Masses

On Wednesday, January 11th, we celebrated the FEAST OF SAINT CHRISTINA.  Christina, daughter of a rich and powerful Roman military official, lived on the shore of Lake Bolsena.  She was only 14 when she converted to Christianity, and her very name tells us that she thought of herself as belonging to Christ.

Refusing to sacrifice to the gods, she destroyed her father’s golden idols of Roman gods and distributed pieces of them amongst the poor. Infuriated by this act, the magistrate put his daughter through a series of punishments, during which she refused to abandon her faith. With the help of some others he even threw Christina into the lake with a millstone tied to her feet. But the Lord stood beside her and tradition says that she made her way back to the shore using the stone as a support on which to walk; the stone retained the imprint of her feet. On this stone, it is said, was erected the altar known as the “altar of the footprints.”

After her father died, others attacked Christina but the torture that became part of the iconography was the arrows which, when shot, turned back against the archers.  Cristina would eventually die at the hands of the judge who succeeded her father but not before the Lord saved her on many more occasions of torture. Today we celebrate, not her suffering and death, but her birth into heaven. A special thank you to the PEZZENTE family and those friends and family of the region in attendance.

Please click on photos to begin slideshow.