The Passion of the Holy Martyr Christina

The memory of July 24 In the city of Tyre [Tyre on the island of Volsena (in today's Tuscan Duchy), subsequently, according to legend, seemingly swallowed by water; others understand the famous city of Tyre in the East, and it should be noted that the memory of St.

The Christian religion was especially venerated in the East.] a man of high birth, named Urvan, who owned the power of the hegemon, had a daughter, a young teenager, who in her early years taught God her Creator; having courageously endured many fierce torments, she laid down her soul for Him.

When she was born, her father and mother gave her the name Christiana, which was not from their pagan wisdom, but from God's providence: this very name, as if a prophecy, foretold that the girl, when she came of age, would become a Christian, a slave and bride of Christ, and a martyr. When she was eleven years old, her extraordinary beauty was revealed, and there were no girls like her in beauty.

And when she was in the house of her father, he set up for her a chamber in the upper chamber, and appointed unto her maidens, and set therein images of their gods of gold and silver, and commanded her to offer incense and to bow down to them.

I will not give my daughter to any man, but I will consecrate her to my gods; the merciful gods have loved her exceedingly, and let her remain a virgin to them, serving them forever.

The child of Christ, growing in years and understanding, as God enlightened and admonished her by His grace, began to come to the knowledge of the truth. Thus, looking out of a window at the sky and the heavenly lights, from the creations she knew the Creator and, convinced of the insensibility and emptiness of soulless idols, she did not want to offer them incense and worship, but, looking eastward, to the sky, to the heights, she sighed and wept, saying to herself:

She said: "O my Lord! I am the One Who created the heavens and the earth, and made them fair-seeming, and I am the One Who made them beautiful".

And when she had tarried a number of days in prayer and fasting, an angel of the Lord appeared unto her, and clothed her with the sign of the cross, and called her the bride of Christ, and perfectly instructed her in the knowledge of God, and announced unto her the tribulation of suffering, namely, that she should be tried by three tormentors for the one God in the Trinity; and he strengthened her to the tribulation, and gave her, as she was thirsty for forgiveness, to eat clean bread.

After this angelic appearance, the young woman was comforted in spirit and rejoiced in God her Savior, because He had visited her servant by sending her a holy angel; from then on she began to pray even more fervently to the Lord and console herself with love for Him.

She was filled with jealousy for God, and began to take and smash the idols of gold and silver one by one, and breaking them in pieces, she threw them out of the window late in the evening and into the street; and in the morning the passers-by gathered the gold and silver.

And when she had said nothing, he called one of his maids, and she told him, and he smote her upon her cheeks, and said, Where is the work of the gods?

The so-called gods, gold and silver, she called demons <unk> idols and told how she crushed them with her own hands. Then, filled with great rage, Urvan cut all the slaves with a sword, and the daughter was subjected to various tortures: first she was cut without mercy with rods and whips, and then bound and thrown into prison.

But Christ's martyr not only would not listen to her mother's words, but in such words denied herself: "Do not call me your daughter. Do you not know that I bear the name of Christ, a name that no one in our family bears?

When the night was past and the day was come, Urvan, being moved by the demon of wrath to fury, forgetting his natural affection for his daughter, sat in the court, desiring to torment the holy Christine not as his own blood daughter, but as a strange and great villain.

Behold, Christ's lamb stood before Urvan, not as before his father, but as before a tormentor and a carnivorous beast, and his father began to tempt her with cunning: "I have pity on you, my child, and I beg you to approach our great gods and offer them a sacrifice with me, that they may have mercy on you and forgive you your sin, in which you are guilty before them.

"You will make me happier if you don't call me your daughter, "for you are Satan's slave, "and I am Christ's slave, "and I am no longer your daughter, "because my Father is my Maker.

And when she was loosed from the gallows, and saw the pieces of her body fallen down on the ground, she gathered them, and cast them into the face of her father, saying, Eat the flesh of thy daughter.

And the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art a woman, and thou shalt be a woman, and thou shalt be a man, and thou shalt be a woman, and thou shalt be a man, and thou shalt be a man, and thou shalt be a woman, and thou shalt be a man, and thou shalt be a man, and I will be God unto thee.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto her, and healed her; and a great flame came out of the fire, and devoured them that were round about her.

And when Urbain knew not what more to do with the martyr, he commanded to cast her into the prison; and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto her in the time of prayer, and healed her of her wounds, and made her whole, and gave her the food which she had brought; and the martyr strengthened herself, and praised God.

And the angel of God took her, and loosed the stone from her neck; and the stone sank, and the holy one, being held by the hands of the discarnate, walked upon the waters as on dry land; and so the sea was to her the pool of the holy baptism, which she so longed for. A bright cloud overshadowed her, and there was a voice from above, calling upon her the name of the Holy Trinity, as the rite of the holy baptism required, and she saw the holy Christ of the Lord, who appeared to her and spoke to her joyful words.

And when he came to the land, he saw his father's face, and he was afraid; and he thought it was magic, and he cast him into the prison, and in the morning he slew him.

But that night he himself, suddenly visited by the sting of death, perished forever, and the saint remained alive, glorifying and thanking God.

And when he had brought her out of the prison, and brought her to his judgment, he first sought to seduce her to apostasy by flattery; and when he found her steadfast in the holy faith, he tortured her long, and gave her whips, and cut her with iron nails, and burned her in the fire; and he commanded to set a pot of iron hot, and to stretch out upon it the naked saint, and to spin it, pouring boiling oil and tar upon it, and to compel her to worship the idol of Apollo, which stood nearby.

But the martyr was as adamant [i.e., diamond] in the constant confession of the most holy name of Jesus Christ; and the idol of Apollo she destroyed with her prayer, and when the idol fell and became dust, then the ruler Dione fell to the ground and died.

And many of the people, when they saw the signs that were done, glorified the Lord Jesus Christ, and believed; and there were about three thousand souls.

First they burned her in a great furnace and heated her for three days; then they threw the martyr there and shut her up, and there she remained for five days, untouched by fire, as in ancient Babylonian youths (Dan., chap. 3); as if sitting in a hut, she sang, praising God.

For there were with her angels of the Lord, watering and cooling the furnace, and with her singing they joined their singing, so that the soldiers who stood at the guard of the furnace heard the voices of the singers. When the furnace was opened five days later, the sanctuary was found whole and unharmed, not at all touched by fire, and the Christian God was glorified, but the pagan wickedness was ashamed.

And he called the magicians and the sorcerers together, and said unto them, Bring forth serpents, and scorpions, and scorpions, and all that they have, that they may kill her.

And the chief of the magicians stood by, and said unto the serpents, Ye snakes, and scorpions, and scorpions, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, that ye go every man to his place, and hurt no man. And the serpents departed at once.

And when the king was wroth, he commanded her breasts to be cut off, and her tongue to be cut off, and she glorified God.

And the martyr spoke plainly after her tongue was cut off, and caught hold of the cut tongue, and threw it into the prince's face, and it fell into his eyes, and said, Eat, wicked man, my members! And the prince was blinded at the touch of the tongue to his eyes, and the saint praised God with more power, and blasphemed idols and idolaters.

Then the saint was pierced with the iron spears of the soldiers, and the pure virgin and great martyr of Christ, Saint Christina, delivered her honest and holy soul into the hands of her Lord.

All these things happened in the reign of the Romans and Greeks of the wicked North, in the great reign of the Christians of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever, amen.

The light-bearing dove has come to you, the wings of which are of gold, and in the height of heaven you have ascended, Christian honesty: therefore we celebrate your glorious feast, by faith worshipping your mighty face, from which flows to all abundant divine healing, to souls and bodies.