The day is the feast day of St. Moses and St. Peter of Alexandria. They were martyrs, and this is also the feast day of St. Catherine of Alexandria.
She was also a martyr. Born in Egypt in the late 3rd century, Catherine was the daughter of Constance, the governor of Alexandria during the reign of Maximian. When Catherine was in her late teens, she had a vision of the Blessed Mother and Jesus.
She converted immediately and was baptized. When the emperor began persecuting Christians, she went to him directly and chastised him for his cruelty. In response, he sent for 50 philosophers to engage her in a debate designed to show she was wrong, but instead, all 50 converted. Enraged, the emperor had them all arrested and condemned. When she was in prison, more than 200 people came to visit Catherine, including soldiers and members of the emperor’s own family and most of them converted as well. Angered even more, he ordered them all to be executed and that Catherine be put to death on a spiked wheel, an effort which failed when the wheel broke. So she was beheaded. She died in 305 at the age of 18.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, please pray for us.