(Main image: Hypatia Teaching at Alexandria by Robert Terwick Brown)Born between 350–370, Hypa

(Main image: Hypatia Teaching at Alexandria by Robert Terwick Brown)

Born between 350–370, Hypatia a HellenisticNeoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria,Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. Daughter of Theon of Alexandra (himself considered to by many to be the greatest mathetician of his generation), Hypatia would go on to succeed him as leading mathematician in Alexandria before becoming one of the highest regarded mathematicians in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Her philosophy of Neoplatoism led her to to choose a life dedicated to the service of knowledge and learning, with mathematics in particular being key to a life of highter contemplation.

Her intelligence and wisdom made her extremely highly regarded in her time, with her even coming to have influence in political circles, particularly with Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria. This, unfortunately, ended up contributing to her death as it drew her into the violent feud that was brewing between Orestes and the archbishop of Alexandria, Cyril.

Despite Hypatia reportedly being willing to teach anyone who was willing to learn in the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy, regardless of whether they were a pagan like herself or any of the myriad religions that existed in Egypt at the time, the fact that she was not just a pagan, but a pagan with both heretical views AND supposed influence on a key political figure led some Christians to accuse her of either causing or prolonging the feud between Orestes and Cyril.

So,in 415, a Christian mob, led by a lecter called Peter, murdered her in the street, in a crime of such violence that it caused shockwaves across the Empire. At the time philosophers were seen as being politically untouchable, and the fact that a mob was able to kill one in the street, and a woman at that, was seen as “profoundly dangerous and destablising“.

Now while an investigation into the death of Hypatia found that Cyril probably didn’t order her assassination, per se, it is accepted by some historians such as Edward J. Watts, that Cyril’s smear campaign against her did contribute towards a Certain Folk feeling that she was an acceptable target for violence.

Now, with that in mind, here’s where it gets… more gross.

Due to Hypatia reportedly being a lifelong virgin (there are multiple historical accounts of her firmly putting down advances by men attempting to get with her, which has led to some modern historians speculating that she was somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum, but we lack the information to say one way or the other) and due to her death mirroring that of several Christian martyrs, many people think that she was used as the basis for the story of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Saint Catherine, who reportedly lived a 100 years after Hypatia, was the daughter of a noble and a scholar, who had all of Hypatia’s good qualities (smart, charismatic, kind etc) but had converted to Christianity at the age fo 14, and was subsequently martyred at 18 after a mob of pagans killed her in the street.

Now, unlike Hypatia there is no historical basis for a 4th century saint called Catherine who lived and died in the matter described, with the first mentions of her even existing until the 9th and 10th centuries, leading some to speculate that she’s a metaphor or an allegory…

Or a bunch of medieval monks took the story of Hypatia, a good woman who died as a result of Christian religious violence, and rebranded her with a different name, turned Hypatia’s lectures on science and philosophy into Catherine converting pagans to Christianity, and inverted the identities of the victim and murderer to apply to their own agenda.

And the thing which makes it more nuts, is Saint Catherine was reportedly one of the figures that allegedly appeared before Joan of Arc that convinced her to go to the king of France to help him fight the English, which in turn led to Joan’s own execution and eventual sainthood.