24 JULY – SAINT CHRISTINA OF BOLSENA (Virgin)

Christina was born to a rich family. Her father Urbanus was the governor of Tyre in Phoenicia and her mother belonged to the illustrious ancient Roman Anicii family. Urbanus wanted Christina to become a pagan priestess, but Christina refused to worship his gold and silver idols and smashed them. Urbanus had her tortured and after his death his successor Dion continued to torture her. Christina was martyred at Bolsena in central Italy in about 302 AD. Saint Christina is one of the patron saints of Palermo in Sicily. Eastern Orthodox Christians know her as Christina the Great Martyr and she is portrayed in a sixth-century mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Christina, whose very name fills the Church with the fragrance of the Spouse, comes as a graceful harbinger to the feast of the elder son of thunder. The ancient Vulsinium, seated by its lake with basalt shores and calm clear waters, was the scene of a triumph over Etruscan paganism, when this child of ten years despised the idols of the nations in the very place where, according to the edicts of Constantine, the false priests of Umbria and Tuscany held a solemn annual reunion. The discovery of Christina’s tomb in our days has confirmed this particular of the age of the martyr as given in her Acts, which were denied authenticity by the science of recent times: one more lesson given to an infatuated criticism which mistrusts everything but itself. As we look from the shore where the heroic child was laid to rest after her combat, and see the isle where Amalasonte, the noble daughter of Theodoric the Great, perished so tragically, the nothingness of mere earthly grandeur speaks more powerfully to the soul than the most eloquent discourse. In the thirteenth century the Spouse, continuing to exalt the little martyr above the most illustrious queens, associated her in the triumph of His Sacrament of love: it was Christina’s church He chose as the theatre of the famous miracle of Bolsena which anticipated by but a few months the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Tiburtina, St. Vincent, martyr.

At Amiterno in Abruzzo, the martyrdom of eighty three holy soldiers.

At Merida in Spain, St. Victor, a military man, who, with his two brothers, Stercatius and Antinogenes, by various torments consummated his martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian.

In Lycia, the holy martyrs Niceta and Aquilina, who were converted to Christ by the preaching of the blessed martyr Christopher, and gained the palm of martyrdom by being decapitated.

Also the holy martyrs Meneus and Capito.

At Sens, St.Ursicinus, bishop and confessor.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.