| 词汇 | catherine wheel |
| 词源 | Catherine wheel. The Christian martyr St. Catherine of Al- exandria is said to have confessed her faith to Roman Emperor Maximinus and rebuked him for the worship of false gods. After she converted his wife and the Roman general who es- corted her to prison, Maximinus ordered her broken on the wheel, but the spiked wheel was shattered to pieces by her touch. This virgin of royal descent was then put to death by the ax, and tradition has it that her body was carried by angels to Mount Sinai where Justinian I built a famous monastery in her honor. St. Catherine is known as the patron saint of wheelwrights and mechanics, and her name day is November 25. The Catherine wheel, fireworks in the shape of a wheel ro- tated by the explosions; the circular, spoked Catherine wheel window; and Catherine wheels, lateral somersaults, all derive from her name. |
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