Churches of Southern Illinois

ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA, GRAND CHAIN

Grand Chain is named after a 6 mile long stretch of big rocks in the Ohio River called "The Grand Chain." There's not much left of Grand Chain, since the city basically moved  to "New" Grand Chain in the 1870's. I like the fact that the Church is named after and Egyptian saint. Catherine's feast day was removed form the General Roman Calendar in 1969, but restored in 2002 as an optional memorial. She appeared to Joan of Arc! Come on! Her patronages include unmarried girls, Aslsum, apologists, craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters, spinners) archivists,  dying people, educators, girls, jurists, knife sharpeners, lawyers, librarians, libraries, maidens, mechanics, millers, milliners, hat-makers, nurses, philosophers, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, spinsters, stenographers, students, tanners, theologians, the University of Paris, haberdashers, and wheelwrights.