Catharine Weygel

Katarzyna Weiglowa (Wajglowa) (German: Katherine Weigel; given erroneously in a Polish source of 17c. as Vogel, and known in many English sources as Catherine Vogel) (circa 1460 – April 19, 1539), was a Roman Catholic woman from the Kingdom of Poland who converted to Judaism or to Judaizing nontrinitarianism. She was burned at the stake in Kraków under the charge of apostasy when she refused to call Jesus Christ the Son of God. She is regarded by Unitarians and Jews (among others) as a martyr.

She was born Katarzyna Zalasowska, a daughter of Stanisław Zalasowski and widow of Melchior Weigel, merchant and councilman of Kraków.

In the Jewish Encyclopedia she appears under a variant spelling of her maiden name as Catherine Zelazowska. Little is known about her life before 1529–1530 when she appeared several times before an episcopal court in Kraków, and refused to abjure "mistakes of the Jewish faith". Catherine probably started professing nontrinitarianism under the influence of writings by Martin Borrhaus, published in 1527. Jewish Encyclopedia suggested that she followed the example of a daughter of a Mikołaj Radziwiłł and embraced Judaism. She tried to promote her views during the Sejm debates in 1538–1539.

At the age of 70, Catherine was imprisoned in Kraków under the charge of confessing "heresy" by the order of Piotr Gamrat, bishop of Kraków, who had accused her before the Queen of Poland Bona Sforza.

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