or Whose Cross, when traced in the air, dri­veth away and de­stroyeth thy gods. If thou com­man­d­est, I shall dis­close to thee the Truth, chant­ing unto God: Alleluia!"

Ikos 4

Hear­ing thy wise and gen­er­ous reply con­cern­ing the Faith of Christ, and fear­ing lest he be bested by thee, O most splen­did maiden, the im­pi­ous Em­peror as­sem­bled wise men, fifty in num­ber, from the far-flung re­gions of his realm, to argue with thee. But strength­ened and as­sured of vic­tory by the Archangel Michael, thou didst re­joice greatly and didst res­olutely enter into de­bate with them. Where­fore, ac­cept from us this praise:

Rejoice, for thou wast in­formed by the archangel con­cern­ing thy vic­to­ri­ous tri­umph over thine op­po­nents; re­joice, for, pos­sessed of di­vine knowl­edge from heaven, thou didst right boldly and coura­geously put to shame the pro­po­nents of knowl­edge falsely so called! Re­joice, for with a pu­ri­fied heart thou didst re­ceive the grace of the Spirit of truth; re­joice, for, hav­ing made thy­self stead­fast by thy man­ner of life and con­stant rea­son­ing, thou didst tram­ple the false­hoods of the noetic foe un­der­foot! Re­joice, melo­di­ous organ of the Spirit; re­joice, re­vealer of the mind of Christ! Re­joice, thou who didst ac­quire the cheru­bim's knowl­edge of God; re­joice, thou who wast en­flamed with the seraphim's love for God! Re­joice, most wise of the wise; re­joice, thou who didst sharpen the sword of the Spirit against un­be­lief! Re­joice, dis­peller of impi­ety; re­joice, in­struc­tor of the faith­ful!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 5

Thou wast like unto a di­vinely ra­di­ant star, O Cather­ine, hav­ing by thy wise words pre­vailed in ar­gu­ment over the fifty rhetori­cians and guided them to the Chris­t­ian path that lead­eth to Christ God, the Sun of right­eous­ness, Who shone forth from the Vir­gin; but, con­demned for Christ's sake to im­mo­la­tion and ac­com­pa­nied on their way by thy prayers, they joy­ously en­tered the fire, chant­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 5

Seeing his edicts spurned and his ex­hor­ta­tions ig­nored, the em­peror turned to de­ceit, that he might se­duce thee with blan­d­ish­ments, O blessed Cather­ine, promis­ing to give thee half of his king­dom. But, pre­fer­ring the Faith to earthly trea­sures, and lov­ing Christ thy Bride­groom more than an earthly king­dom, and the ves­ture of mar­tyr­dom more than royal pur­ple, thou didst re­ject his vain words. Where­fore, we offer up to thee these praises:

Rejoice, O vir­gin who didst de­nounce false­hood; re­joice, thou who didst tram­ple the per­fid­i­ous ser­pent un­der­foot! Re­joice, for thou didst turn the per­ni­cious doc­trine of the in­fi­dels into a weapon for their de­struc­tion; re­joice, for, hav­ing stripped the gods they wor­shipped of their ven­er­a­tion, thou didst hold them up to mock­ery! Re­joice, for the fifty mem­ber coun­cil of those who boasted them­selves to be wise thou didst most wisely set at naught; re­joice, for thou didst un­mask the fool­ish­ness of their earthly wis­dom be­fore the whole mul­ti­tude! Re­joice, clar­ion of the Spirit, emit­ting the sound of true the­ol­ogy; re­joice, good con­fes­sion of the Faith! Re­joice, splen­dor of the light of the Gospel; re­joice, keeper of eter­nal laws! Re­joice, thou who didst as­cend the moun­tain of di­vine vi­sion; re­joice, for the light of Christ hav­ing il­lu­mined those who dis­puted with thee with faith, re­ceived them unto sal­va­tion!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 6

Zeal­ous to im­i­tate the preach­ers and God-bear­ing apos­tles, thou didst boldly pro­claim Christ the true God in the tyrant's pres­ence, and through­out thy flog­gings and im­pris­on­ment thou didst chant to Him: Alleluia!

