Catherine

Parr, Catherine, 1512-48, sixth queen consort of Henry VIII of England. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, an officeholder at the court, and had been twice widowed before Henry made her his wife in 1543. She exerted a beneficent influence over the aging king, interceding in behalf of Henry's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth (whom she helped to educate), and served for a time as queen regent (1544). At one point Catherine's Protestant sympathies placed her in danger, but she lived to become queen dowager and to wield considerable power at the start of the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI. She married (1547) Baron Seymour of Sudeley but died in childbirth the next year.

Howard, Catherine, 1521?-1542, fifth queen consort of Henry VIII of England. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and the niece of the powerful Thomas Howard, 3d duke of Norfolk. Henry married her soon after his divorce from Anne of Cleves in 1540. Late in 1541 she was accused of immoral conduct prior to her marriage. Although she confessed, Henry was at first inclined to clemency. When evidence was produced for similar misconduct after her marriage, she was attainted for treason and beheaded.

Catherine, Saint, 4th cent.?, Alexandrian virgin martyr. Nothing certain is known of her life, and in 1969 her name was dropped from the liturgical calendar. According to tradition she was learned. She was condemned to die on the wheel and was saved by a miracle, but was later beheaded. Her principal shrine is the great monastery of Mt. Sinai. Attributes: sword, crown, palm, wheel, and book. The marriage of St. Catherine to Christ, a popular Renaissance subject, represents symbolically the dedication of her virginity. Feast: Nov. 25.

Breshkovsky, Catherine, 1844-1934, Russian revolutionary, called "the little grandmother (babushka) of the Russian Revolution." Of a noble family, she began on her father's estates the education of the peasants and other social reforms. These, carried into a larger field, brought her over 30 years of imprisonment and exile in Siberia. Released from exile by Kerensky after the Revolution of 1917, she returned to Russia, but found herself out of sympathy with the Bolshevik regime and left the country. Her letters and memoirs were edited by Alice Stone Blackwell with the title Little Grandmother (1917).

orig. Caterina Benincasa

(born March 25, 1347, Siena, Tuscany—died April 29, 1389, Rome; canonized 1461; feast day April 29) Dominican mystic and patron saint of Italy. She joined the Dominican third order in Siena in 1363 and soon became known for her holiness and severe asceticism. Catherine called for a Crusade against the Muslims as a means of calming domestic conflict in Italy. She also played a major role in returning the papacy from Avignon to Rome (see Avignon papacy). Her writings include four treatises on religious mysticism known as The Dialogue of St. Catherine.

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(born 1512—died Sept. 7, 1548) Sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII of England. The daughter of an official in the royal household, she had been widowed twice by the time she married Henry in 1543. She exerted a beneficial influence on the increasingly paranoid king and developed close friendships with his children by previous marriages. After Henry's death in 1547, she married Baron Thomas Seymour but died shortly after giving birth to a daughter.

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(born circa 1520—died Feb. 13, 1542, London, Eng.) Fifth wife of Henry VIII of England. The granddaughter of the 2nd duke of Norfolk, she became a maid of honour to Anne of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife. After Henry had his marriage to Anne annulled, he married Catherine (1540). In 1541 he learned that Catherine had had several affairs before their marriage and that she also had probably committed adultery. Incensed, he had Parliament pass a bill in 1542 declaring it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. Catherine was beheaded two days later in the Tower of London.

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Russian Yekaterina Alekseyevna orig. Sophie Friederike Auguste, princess von Anhalt-Zerbst known as Catherine the Great

(born May 2, 1729, Stettin, Prussia—died Nov. 17, 1796, Tsarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg, Russia) German-born empress of Russia (1762–96). The daughter of an obscure German prince, she was chosen at age 14 to be the wife of the future Peter III. The marriage was a complete failure. Because her neurotic husband was incapable of ruling, the ambitious Catherine saw the possibility of eliminating him and governing Russia herself. After Peter became emperor in 1762, she conspired with her lover, Grigory G., Count Orlov, to force Peter to abdicate (he was murdered soon after) and have herself proclaimed empress. In her 34-year reign she led Russia into full participation in European political and cultural life. With her ministers she reorganized the administration and law of the Russian Empire and extended Russian territory, adding the Crimea and much of Poland. Though she had once intended to emancipate the serfs, she instead strengthened the system she had once condemned as inhuman. She had great energy and wide interests, and her personal life was notable for her many lovers, including Grigory Potemkin.

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orig. Caterina Benincasa

(born March 25, 1347, Siena, Tuscany—died April 29, 1389, Rome; canonized 1461; feast day April 29) Dominican mystic and patron saint of Italy. She joined the Dominican third order in Siena in 1363 and soon became known for her holiness and severe asceticism. Catherine called for a Crusade against the Muslims as a means of calming domestic conflict in Italy. She also played a major role in returning the papacy from Avignon to Rome (see Avignon papacy). Her writings include four treatises on religious mysticism known as The Dialogue of St. Catherine.

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(born Nov. 25, 1638, Vila Viçosa, Port.—died Dec. 31, 1705, Lisbon) Portuguese wife of Charles II of England. She was married to Charles in 1662 as part of an alliance between England and Portugal, bringing England trading privileges and the port cities of Tangier and Bombay (now Mumbai). She produced no heir. Though not a faithful husband, Charles defended her against accusations of scheming to poison him. She helped convert him to Catholicism shortly before his death. In 1692 she returned to Portugal, and in 1704 she governed the country as regent for her ailing brother, Pedro II.

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Russian Yekaterina Alekseyevna orig. Marta Skowronska

(born April 15, 1684—died May 17, 1727, St. Petersburg, Russia) Second wife of Peter I and empress of Russia (1725–27). A peasant woman of Baltic origin, she became Peter's mistress in 1702. In 1703, after the birth of their first child, she was received into the Russian Orthodox church and rechristened. She married Peter in 1712 and in 1724 was crowned empress-consort. After Peter's death (1725), she served two years as empress of Russia.

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Sainte-Catherine is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the St. Lawrence River in the Regional County Municipality of Roussillon.

History

Land occupied for more than three centuries, since the establishment of the Iroquois mission in 1676, it is only in 1937 that the founding of la paroisse de Sainte-Catherine de Laprairie really marks a territorial organization. In 1973, a demographic boom finally granted the status of town to the village. In 2006, according to the city's official site, there was 17 000 inhabitants in Ste-Catherine.

The inauguration of the H.-Mercier bridge, in 1934, and then of the Champlain bridge, in 1962, greatly boosted the local economy.

Demographics

According to the 2001 Statistics Canada Census:

• Population: 15,953
• % Change (1996-2001): 16.2
• Dwellings: 5,891
• Area (km²): 10.19
• Density (persons per km²): 1565.6

Mother tongue language from Canada 2006 Census

Language	Population	Percentage (%)
French only	14,915	93.22%
English only	485	3.03%
Both English and French	100	0.63%
Other languages	505	3.16%

Famous natives

• Guillaume Latendresse, NHL player
• Karine Sergerie, women's taekwondo champion, Olympian

	North: St. Lawrence River
West: Kahnawake Mohawk Territory	Sainte-Catherine	East: Delson
	South: Saint-Constant