Saint Catherine is depicted accompanied by angels holding up her halo. The symbols of the Mother of God adopted by Cretan painters in the sixteenth century refer to her learning, her struggle for Christ, and her martyrdom and triumph. Six scenes from her life are added to the icon, the last one being the translation of her holy relics to Sinai. The scene of her mystical marriage with Jesus Christ (upper right corner) is particularly important as it is not found in Byzantine tradition and iconography. Part of the Sinai landscape and the donor of the icon, Priest-monk Joachim, is depicted under the main icon of the Saint. The monastery has been making printed reproductions of this iconographic composition since the seventeenth century.
