that the tender body of the beautiful queen should be torn asunder.

So they bound her between the wheels, and at the same moment fire came
down from heaven, and the destroying angel broke the wheels in pieces,
which flew off and killed the executioner.

Then Maximin, with his heart of stone, commanded that Catherine be
carried outside the city, and scourged and then beheaded. So it was
done; but when she was dead, angels bore her body over the desert and
over the Red Sea, and laid it away on the top of Mt. Sinai. As for the
tyrant, he was slain in battle, and the vultures devoured him.

In our picture of St. Catherine, and in others like it, she is shown
standing by a wheel. She leans upon it as if ready for martyrdom, and
looks upward as if she saw the fire coming down from heaven.

IX

ST. CECILIA

The legend of St. Cecilia is not so tragic as that of St. Catherine.
According to the story, Cecilia was a beautiful young girl who
belonged to a noble Roman family of the third century.

Her parents were Christians in secret, and they brought her up in the
faith. She was a most devout scholar. Night and day she carried about
with her a roll containing the Gospel, hidden within her robe. She
excelled in music, and turned her good gift to the glory of God; for
she composed hymns which she sang with such sweetness, that it was
said the very angels descended from heaven to join their voices with
hers.

Not only did she sing, but she played also on all instruments; but she
could find none which satisfied her desire to breathe forth the
harmony which dwelt within her, and so she invented a new one, the
forerunner of the organ, and she consecrated it to the service of God.

St. Cecilia like St. Catherine was a martyr, but the executioner who
was to put her to death was so affected by her innocence that his hand
trembled, and the wounds he made did not immediately cause her death.
She lived for three days, and as the story says:--

"She spent (these days) in prayers and exhortations to the
converts, distributing to the poor all she possessed; and she
called to her St. Urban, and desired that her house, in which she
then lay dying, should be converted into a place of worship for
the Christians. Thus, full of faith and charity, and singing with
her sweet voice praises and hymns to the last moment, she died at
the end of three days."

Very naturally, St. Cecilia was taken as t