The Real Christina
Christina The Astonishing from Butler's
Lives of the Saints
Christina the Astonishing, Virgin (A.D. 1224)
Christina was born at Brusthem in the diocese of Liege, in 1150, and
at the age of fifteen was left an orphan, with two elder sisters.
When she was about twenty-two Christina had a seizure, was assumed to
be dead, and in due course was carried in an open coffin to the
church, where a Mass of requiem was begun. Suddenly, after the Agnus
Dei, Christina sat up, soared to the beams of the roof, and there
perched herself. Everyone fled from the church except her elder
sister, who, though thoroughly frightened, gave a good example of
recollection to the others by stopping till the end of Mass. The
priest then made Christina come down (it was said that she had taken
refuge up there because she could not bear the smell of sinful human
bodies). She averred that she had actually been dead; that she had
gone down to Hell and there recognized many friends, and to Purgatory,
where she had seem more friends, and then to Heaven.
This was only the beginning of a series of hardly less incredible
occurrences. Christina fled into remote places, climbed trees and
towers and rocks, and crawled into ovens, to escape from the smell of
humans. She would handle fire with impunity and, in the coldest
weather, dash into the river, or into a mill-race and be carried
unharmed under the wheel. She prayed balancing herself on the top of
a hurdle or curled up on the ground in such a way that she looked like
a ball. Not unnaturally, everyone thought she was mad or 'full of
devils,' and attempts were made to confine her, but she always broke
loose. Eventually she was caught by a man who had to give her a
violent blow on the leg to do it, and it was thought her leg was
broken. She was therefore taken to the house of a surgeon in Liege,
who put splints on the limb and chained her to a pillar for safety.
She escaped in the nights. On one occasion when a priest, not knowing
her and frightened by her appearance, had refused to give her
communion, she rushed wildly through the streets, jumped into the
Meuse, and swam away. She lived by begging, dressed in rags, and
behaved in a terrifying manner.
The last years of her life Christina passed in the convent of St.
Catherine at Saint-Trond, and there she died at the age of
seventy-four. Even while she lived there some who regarded her with
great respect. Louis, Count of Looz, treated her as a friend,
welcoming her to his castle, accepting her rebukes, and on his
deathbed insisting on manifesting his conscience to her. Blessed Mary
of Oignies had regard for her, the prioress of St. Catherine's praised
her obedience, and St. Lutgardis sought her advice.
The Feast of Christina The Astonishing
24 July is the feast of ...
* Christina, virgin (1224) - often called 'Christina the Astonishing', for
her many mystical experiences and bizarre behaviour were, well, rather
astonishing. Margot King has done a translation of this dendrite saint's
life: Margot King, The Life of Christina Mirabilis, Toronto: Peregrina
Publishing Co., 1995. For those of you who are interested in the history
of purgatory and visionary literature Christina's vita is of particular
interest.
-Thanks to Mike Lacey for finding this
De S. Christina Mirabili Virgine Vita
"I'm an academic and so far out of it that I only recently discovered
that Nick Cave wrote a song about an old friend of mine -- Christina the
Astonishing! And I thought you might find it of some interest to hear that
I've now posted her life (written in Latin) on my website. The main URL is
http://home.ican.net/~margot/Peregrina.html
and Christina's life is at
http://home.ican.net/~margot/christina.html"
-Thanks to Margot King
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