Ikos 6

He Who shone the ef­ful­gence of true knowl­edge into thy heart drove away the gloom of tribu­la­tions and did not leave thee to starve, send­ing food to thee by means of a dove; nei­ther did He per­mit thee to be af­flicted by thy pangs, for in prison He vis­ited thee Him­self, giv­ing thee strength and promis­ing thee many crowns. And thou wast strength­ened all the more by Him, O thou who art pa­tient of heart, and the Em­press Au­gusta, the Gen­eral Por­phyrius and the sol­diers who came to thee, thou didst con­vert to the light of the Chris­t­ian Faith, teach­ing them to chant these things to thee:

Rejoice, phial of love di­vine; re­joice, for, im­i­tat­ing Chris, thou didst will­ingly go forth to suf­fer! Re­joice, hard adamant; re­joice, all-hon­or­able source of in­ef­fa­ble mir­a­cles! Re­joice, thou who didst slay the enemy by thine en­durance; re­joice, thou who didst bear the wounds of the Lord upon thy body! Re­joice, thou who to the Em­press Au­gusta and those who ac­com­pa­nied her didst show the way to the feat of mar­tyr­dom; re­joice, for thou wast a light amid the dark­ness! Re­joice, for the Lord Him­self, the Light of the world, re­vealed Him­self to thee when thou wast in prison; re­joice, speedy lib­er­a­tor from the bonds of sin! Re­joice, swift healer of the sick; re­joice, aid of our sal­va­tion!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 7

The god­less Em­peror, wish­ing to lure thee into idol­a­trous wor­ship abom­inable to God, again set snares for thee, O all-wise one, seek­ing to dis­tract thee by falsely prais­ing thy beauty; but thou didst call beauty a tran­sient thing and one that quickly pas­seth, and con­fess­ing Christ to be the liv­ing and true God thou didst chant unto Him: Alleluia!

Ikos 7

The em­peror dis­played his wrath and in­hu­man­ity anew when he com­manded the gov­er­nor to break thy pure, vir­ginal and holy body upon the wheel; but by the won­drous hand of the angel thou wast straight­way loosed with­out hav­ing sus­tained any harm, the wheel sud­denly broke apart, and in its break­ing many un­be­liev­ers were slain. See­ing this, the \em­peror was stricken with ter­ror, and the mul­ti­tude of the peo­ple who were there pre­sent cried aloud: "Great is the God of the Chris­tians!" And mar­veling at this, we cry out to thee:

Rejoice, for hav­ing em­braced the im­ma­te­r­ial life, thou didst bravely sur­ren­der the beauty of thy body to be laid waste; re­joice, for on thy body thou didst cause the ra­di­ance of God to blos­som forth! Re­joice, for thou didst give thine un­blem­ished body over to divers griev­ous tor­ments out of love for thy Cre­ator; re­joice, for in the strength of that love thou wast shown to be vic­to­ri­ous, un­cowed by fear or the cru­elty of tor­ture! Re­joice, for in di­vinely wise man­ner thou didst pre­fer to re­ceive griev­ous beat­ings on thy body, for the sake of the su­pe­ri­or­ity of spir­i­tual come­li­ness; re­joice, for through the wounds thou didst suf­fer for Christ's sake thou didst de­sire to be adorned in ves­ture of truly royal pur­ple! Re­joice, for thou didst pre­vail over the sly words and temp­ta­tions of the tyrant; re­joice, for thou didst cut down the cruel one's hopes of weak­en­ing the strength of thy re­solve! Re­joice, O mar­tyr, sight pre­cious and mar­velous to the an­gels; re­joice, glory of com­pa­nies of ath­letes! Re­joice, splen­did vic­tory over the foe; re­joice, fear of the in­fi­dels!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 8

Behold­ing the strange re­nun­ci­a­tion of glory and the suf­fer­ing for Christ of the em­press, the gen­eral and his sol­diers, let us be­take our­selves far away from the world and the flesh, and soar aloft to the knowl­edge of God. For He is the beauty, the glory and crown of us who sing: Alleluia!

