Women’s Order

The Order of St Catharine was a Russian ladies’ order, which was instituted in 1714 in honour of Catherine I of Russia. Both Queen Louise and Queen Alexandrine received this order.

Up until the revolution in 1917, the Russian Empress was the Grand Master of the order. The badge is a brilliant-studded cross with a medallion in which the Christian martyr St Catherine of Alexandria is seen in front of a wheel with a cross and a palm branch. On the riband, or sash, which is red with silver trim, the order’s motto “For love and fatherland” is embroidered in the Cyrillic alphabet.