历史学家哈罗德·T. 戴维斯（Harold T. Davis）称，加大肋纳的故事只能追溯至10世纪，并且“勤勉的研究也没能将加大肋纳与任何历史名人联系起来”（assiduous research has failed to identify Catherine with any historical personage）。戴维斯认为，加大肋纳可能是被人从殉道的异教徒哲学家希帕提婭的故事中吸取灵感而创造出来。[13]像希帕蒂亚一样，她在哲学和神学兩方面也一樣学识渊博，而且美若天仙，谨守贞节，而且也因为公开表达其信仰而被残暴地处决。加大肋纳的故事在时间上被说成早于希帕蒂亚去世约100年，但没有同时代的资料来源说明其生平。
由于有关她殉道的描述美妙动人，而又缺乏可靠的文献记录，罗马天主教会1969年将她的瞻礼日从罗马普通历法中移走。[14]2002年，她的瞻礼日被放进罗马普通历法（General Roman Calendar）作为可选的纪念日。
^S.R.T.O d'Ardeene and E.J. Dobson, Seinte Katerine: Re-Edited from MS Bodley 34 and other Manuscripts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), xiv.
^John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1964); Felix Fabri, The Wanderings of Felix Fabri (New York: AMS Press, 1971), 217.
^Christine Walsh, "The Role of the Normans in the Development of the Cult of St. Katherine" in St. Katherine of Alexandria: Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe eds. Jacqueline Jenkins and Katherine J. Lewis (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003), 31; Katherine J. Lewis, "Pilgrimage and the Cult of St. Katherine of Alexandria in Late Medieval England" in St. Katherine of Alexandria: Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe eds. Jacqueline Jenkins and Katherine J. Lewis (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003),44.
^Lewis, "Pilgrimage and the Cult of St. Katherine", 49-51.
^John Bugge, Virginitas: An Essay in the History of the Medieval Ideal (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1975), 132; Katherine J. Lewis, The Cult of St. Katherine of Alexiandria in Late Medieval England (Rochester: The Boydell Press, 2000), 229; Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Alters: Traditional Religion in England c.1400-c.1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 174.
^Katherine J. Lewis, "Model Girls? Virgin-Martyrs and the Training of Young Women in Late Medieval England" in Young Medieval Womeen eds. Katherine J. Lewis, Noel James Menuge and Kim M. Phillips (New York: St. Martin's PRess, 1999).
^Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies trans. by Sarah Lawson (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 146; Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies trans. by Rosalind Brown-Grant (New York: Penguin Books, 1999), 203; Rebecca Barnhouse, The Book of the Knight of the Tower (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 126, 193.
^Harold Thayler Davis, Alexandria: The Golden City (Principia Press of Illinois, 1957), p 441
^Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 147
