SYMBOLS - TORTURE - LIGHTNING - SAINTS Albrecht Der's woodcut depicting the 'Martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria'. She had been condemned to death for refusing to abjure her Faith, and who refused marriage with Maxentius. First, the executioners had put her on a spiked wheel, which was to tear the flesh from her body, but a terrible hail storm, with sheet lightening was sent by God, and the instrument of torture was struck and consumed in the flames. Der depicts the horror at this strange phenomenon, sent by heaven. Later (and this is the moment depicted in the immediate foreground), St. Catherine was beheaded: milk is said to have flowed from her neck, instead of blood, which probably accounts for the reason why she has been adopted as he patron saint of nurses. The Catherine Wheel of firework displays, gets its name from this instrument of torture.