, c. 1340 Although Saint Catherine of Alexandria was supposed to have lived in the third and fourth centuries, the story of her vision appears first to be found in literature after 1337, over a thousand years after the traditional dating of her death, and ten years before Catherine of Siena was born. It appears in later versions of the popular
Golden Legend, but the earliest version of the account there seems to be in an English translation of 1438. The
Barna da Siena panel was painted within a few years of the first literary mentions. Although Catherine of Alexandria is a very popular saint in
Eastern Orthodoxy, the marriage is not a traditional subject in Orthodox
icons. In Western art the vision of Saint Catherine of Alexandria usually shows the Infant Christ, held by the Virgin, placing a ring (one of her attributes) on her finger, following some literary accounts, although in the version in the
Golden Legend he appears to be adult, and the marriage takes place among a great crowd of angels and "all the celestial court", and these may also be shown. Catherine of Siena would have been familiar with this story – the
Barna da Siena panel shown was painted in
Siena a few years before she was born – and she is recorded as praying as a child that she would have a similar experience, which she eventually did. She was "a devout woman whose imagination was stimulated unconsciously by religious images she had seen previously", as was also clear from the form of her
stigmata as described by her. Christ may be depicted as either an infant or an adult in her scenes. She was
canonized in 1461, though
Giovanni di Paolo's painting below may predate this; it is also Sienese. The fresco by
Spinello Aretino or a follower in the Cialli-Sernigi chapel of
Santa Trinita in
Florence certainly predates the canonization by several decades. However, unlike with the
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, there were no large monumental images, such as the main panel of an altarpiece, of the
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena until 1528, when the Sienese painter
Domenico Beccafumi painted one for the church of
Santo Spirito in Siena. A mystical marriage to Christ is also an attribute of
Saint Rose of Lima (died 1617), and many other saints have reported such visions. Examples of mystical marriages can be found as early as the Merovingian era. Such a marriage takes place in the Vita of Saint
Aldegund, and similar visionary experiences occurred in the Vita of
Saint Radegund. Another early example of a saint who underwent a mystical marriage would be Saint
Edith of Wilton. == Paintings ==