# The sword : a distinctive attribute

Saint Catherine held a sword in her left hand, now broken. It was used to behead the emperor Maximin. The sword is one of the saint's attributes, found in her iconography in the Christian tradition. For example, in this illumination dated between 1374 and 1384, the artist also uses the sword to identify the character when depicting her story.

Maestro de Altura, Saint Catherine with the Emperor at her feet,
c.1475, Valencia, Museum of Fine Arts
Source : Codex, 2007 via Wikicommons
CC BY-SA 4.0 license

St. Catherine's attributes have stood the test of time and continue to form part of her iconography. In this work, we can see the four elements of our statue: the crown, the sword, the wheel and the emperor's head.