She knew Plato's philosophy in addition to the Holy Scriptures, and she also possessed a knowledge of rhetoric.
VII.

AN ASSEMBLY IN PARADISE (Continuation and End) St.Catherine entered the assembly, her head encircled by a crown of emeralds, sapphires, and pearls, and she was clad in a robe of cloth of gold.

She carried at her side a blazing wheel, the image of the one whose fragments had struck her persecutors.
The Lord having invited her to speak, she expressed herself in these terms: "Lord, in order to solve the problem you deign to submit to me I shall not study the habits of animals in general nor those of birds in particular.

I shall only remark to the doctors, confessors, and pontiffs gathered in this assembly that the separation between man and animal is not complete since there are monsters who proceed from both.

Such are chimeras--half nymphs and half serpents; such are the three Gorgons and the Capripeds; such are the Scyllas and the Sirens who sing in the sea.