Abstract
In 1602, Wolfgang Waldung staged a Latin play about the martyrdom of St Catherine as part of the Protestant Academy of Altdorf’s Dies Academicus. At first glance, the choice of the subject is rather surprising, considering that the saint was very popular in Jesuit drama. This paper gives an introduction to the legend and cult of St Catherine, and to the Academy of Altdorf, before it analyses the text: Waldung uses a humanist poem by Baptista Mantuanus and turns it into a play that clearly supports Luther’s teaching and stresses the authorities’ duty to care for proper erudition of youth. It picks up the topics of the orations that were given at the same ceremony, and can well be understood as a panegyric to the Altdorf Academy and to the patricians of Nuremberg, who formed the council of the Academy.
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