Ikos 8

Jesus be­came for thee thy whole de­light and de­sire, O holy Cather­ine; for thou didst sweetly en­dure bit­ter tor­ment for His sake, and didst tram­ple un­der­foot the scepter of­fered thee, pre­fer­ring the rec­om­pense that is to come. Where­fore, ac­cept from us these praises:

Rejoice, for through thy di­vinely wise teach­ings the em­press, be­liev­ing, made haste to piety; re­joice, for, hav­ing en­dured the painful tear­ing away of her breasts and de­cap­i­ta­tion by the sword, through thee she was man­i­festly deemed wor­thy of the ever­last­ing king­dom of heaven! Re­joice, most ra­di­ant moon, dri­ving away the gloom of un­be­lief from those who walk by night; re­joice, thou who didst il­lu­mine the com­pa­nies of sol­diers, be­nighted by idol­a­try, with thy virtues as with the rays of the sun! Re­joice, dove of the comely Bride­groom that sang in the wilder­ness of this world below; re­joice, thou who didst glad­den the Mas­ter of the heav­enly hosts with the sweet song of thy con­fes­sion! Re­joice, thou who didst per­fume the gar­ments of Christ with sweet fra­grance; re­joice, thou who didst seek Him Who was be­got­ten be­fore the ever­last­ing hills like a hart upon the moun­tains of spices! Re­joice, for thou didst sail eas­ily and swiftly over the tu­mult of the sea of this world; re­joice, for thou didst ar­rive at the calm haven of ever-blessed life! Re­joice, for by the sal­va­tion of those who were close to thee didst thou send great and divers riches be­fore thee unto Christ; re­joice, for thou didst un­der­take the strug­gle of suf­fer­ing out of love for Christ!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 9

Every an­gelic being was glad­dened with joy, be­hold­ing thee, O most glo­ri­ous Cather­ine, vic­to­ri­ous over the dark prince of this world; and it wel­comed thee into the heav­ens as a tri­umphant com­man­der pre­ceded by a com­pany of mar­tyrs, and chanted hymns of vic­tory, cry­ing aloud to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 9

The lips of the most elo­quent of or­a­tors were stopped, for they were un­able to gain­say thy words, and in si­lence they ren­dered honor to thy gifts. And al­though we are weak, yet do we dare to open our lips in thy praise, of­fer­ing to thee this hymn:

Rejoice, melo­di­ous in­stru­ment of the Holy Spirit; re­joice, thou who didst ac­quire the mind of Christ! Re­joice, ray of in­ef­fa­ble splen­dor; re­joice, thou who didst make plain di­vine dog­mas! Re­joice, adorn­ment and con­fir­ma­tion of the city of Alexan­dria; re­joice, beauty and boast of Mount Sinai! Re­joice, thou who didst im­i­tate the zeal of Eli­jah; re­joice, thou who by the pu­rity of thy soul and body didst re­veal the un­burnt bush! Re­joice, thou who didst in pu­rity love Him Who is pure; re­joice, O most glo­ri­ous one who dost re­lease those held cap­tive by the dark foe! Re­joice, thou who art re­splen­dent with the come­li­ness of vir­gin­ity and dost per­fume mar­tyr­dom with the graces; re­joice, boast of mar­tyrs and teacher of piety!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 10

Desir­ing to save thy soul, thou didst dis­dain thy body, O Cather­ine, and hav­ing given the tyrant thy con­sent to be be­headed, thou didst joy­ously de­part hence, chant­ing to Christ God, thine im­mor­tal Bride­groom: Alleluia!

Ikos 10

A firm and unas­sail­able bul­wark didst thou show thy­self to the women who ac­com­pa­nied thee and with lamen­ta­tion called thee hard-hearted and in­dif­fer­ent to thy­self, O bride of Christ, for thou didst not spare thy ten­der life in the bloom of its youth, in that thou didst spurn the earthly king­dom and goods of­fered thee. But thou didst for­bid their un­prof­itable wail­ing and vain words, has­ten­ing all the more swiftly to unite thy­self to thy Beloved through death; and for His sake thou hear­est such things as these cried aloud:

