Holy Martyr Christina (+c. 300)
The father of the holy Martyr Christina, Urbanus, was governor of the city of Tyre. When she reached the age of eleven the virgin was distinguished by wonderful beauty, and many wished to marry her, but her father was bringing up the blessed one to be a priestess. He shut Christina up in a specially built idol-house and ordered her to burn incense to the idols. Two maidservants served the girl.
In her solitude the virgin began to think about who had created this beautiful world. From the window of her room she gazed at the star-studded sky and gradually came to the conclusion that everything that exists has one Creator. She understood that the idols could not create anything, since they themselves had been made by human hands, and with tearful prayers she besought the one true God to reveal Himself to her. Little by little the blessed one’s soul was filled with fervent love for the unknown Lord, and she increased her sincere prayers and her fasting.
An angel of the Lord appeared to Christina and instructed her in the true faith. He called the girl a bride of Christ and foretold that she would have to endure torments for the Lord’s name. After this the saint smashed all the statues of the pagan gods set up around her and threw them out of the window. When her father Urbanus visited his daughter, he asked in astonishment where the idols had gone. Christina was silent. The governor called the maidservants, learned the truth from them and, beside himself at what he heard, ordered his daughter’s maidservants to be killed, and after terrible torture threw Christina herself into a dungeon. When her mother learned what had happened, she came to her daughter lamenting and weeping and begged her to return to the faith of her forefathers. But Christina remained unshaken. The next day Urbanus summoned his daughter and tried once more to persuade her to worship the idols, and even asked her to beg forgiveness for her offence, but it was all in vain: the lamb of Christ hoped unshakeably in the Saviour.
The tormentors bound the blessed one to an iron wheel and lit a fire beneath it. Like a whole burnt offering, the flames enveloped on every side the body of the saint turning over the pyre. At last, tortured, she was again locked in her cell.
At night an angel healed Christina’s wounds and strengthened her with food. At dawn, when Urbanus saw his daughter miraculously healed, he gave orders for her to be drowned in the sea, but only the stone tied to the saint’s neck sank to the bottom, while the handmaid of the Lord herself, made light by divine power, miraculously came out onto the shore and stood before her father. The horrified tormentor attributed everything to sorcery and decided to put Christina to death in the morning, but wondrous and incomprehensible is God’s providence: that night he himself died. The new governor appointed in his place, Dion, summoned the martyr and tried to make her agree to deny Christ, but when he could do nothing, he brought new torments upon her. Saint Christina was kept shut up in the dungeon for a long time. Visitors made their way to her and, their minds enlightened by her grace-filled words, glorified the true God: the blessed one converted up to three thousand people to Christianity.
After Dion, Julian was appointed governor of Tyre. He renewed the torture of Saint Christina, and at last ordered the maiden, wounded by many kinds of torment, to be thrown into a red-hot furnace and shut in. Five days later the furnace doors were opened, and the Lord’s chosen one was seen alive and unharmed. Many witnesses of the miracles that had taken place were converted to the true faith, and the godless tormentors beheaded the bride of Christ.
