Originally published at The Catholic Thing
LET our chorus’ voice sonorous
Sound our Maker’s praise, who for us
All things doth in place maintain :
Through whom fight th’ unwarlike even,
Through whom ’tis to maidens given
Victory over men to gain.
Through whom Alexandria cowered,
By a woman’s wits o’erpowered,
That no woman’s strength reveal,
When St. Catharine, doctors’ learning
By her doctrines’ lore o’erturning.
In her patience quelled the steel.
She for purity of morals,
Added to ancestral laurels,
Gained herself a brilliant name
Eminent through her forefathers,
By her holy life she gathers,
Through higher grace, yet higher fame.
All her bloom of tender beauty
Reading and the toilsome duty
Of deep study wore away:
For to learning was she given,
Secular and sacred, even
In her first youth’s earliest day.
She, a vessel pure, elected,
Deemed as mire to be rejected
Transitory good things here
All the riches of her father,
All the wealth his sires did gather,
But contemptible appear.
Full of oil her vessel being,
This wise virgin and foreseeing
Forth the bridegroom goes to meet
That at once, when he arriveth,
She may at the feast he giveth
Be prepared to take her seat.
She,—to die for Christ delighted!
When before the Emperor cited,
In his presence standing, then
With such maiden vigour speaketh,
That she mute and silent maketh
Fifty wise and learned men.
Horrible incarceration,
Hunger-pangs and sore privation,
That dread frame of spike-set