Rejoice, thou who didst gladly bow thy head be­neath the sword for the sake of Christ, the Head of the Church; re­joice, thou who with pa­tience didst bring to a goodly end the course of thy strug­gle! Re­joice, thou who wast not dis­suaded from the path of the con­fes­sion of Christ by tribu­la­tion, wounds or the sword; re­joice, thou who didst pre­serve the flame of love un­quenched amid the streams of thy blood! Re­joice, good vir­gin maiden, for didst thou mag­nif­i­cently adorn thy­self with most sa­cred suf­fer­ings; re­joice, for as was meet thou didst enter into the heav­enly bridal cham­ber of Christ! Re­joice, most ra­di­ant maiden, for, hav­ing loved the One thou didst de­sire, thou didst fol­low after Him, com­plet­ing a most dif­fi­cult course; re­joice, for by thy blood thou didst man­i­festly cry out to Christ thy Bride­groom: "I flee to the fra­grance of Thy noetic myrrh which hath flowed forth, O my Bride­groom"! Re­joice, for thou didst re­tire to splen­did man­sions, ar­rayed in bridal ves­ture, hold­ing a vir­gin's lamp in thy right hand, and thy de­cap­i­tated head in thy left; re­joice, for thy di­vinely wise prayer was ac­cept­able to God; for those who call upon thy name with faith doth the Mas­ter save from temp­ta­tions, grant­ing them good health and de­liv­er­ing them from af­flic­tions of soul and body! Re­joice, adorn­ment of mar­tyrs; re­joice, mighty refuge of Chris­tians!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 11

We have dared to offer thee hymnody of praise, and if it be that dis­course faileth, the mind is at a loss what to say; yet thy most wise dis­course, which res­cued many from ig­no­rance and the in­famy of idol­a­try, moves us to chant to God, Who ren­dered thy mighty deeds won­drous: Alleluia!

Ikos 11

Behold­ing thee to be a lu­mi­nous can­dle ex­tin­guished by de­cap­i­ta­tion, yet set up ra­di­ant upon a heav­enly can­dle­stick be­fore the throne of the Holy Trin­ity, the holy an­gels wor­shipped Him Who liveth for­ever; and hav­ing re­ceived a com­mand from the Mas­ter, they buried thy vir­ginal body on Mount Sinai, that, as thou thy­self didst de­sire, it not be seen by the en­e­mies of the Lord. And we joy­ously send up this hymn to thee:

Rejoice, sun-like vir­gin who as­cended to the heav­ens in spirit; re­joice, thou who didst at­tain unto the heav­enly Zion! Re­joice, crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord; re­joice, cup draw­ing forth joy from the abun­dance of the house of God! Re­joice, thou who didst draw nigh in spirit to the ever­last­ing taber­na­cle not fash­ioned by the hands of men; re­joice, for in thine in­cor­rupt body thou dost rest on the moun­tain of the law, where the move­ment of the God of Sinai had been seen! Re­joice, O vir­gin who hast fol­lowed in the train of the rul­ing Vir­gin Queen who is ar­rayed in ves­ture of un­wo­ven gold, adorned in var­ied col­ors; re­joice, for through thee is the Mother of Life worthily hymned in the midst of tim­brel-play­ing maid­ens! Re­joice, for on thee shineth the majesty of Christ God; re­joice, in­ter­ces­sor be­fore the eter­nal throne! Re­joice, thou who from the tem­ple of the uni­verse dost watch over those who pray to thee; re­joice, in­cense of prayers, of­fered up in our be­half, being well-pleas­ing to the Mas­ter!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 12

Grace hath been given thee by God to guide men to the knowl­edge of His truth which is hid­den in mys­tery, and to grant unto all those re­quests which are prof­itable. Where­fore, we en­treat thee with com­punc­tion, O wise vir­gin: il­lu­mine the eyes of our minds and set forth for us a pass­able way to heaven, that with thee we may hymn the one Source of wis­dom, now and for all ages, chant­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 12

Hymn­ing the mighty strug­gles of thy mar­tyr­dom, we praise thee as an an­i­mate ves­sel of the sal­va­tion of men; for through thy knowl­edge God, re­fut­ing the wis­dom of the wise of this age, called the wise or­a­tors into the holy peo­ple, the peo­ple of the re­newal, for they were to suf­fer for Christ. Where­fore, O good vir­gin, draw us also who are be­nighted into the light of Christ, that we may cry out to thee:

