St christina of bolsena biography sample

Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Christian virgin and martyr. Life [ edit ]. Traditional accounts [ edit ]. Veneration [ edit ]. Relics [ edit ]. Miracle of Bolsena [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved September 27, John the Evangelist, Cleveland, Ohio. Sources [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Topics about Saints. Saints of the Catholic Church.

Matthew Mark Luke John. Catholic Church portal Saints portal. Christina is eventually beheaded. Some scholars have concluded that her legend is the result of pious fiction being mistaken for history.

St christina of bolsena biography sample

The theme of her legend a beautiful Christian maiden is tortured to death by pagan men, who in return suffer the wrath of God is repeated in many ancient and medieval hagiographies, particularly that of Saint Barbara. She was once included in the General Roman Calendar. The revision omitted her from that calendar, "because nothing is known of this virgin and martyr apart from her name and her burial at Bolsena", but not from the Martyrology, the official list of recognized saints.

According to the present rules in the Roman Missal, Saint Christina may be celebrated with a "memorial" everywhere on her feast day, unless in some locality an obligatory celebration is assigned to that day. Relics :. Toffia in the Province of Rieti displays her relics in a transparent urn. Palermo, of which Christina is one of four patron saints, also claims to hold her relics.

The Eastern tradition that connects Saint Christina with Tyre, Lebanon may be due to confusion with the name of a locality near Bolsena. The Cathedral of St. Christine, including her entire skeleton and small vial of her blood. In a final act of cruelty, a magistrate persecuting Christians by order of the Emperor Diocletian, commanded that Saint Christina be killed by arrows.

She was shot repeatedly and ultimately martyred for her unwavering faith in Christ. Saint Christina of Bolsena is often portrayed in religious art with several symbols associated with her martyrdom. These include arrows, signifying the manner of her death, a knife representing her perseverance and steadfastness, a millstone symbolizing her miraculous survival in water, pincers symbolizing the tortures inflicted upon her, a serpent reflecting her triumph over evil, and a wheel representing her miraculous survival in the furnace.

While her relics are divided between different locations, including Palermo, Sicily, and Torcello, her head is venerated in the cathedral of Milan, Italy. Saint Christina of Bolsena was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church, although her canonization occurred before the formal establishment of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The other St.

Christina, known as St. Christina the Astonishing, was born in twelfth century Europe. She died from an epileptic seizure at the age of twenty-one but in the middle of her funeral Mass, she was remarkably raised back to life. Everyone ran out of the church, except for her older sister and the priest. Christina flew to the rafters and sat there until the end of Mass.

She later told people she had gone to Purgatory and given a choice. Our Lord had told her she could enter Heaven or return to Earth and suffer the most frightful penances on behalf of the souls in Purgatory. She had a special grace from God to do that for the next fifty years. She lived in caves and tombs, in freezing conditions. She would enter the water and it would freeze around her, trapping her for weeks.

She would enter furnaces and people could see her wounds but she would emerge miraculously healed. She would throw herself into packs of wild dogs and be ripped to pieces but emerge unharmed. She could also smell the stench of people's sins and would often fly up into the trees to escape. She would experience ecstasies and lead souls from death to Purgatory or from Purgatory to Heaven.

Many people thought her to be insane and she seemed to suffer from autism or a mental illness but she was a very charitable and holy woman. So, we have two Saints named Christina whose lives were very similar to each other, even though they lived about thousand years apart. Christina the Astonishing died on July 24, on the feast day of St. Christina of Bolsena, the virgin martyr.