Jesus Christ hath chosen me for his bride.

He is my love, my glory, and all my delight." Finding it impossible to flatter her with soft words, the tyrant hoped to reduce her to obedience through fear; therefore he threatened her with death.
Catherine's courage did not waver.

"Jesus Christ," she said, "offered himself to his Father as a sacrifice for me; it is my great joy to offer myself as an agreeable sacrifice to the glory of his name." Straightway Maxentius commanded that she should be scourged with rods, and then cast into a dark dungeon and left there without food.
Thereupon, at the call of urgent affairs, Maxentius set out for a distant province.
Now the empress, who was a heathen, had a vision, in which Saint Catherine appeared to her surrounded by a marvellous light.

Angels clad in white were with her, and their faces could not be looked upon by reason of the brightness that proceeded from them.

And Catherine told the empress to draw near.