Rejoice, mir­ror of the wis­dom of God; re­joice, thou who hast been ar­rayed with the power of the Most High! Re­joice, ath­lete anointed with the oil of glad­ness; re­joice, com­man­der who sent forth the com­pany of God to eter­nal great­ness! Re­joice, thou who hast en­tered into the splen­dor of the saints; re­joice, thou who stand­est in the choir of fiery ser­vants, be­fore Him Who dwelleth in light un­ap­proach­able! Re­joice, thou who with thy voice dost in­crease the thun­der of the thrice-holy hymn; re­joice, thou who tastest of the in­ef­fa­ble sweet­ness of the good things of par­adise! Re­joice, for praise and joy are above thy head; re­joice, for ever­last­ing glory il­lu­mineth thee! Re­joice, thou who hast been crowned with the crown of the king­dom of heaven by the God­head in Three Hy­postases; re­joice, me­di­a­tress of grace and end­less glory for us!

Rejoice, O Cather­ine, most wise bride of Christ!

Kon­takion 13

O holy great mar­tyr Cather­ine! Re­ceiv­ing this hymn of praise, never cease to pray to the Lord in our be­half, that He de­liver us from our en­e­mies, vis­i­ble and in­vis­i­ble; and by thy right ac­cept­able me­di­a­tion vouch­safe unto us the ever­last­ing king­dom, that with thee we may chant unto God: Alleluia!

Се́й конда́къ глаго́лется три́жды. Та́же Икосъ 1-й и Конда́къ 1-й

First Prayer to the Great Mar­tyr Cather­ine

O holy Cather­ine, vir­gin and mar­tyr, true bride of Christ! We be­seech thee as one who re­ceived a spe­cial grace whereby sweet­est Jesus, thy Bride­groom, ap­peared to thee, that hav­ing put to shame the tyrant's de­ceits by thy wis­dom and van­quished the fifty rhetori­cians, giv­ing them heav­enly doc­trine whereof to par­take and lead­ing them to the light of the true Faith, thou might­est like­wise ask for us that same wis­dom of God, that we also, hav­ing rent asun­der all the snares of the tyrant of hades, and spurned the temp­ta­tions of the world and the flesh, may show our­selves to be wor­thy of di­vine glory, may be made ves­sels meet for the spread of our holy Or­tho­dox Faith, and that in the taber­na­cle of heaven we may with thee praise and glo­rify our Lord and Mas­ter Jesus Christ, with the Fa­ther and the Holy Spirit, unto all ages. Amen.

Sec­ond Prayer to the Great Mar­tyr Cather­ine

O holy great mar­tyr Cather­ine, cho­sen ves­sel of pu­rity, pil­lar of Or­tho­doxy, our in­ter­ces­sor of good cheer, strug­gler for the law, saint who sleep­est a holy sleep on the holy moun­tain! Be­cause thou thy­self hast re­vealed to Chris­tians that they should ever pray to thee, we earnestly en­treat thee: look­ing down from on high, hear­ken unto the sound of our sup­pli­ca­tion, mer­ci­fully re­gard the mis­for­tunes of us sin­ners, visit the gloom of our minds, cause us to think of heav­enly things and not of those of earth. By thine in­ter­ces­sions make haste to over­come the lusts of our flesh, our pas­sion­ate at­tach­ment to the world and the wiles of the evil spir­its who with mal­ice wage war against us; that by thine in­ter­ces­sion we may be shown to be free of their ma­li­cious as­saults in the days of this life and from their aer­ial in­ter­ro­ga­tions after our de­par­ture. O all-wise vir­gin, grant us all that we ask which is prof­itable, for thou canst ask many things of thy beloved Bride­groom, Christ our God. We know that the prayer of a right­eous man availeth much when it wor­keth with the good­ness of the mer­ci­ful God, to Whom be glory, honor and thanks­giv­ing, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Tropar­ion, tone 4

Your lamb Cather­ine, O Jesus, Calls out to You in a loud voice: I love You, O my bride­groom, And in seek­ing You, I en­dure suf­fer­ing. In Bap­tism I was cru­ci­fied so that I might reign in You, And died so that I might live with You. Ac­cept me as a pure sac­ri­fice, For I have of­fered my­self in love. By her prayers save our souls, since You are mer­ci­ful.

Akathist to the Holy Great Mar­tyr Cather­ine of Alexan­dria in Eng­lish
Other hymns in Eng­lish