What Became of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret?

They came to sticky ends in 1969 when they were struck off the list of saints on the grounds they never existed.  Saint Catherine, it was determined, was an advertising campaign by Greek priests who wanted to lure the early Crusaders to Sinai to protect their monasteries. The photo below is of the still-operational St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai, in Egypt. Now it lures pilgrims of a different kind: tourists rather than Crusaders.

Saint Margaret became most popular in England where there are many churches in her name. In 1880 Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) even composed an oratorio, The Martyr of Antioch, dedicated to her. It is regarded as rather unexciting, perhaps because he eliminated the dragon, which is the best part of the story.

These saints had only caught on because they served as expressions of the people’s desire for magical heroes and heroines: healers and miracle-workers.  The Church never particularly liked them and, once again, it was the men who got rid of them, just as they got rid of Joan.  They kept Saint Michael.