Chapter Cataian to Catharine Wheels of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Catharine To braid St. Catharine's tresses. To live a virgin.

“Thou art too fair to be left to braid St. Catha-
rine's tresses” Longfellow Evangeline.

Catharine (Knights of St), 1714. A Russian military order founded by Peter the Great after his naval victory of Aland, and so named in compliment to his wife Catharine.

Catharine of Russia A sutler. When Czar Peter wished to marry her, it was needful to make her of noble birth; so a private person was first converted into her brother, and then into a great lord by birth. Hence Catharine, being the sister of a “great lord,” was made fit to be the wife of the Czar. (De Cusine Russia, chap. iv.)

Catharine Theot (1725-1795). A visionary born at Avranches, who gave herself out to be (like Joanna Southcott) the mother of God, and changed her name Theot into Theos (God). She preached in Paris in 1794, at the very time that the worship of the Supreme Being was instituted, and declared that Robespierre was the forerunner of the WORD. The Comité de la Sûreté Génerale had her arrested, and she was guillotined. Catharine Theot was called by Dom Gerle “la mére de dieu,” and Catharine called Robespierre “her wellbeloved son and chief prophet.”

Catharine Wheel (A). A sort of firework. (See below.)

Catharine Wheels To turn Catharine Wheels. To turn head over heels on the hands. Boys in the streets, etc., often do so to catch a penny or so from trippers and others.
   A Catharine-wheel window. A wheel- window, sometimes called a rose-window, with radiating divisions. St. Catharine was a virgin of royal descent in Alexandria, who publicly confessed the Christian faith at a sacrificial feast appointed by the Emperor Maximinus, for which confession she was put to death by torture by means of a wheel like that of a chaff-cutter.