Much of our knowledge about Katharine springs from legend, but legends are nearly always based on truths, and if the facts available are doubtful and few, the stories about her tell something of her virtues, of her character, and of the reasons for her death. St Katharine is not mentioned by contemporary writers, and different narrators are not even in agreement as to whether Maxentius or Maximinus was the tyrant who put her to death. She was not a popular saint until the eighth century in the east. Her story is contained in the so-called Menologium Basilianum, a collection of legends compiled for the use of the emperor Basil I who died in 886, and this story has been altered considerably since then.