A HAPPY FEAST OF ST CHRISTIANA TO YOU, THE SLAVE GIRL WHO LED ROYALS TO REVERE THE HOLY NAME

 

Saint Christiana was a salve girl in Kurdistan during the 300s.  She was a young Christian and her owners were contemptuous of her faith. Christiana and her fellow Christians were in a tiny, oppressed minority among a majority of Pagans.

In these ancient times, it was the practice among the people that when a child fell seriously ill, the mother took her child and went door to door asking the neighbors for their homespun cures. One day, out of the blue, a desperate mother came to the home of Christiana and asked her if she knew of anything that would heal her child who was dying by inches in her arms. Christiana beheld the babe and said, "Jesus, Jesus." At the sound of Our Savior's Name, a smile played on the lips of the little one, and he was healed miraculously.

News of this astounding miracle spread throughout the land and even the Queen heard tell of it. The Queen issued Christiana with a summons to come to her court. When Christiana was in the company of the Queen, Her Majesty told her that she was herself an invalid and that the doctors had been unable to cure her. Christiana answered the Queen, by calling out the Holy Name, "Jesus, Jesus", and the Queen became completely well.

Days later, the King was in a hot mess, and he feared for his life (the details of his predicament are not known, only that he could not escape from certain danger). He thought back to his wife's miraculous healing, and because he had seen the awesome power of the Holy Name, he let slip, "Jesus, Jesus" and he was rescued from peril. In time, he called for Christiana and asked her to catechize him in the Christian Faith, after which a legion of his subjects sought to become Christian, and Christiana and her ilk no longer found themselves in a minority.

Large tenets of this story have the quality of children's fiction: it is hard to imagine a time when a young girl was the property of Pagan slave-owners, or when people's only recourse for life-threatening illness was to do the rounds of the neighbors in the hope they had a remedy, and it is even harder to imagine what a Royal King and Queen would have looked like in Kurdistan of the 300s. But that which challenges us most of all is perhaps that Christiana had such a prodigious gift of faith that she worked instantaneous miracles when she gave voice to the Holy Name, the minute the Name "Jesus, Jesus" tasted the air, it led to lives being saved and death averted.

If we would assent our will to the divine power that may be wielded by our offering of the Holy Name aloud, we may bring healing to ourselves and our loved ones. This is still a process for me because an old friend of mine has been in need of healing this winter. She and I shared a place when we were still babies, I mean, starting out together in London. Just yesterday I left her a voicemail and suggested she call upon the Holy Name, but I felt inside myself my faith falter and doubt threaten to supplant belief, nonetheless I invited her to offer, "Jesus, Jesus" and I believe it is the best she may do.  I will have to ask St Christiana's intercession for such faith as she had.

Happy Feast of Saint Christiana, which falls on this auspicious day of December 15th.