Other attributes arise from the many tortures she endures on the orders of her father and then of two judges in succession. The father is incensed that she has broken his gold and silver idols into pieces and given the pieces to the poor (image), so he has her tied to a great wheel set above a flaming fire. The wheel often appears in her portraits, as in the second picture at right.
The wheel often has the look of a millstone. This may be due to a confusion with the next torment in the story, when the father orders his men to tie her to a stone weight and throw her into the sea, although in the Latin the weight is specifically a field stone (saxum), not a millstone (mola).
In the Passio an angel comes and breaks up the stone for Christina so she can return to shore, but the images always picture an unbroken wheel, thus distinguishing it from the wheel that is St. Catherine of Alexandria's attribute.
A less common attribute is a snake, as in the third picture at right. In the Passio the judge has St. Christina confined to a fiery furnace (which appears in the lower left of the first picture at right). When the fires fail to harm her he engages a sorcerer to have snakes beset her. The snakes attach themselves to her breasts, but when she prays for deliverance the snakes turn on the sorcerer and he dies.
BIOGRAPHY
- The Acta Sanctorum (July vol. 5) prints a brief 7th-century account of St. Christina's passion by Aldhelm (505), a number of prayers and breviary entries including some narrative segments (503-506), and a 13th-century Passio (524-28) that is basically an expansion of Aldhelm's account with more detailed tortures and vivid dialogue between the saint and her adversaries.
DATES
- Feast day: July 24
- Sicard of Cremona's 11th-century Cronica places Christina's death in the year 120. Farmer suggests some time in the 4th century. 2
NAMES
- The Father's name is Urbanus. The first of the judges is named Dion and the second Julian.
- According to Farmer (s.v. "Christina"), this St. Christina is probably the same person as the "St. Christina of Tyre" whose feast is on the same day in the Eastern churches. Although the current Roman Martyrology puts "Tyre" on Lake Bolsena, it is of course in Lebanon.
ALSO SEE
- Similar incidents of women challenging authority by distributing alms are told in the vitae of St. Casilda and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Also note St. Cecilia's distribution to the poor in the days preceding her death.
Prepared in 2018 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University.
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In her right hand St. Christina holds her primary attribute, a long dart. Behind her is Lake Bolsena and the tower where her father kept his gold and silver idols. (See the description page.)
A secondary attribute is a wheel, sometimes pictured as if it were a millstone. The book and the raised hand celebrate her vigorous and erudite defense of the Christian faith. (See the description page.)
The snake is also an attribute of this saint. (See the description page.)
ATTRIBUTES
- Dart
- Unbroken wheel
- Snake
MORE IMAGES
- 16th century: In Tintoretto's Christ with St. Christina and St. Francis di Paola Christina gazes on the Savior as he descends from Heaven with a palm branch, symbol of martyrdom.
- 1539-40: St. Christina appears, without her usual attributes, in Salviati's Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints.
- Undated: A pair of sculptures that may possibly represent St. Christina and the sorcerer.
NOTES
1 Narrative details reported here are from the various texts printed in the Acta Sanctorum's article on St. Christina in July vol. 5, 495-534. See especially the Passio on 524-28 and section V (503-506) on breviary entries and shorter narrative pieces. Also see Butler, III, 173-74.
2 Sicard, Cronica, 109. Farmer, s.v. "Christina."