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.
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