Catherine Dammartin

Catherine Dammartin (died 15 February 1553) was a nun in Metz who left her convent, adopted evangelical views, and married Peter Martyr Vermigli. She is buried with Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford.

Life

Catherine lived for her early adult life as a nun in Metz. After the ideas of Protestant reformers began to circulate in the region, she left the convent and moved to Strasburg, where evangelical ideas were popular. They both caught a serious disease from which Peter recovered but Catherine died. She was initially buried in the cathedral at Oxford, near the tomb of St Frideswide.

Elizabeth Goudge's 1938 historical novel, Towers in the Mist (Gerald Duckworth, London, 1938) describes this disinterment and eventual reburial comingled with the remains of St Frideswide in Chapter 8 "Sunday", Part 2. Goudge's novel is set in Oxford during 1565 and 1566, culminating in the first visit to Oxford by Queen Elizabeth I.