CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING'S AGONIES FOR THE HOLY SOULS

 For 7 years I've avoided - like I dodge freezing showers - writing about Saint Christina the astonishing.  Thus, for this month of the holy souls, and for personal penance I'm meditating on her life, and embracing Saint Christina as one of my best friends in Heaven. She enjoys the bliss of paradise and can't feel slighted by my failure all these years to draw closer. 

After an epileptic fit, Christina died at 32 and went before the Lord Who gave her the choice of staying dead, or returning to earth and doing a "mission of charity" where she'd undergo torments voluntarily for the souls in Purgatory. 

The young virgin elected to come back to this life. She was resurrected, and those who had been mourning her, saw her fly like a bird. Then she wastes no time in engaging in pains which make me wince just to consider. 

Well, "pains" falls exceedingly far short of describing Christina's penances. She became homeless by choice, slept rough, and led a life less than that of the lowliest animal. 

At the time, the High Middle Ages, 1182, Christina lived in her native Belgium. Rye, barley and oats grew tall all around her. Instead of taking among the stems and seed-heads like the field mice, she made her bed in freezing rivers. 

Other times, Christina flung herself into furnaces, and let out plaintive yelps. She made herself like the weeds or tares - the metaphor at the heart of Jesus's parable in Matthew 13 - and she should have been burnt to a cinder, yet she left the flames as though no flame had licked her. 

Here in Los Angeles, I see multitudes of Christinas who are involuntarily homeless. Their faces bear the brown-leathery "bum tan", from being under a hot sun, like being a spectator to Christina's dance in the blaze.  Regrettably, too many of them do not have the mental wherewithal to be taught how they could offer their adversity for the holy souls.

This next atonement has me grimacing. She would leap into the roaring Meuse River and let the current take her to a mill, the wheel took her and reeled her round like she was a hand on a clock. After this whirlpool, she climbed on the bank without one bone broken. 

And the next punishment is the stuff of nightmares for me. Her flesh was wasted from fasting, but she made herself a meaty dish for hungry hounds. She teased packs of dogs - vicious so they could protect livestock and homes - and these mutts chased her and bit her flesh. The teeth marks and bites, however, disappeared miraculously. 

Her punishments were long and varied, and local witnesses agreed on them, but when I learned of them, I thought them hagiography, pious exaggerations, and unfortunately many commentators today say that no one could have undergone such self-torture and survived. True, Christina's life was one of resurrection after resurrection. 

To collapse the many escapes from severe injury and death that Saint Christina had as "hagiography" could (potentially) be an insult to the Holy Spirit Who inspired her painful offerings for the holy souls. Maybe even blasphemy. It undermines the Holy Spirit as not being as powerful as He is, and yes evinces lack of belief, but is a disregard for He who can raise people from the dead as He did with Christina. 

Happily, Christina attracted Cardinal James de Vitry who put down her deeds in writing, a biography which garnered the praise and recognition of Saint Robert Bellarmine. In the gap between the first time I learned of Christina and now, I have developed a reverence for Saint Robert Bellarmine, and his works are a guidebook for understanding the AntiChrist and the End Times. 

The most cursory glance as her life makes plain her self-imposed sufferings were having as best she could, the torments of purgatory. And previously, I have been afraid I'd be seen as an advocate of sadomasochism or self-sadism were I to write of her afflictions. 

Also, when I write about a saint who has taken on suffering for the poor souls, I find myself asking if I could do a teensy bit of their self-punishment. No is the bald answer. 

Even this snapshot of her suffering begs the question as to what inspired Christina to do so much for the holy souls. She had witnessed their plight. At 32 when she died from the seizure, her soul went to Purgatory and she later said, "the torments which they there endured appeared to me so excessive, that is is impossible for me to give any idea of their rigor...I believed it to be Hell."

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This post was informed by Father F.X. Schouppe's Purgatory.  The classic image that accompanies this piece was executed by Francesco Guarino.