St. Christina the Astonishing---the Extraordinary Story of a Miraculous Woman

I know of no other saint that is called “astonishing.” But if anyone deserves this title, it is St. Christina.

Christina Mirabilis was born in Belgium, sometime during the year 1150. She was the youngest of three daughters, and her parents were devoutly religious people. Christina and her sisters lost their parents when Christina was only 15.

Christina was very devout and did the best she could to get to Mass and the sacraments as often as she could. However, to take care of herself, she took a position as a shepherdess taking care of sheep. The long hours sometimes interfered with her getting to Mass. But soon things unexpectedly and dramatically changed for Christina.

Shortly after she turned twenty-one, she suffered a massive seizure. When people found her lying in the field, she was limp and unresponsive. It seemed as if she was not breathing. Everyone assumed that Christina had died. A funeral was planned and held at the local parish. This was when things began to get very strange.

The Mass had only started when Christina suddenly woke up. She stood up as if nothing had happened. She was unaware of where she was and saw a crowd of people staring at her. Frightened, she began levitating and floated up to the church ceiling.

After a while, she came back down. The people were speechless and the priest, sensing the spirituality of the moment, went over to her. He reached out to her and asked her if she was all right. She told him that she had been to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. She also told him that she had levitated to get away from the stench of all the sins within the people there.

She went on to say that God had given her a choice: either she could remain dead and go to Heaven, or remain on earth and do penance for the poor souls in Purgatory. She chose to stay, and that was the point in time she awoke. From that moment on, Christina's only focus in life was to rescue as many departed souls as possible and to convert living sinners back to God.

Christina embraced severe poverty as a way of life. She rejected all comforts of life. Her clothes were old and tattered, and she hid from people as much as possible. She would even climb trees or hide in closets and ovens and all sorts of strange places to avoid others. She also was continually on a quest to increase the penance she felt she must endure. Some folks were sure she was possessed.

Some of what follows may seem as if it could be “urban legend” but there are those high up in the Church who vouched for the things that Christina did. For example, it was reported that she was seen intentionally throwing herself into fires, remaining in the flames, screaming in pain, only to come out completely unscathed. In winter, she would get into the freezing waters of a nearby river and stay in there for hours on end. She even allowed herself to get sucked into the water wheels of the nearby mills and get spun around. As horrendous as all of this might seem, she was never harmed.

There was mixed opinions about Christina. Was she insane? Was she possessed? Or was she truly a holy woman who was sent to warn people about the fires of Purgatory?  She was jailed twice for her actions albeit only briefly. Upon her release the second time she joined a Dominican monastery.

Her reputation spread far and wide and rulers and holy people from other countries came to her for advice. She lived there the rest of her life dying at the age of 74 from natural causes.

Folks who confirmed the actions and lifestyle of Christina included St. Robert Bellarmine, a Doctor of the Church, who, when asked about Christina said:

“God willed to silence those libertines who make open profession of believing in nothing, and who have the audacity to ask in scorn, Who has returned from the other world? Who has ever seen the torments of Hell or Purgatory? Behold two witnesses…”

One witness was Christina and the other Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, who knew Christina and was Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals. He became Christina’s  confidant.

As stated by the Church’s Magisterium and Sacred Tradition, Christina is due the title of saint. She is the patroness of those with mental disorders, mental health workers, and millers.

And yes, she was “Astonishing.”

Copyright©Larry Peterson 2018