particularly distinguished for talents or courage. Catharine still had to sustain herself; and, in 1500, ably defended Forli against Cæsar Borgia, Duke Valentino, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander the Sixth. Being obliged to surrender, she was confined in the castle of San Angelo, but soon set at liberty, though never restored to her dominions. She died soon after. She is praised by a French historian for her talents, courage, military powers, and her beauty.
Sforza, Isabella, of the same family as the preceding, was distinguished in the sixteenth century for her learning. Her letters possessed great merit. One of them was a letter of consolation, written to Bonna Sforza, widow of the King of Poland; and one was in vindication of poetry.
CATHARINE ST.,
A saint of the Romish church, canonized by Pope Clement the Seventh. She was born at Bologna in 1413, and admitted a nun at Ferrara, in 1432. She was afterwards abbess of a convent at Bologna, where she died in 1463. She wrote a book of "Revelations," and several pieces in Latin and Italian.
CATHARINE ST.,
Was a noble virgin of Alexandria. Having been instructed in literature and the sciences, she was afterwards converted to Christianity, and by order of the Emperor Maximilian she disputed with fifty heathen philosophers, who, being reduced to silence by her arguments and her eloquence, were all to a man converted, and suffered martyrdom in consequence. From this circumstance, and her great learning, she is considered in the Romish church as the patron saint of philosophy, literature, and schools. She was afterwards condemned to suffer death, and the emperor ordered her to be crushed between wheels of iron, armed with sharp blades; the wheels, however, were marvellously broken asunder, as the monks declare, and, all other means of death being rendered abortive, she was beheaded in the year 310, at the age of eighteen. Her body being afterwards discovered on Mount Sinai, gave rise to the order of the Knights of St. Catharine.
CATHARINE, ST.,
Was born at Sienna, in 1347. The monks relate of this saint that she became a nun of St. Dominic at the age of seven; that she saw numberless visions, and wrought many miracles while quite young; and that she conversed face to face with Christ, and was actually married to him. Her influence was so great that she reconciled Pope Gregory the Eleventh to the people of Avignon, in 1376, after he had excommunicated them; and in 1377, she prevailed on him to re-establish the pontifical seat at Rome, seventy years after Clement the Fifth had removed it to France. She died April 30th., 1380, aged thirty-three, and was canonized by Pius the Second, in 1461. Her works consist of letters, poems, and devotional pieces.
CECONIA, or CESENIA,
Wife of Caligula, Emperor of Rome, was killed by Julius Lupus, A. D. 41, while weeping over the body of her murdered husband.
