• July 24th - St. Christina of Tyro, Virgin and Martyr

    From rich@1:15/0 to All on Sun Jul 23 10:10:36 2017
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    July 24th - St. Christina of Tyro, Virgin and Martyr
    (d. ca. 300)

    Saint Christina was born at a time when Christians of the East and
    West were still united in a single Church. Her acts have come down to
    us from some ancient Greek texts, among them a papyrus that dates from
    the 5th century.

    We know that her father Urbanus was governor of the town of Tyro and
    of the surrounding province, a position in which he was responsible
    for maintaining the official pagan religion. Christina, of course, was
    also brought up as a pagan, but by the time she was 12 her virtues
    were so great that her father, fearing that she might convert to
    Christianity, locked her away in a tower with two servants. However,
    one of the servants was herself a Christian; she instructed Christina
    in the faith, and later a priest baptized her in secret.

    When he heard of this, Urbanus ordered his daughter to abjure her
    faith and to return to the worship of the idols. Misunderstanding the
    nature of the Trinity, he said: "You already serve three gods, so why
    can't you also serve the gods of the empire?" Christina refused; her
    two former servants were replaced by 12 young ladies of the highest
    society, but it wasn't long before they had all been converted by
    Christina and received the baptism in secret. One evening they all
    escaped from the tower and defaced the statues of Jupiter, Apollo, and
    Venus.

    Urbanus' fury was so great that he at once imprisoned Christina and
    subjected her to cruel punishments; finding her adamant in her faith,
    he then ordered her to be thrown into the midst of an enormous
    bonfire, but the flames left her unharmed. This was but the first of a
    long series of intended tortures and miraculous deliverances. A large
    stone was tied around her neck and she was thrown into the middle of a
    lake, but the stone refused to sink. She was taken back to her prison
    cell and during the night Urbanus decided to have her beheaded, but by
    the next morning he was dead.

    The new prefect Dio at first tried to persuade Christina to renounce
    God, but was as unsuccessful as Urbanus. She was flogged by soldiers
    and cast into a cauldron of boiling oil and sulphur, but once again
    emerged unharmed. Accused by the pagan priests of practicing black
    magic, she was taken before the statue of Apollo in the temple.
    Confident in the power of her faith, she ordered the statue to come
    down from its pedestal and to walk 15 paces out of the temple; and at
    once the statue obeyed. At the same moment, the prefect Dio, struck
    with apoplexy, sank dead upon the earth.

    A third prefect Julian ordered her to burn incense to the idols, and
    was met with the same obstinance. This time Christina was thrown into
    an oven that had been heated white hot. The door was closed on her and
    for five days the furnace was kept at extreme heat, but when the door
    was opened she was found to be safe and unscathed. She was next
    exposed to poisonous snakes, but instead of stinging her they coiled affectionately round her neck and feet. When the pagan priest
    attempted to goad them on, they turned on him and stung him to death,
    but Christina, after calming down the panicked crowd and replacing the
    snakes in their sacks, restored him to life.

    But at length God put an end to her trials. She was taken into an
    arena where her tongue, which had so often proclaimed her faith, was
    cut out, and after that she was shot to death with arrows. She gained
    the martyr's crown at Tyro, a city which formerly stood on an island
    in the lake of Bolsena in Italy, but has since been swallowed up by
    the waters. Her relics are now at Palermo in Sicily. Her tomb was
    discovered in the 19th century at Bolsena, marked with an inscription
    dating from the 10th century.


    Saint Quote:
    But when does flesh receive the bread which He calls His flesh? The
    faithful know and receive the Body of Christ if they labor to be the
    body of Christ; and they become the body of Christ if they study to
    live by the Spirit of Christ: for that which lives by the Spirit of
    Christ is the body of Christ.
    --St. Augustine

    Bible Quote:
    You shall know the Spirit of truth, because He will dwell with you,
    and be in you. (John 14:17)


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    Prayer to St. Christina as your Patron Saint

    Saint Christina, whom I have chosen as my special patron, pray for me
    that I, too, may one day glorify the Blessed Trinity in heaven. Obtain
    for me your lively faith, that I may consider all persons, things, and
    events in the light of almighty God. Pray, that I may be generous in
    making sacrifices of temporal things to promote my eternal interests,
    as you so wisely did.
    --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
    # Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)
    * Origin: Region 15 HQ (1:15/0)