Santa Cristina is part of that group of Sante Martiri, whose death or the tortures suffered are attached to the fathers, so distorted and without love, as to inflict on these daughters the most cruel torments and giving them death for having embraced the Christian faith. His name means “Consecrated to Christ”.
The church celebrates it on July 24th. It is the patron saint of Mugnai and is depicted with the palm, a symbol of martyrdom and the wheel, one of the tools with which it was tortured.
TO Bolsenain Lazio, every year the stages of his martyrdom and the altar where the Eucharistic miracle took place is made by the stone of his torture.
From archaeological excavations performed between 1880 and 1881 in the cave located under the basilica dedicated to the saint in Bolsena, it was ascertained that the cult for the martyr was already existing in the fourth century; From the bottom of the cave-oratory the entrance to the catacombs opens, which contain its statue lying in painted terracotta and the sarcophagus where the relics of the body of the Saint were found.
Lorenzo Lotto, detail of the altarpiece of Santa Cristina al Tiverone (1504-1506)
martyrdom and wonders
At the time of theemperor Diocletian (243-312) The girl named Cristina, daughter of the “Magister Militum” of Bolsena, Urban, had been locked up by her father together with other twelve girls, in a tower to venerate the simulacra of the gods as if it were a vestal. But the eleven year old Cristina had already known and joined the Christian faith in his heart, refused to venerate the statues and after a vision of angels he broke them.
In vain pleaded to return to the traditional faith, she was arrested and scourged by her father magistrate, who then called her to her court who condemned her to a series of torture, including that of the wheel under which the flames burned.
After that he was traced back to prison full of bruises and plagues; Here the young Cristina was consoled and cured miraculously by three angels who got out of the sky. This attempt is also a vain, the distorted and stubborn father condemned her to the analysis, making her throw in the Lake of Bolsena with a grid tied to the neck.
Prodigiously, the large stone began to float instead of going to the bottom and brought the girl back to the shore, which by trampling the stone once it came, left (another prodigy) impressed the footprints of her feet; This stone was then transformed into an altar canteen.
In the face of this miracle, the scarce and heartbroken father died, but Cristina’s pains did not end, because the successor of Urban, The magistrate Dioneraged even more.
He made her scourged but unnecessarily, then throwing in a hot boiler full of pitch, resin and oil, from which Cristina came out unharmed, made her cut her hair and drag naked on the streets of the lagoon town, finally dragged it into the temple of Apollo, he ordered him to worship the god, but the girl with a fulminating look had the idol falling in powder.
A unshakable faith
Dione also died and was replaced by the magistrate Giuliano, who following his predecessors continued the obstinate work of intimidation of Cristina, throwing it into a furnace from which he came out once again unharmed; This furnace called by Bolsenesi “Fornacella”is located about two kilometers south of the city; In a plot of land located between Cassia and the lake, in the Middle Ages it was incorporated into a country oratory.
Cristina was indomitable in her faithThen Giuliano exposed it to the bites of the snakes, brought by a Marsican Serparo, who instead of biting it, led to licking the sweat, the less realistic tradition of legend, wants the snakes to turn against the Serparo biting him, but Cristina moved to pity, healed him.
Following the “passio” of famous martyrs like Sant’Agata, it is said that Giuliano made her cut the breasts and mozzare the tongue, that the girl threw against her persecutor blinding him. Finally, the archers, as in San Sebastiano, mortally pierced it with two arrows.
This is the legendary story of the “passio” drawn up not prior to 9th centurywhose historical value is almost null, previous Greek “Passio” claimed that Cristina, whose Latin name means “consecrated to Christ”, had been born in the phenomenon shooting, but it is a mistake due to the fact that the first ‘passio’ was drawn up in Egypt and that to indicate the land of the Etruscans called Tirreni by the Greeks, the abbreviation was used.
A scene from the martyrdom of Santa Cristina
the relics
The relics also had an adventurous fate, they were found in 1880 in the sarcophagus inside the catacombs placed under the basilica of the saints Giorgio and Cristina, church dating back to the 11th century and consecrated by Pope Gregory VII in 1077.
The relics of the body, indeed part of it are kept in a display case, part were stolen in 1098 by two pilgrims directed in the Holy Land, but they arrived at Sepinea Molise town in the province of Campobasso, they could no longer leave the city with their precious load, so they gave them to the inhabitants.
This is the beginning of the cult of the saint very alive in Sepino, the relics made up only by one arm today, are kept in the church dedicated to her; The other relics were translated between 1154 and 1166 a Palermowho proclaimed his martyr his heavenly patron saint, celebrating it on July 24 and May 7; devotion lasted at least until they were “discovered” in the seventeenth century the relics of Santa Rosalia, then became the main patroness.
In Sepino, Santa Cristina is remembered by the faithful four days during the year.
In Bolsena the “Mysteries of Santa Cristina”
In Bolsena, Santa Cristina is celebrated with a large religious event, on the eve of the party on 23 July evening, in the darkened square in front of the Basilica, The simulacrum of holy place is brought to procession on a “machine” in the shape of a temple, At the same time on the right of the churchyard, the curtain of an enlightened stage opens, where a living picture is silently represents a scene of martyrdom and this is repeated in each square and on as many small stages where the procession arrives; The event is called “The mysteries of Santa Cristina”.
The procession in which a crowd of faithful participates, takes place on the streets and squares of Bolsena, until he arrives at the top of the town in the church of the Blessed Savior, there the statue stops all night and on the morning of the 24th, the day of the liturgical party of Santa Cristina, the procession of return with the same methods resumes and finally reaching again in the basilica dedicated to her.
The “Mysteries” are a religious event that since the Middle Ages, honors some patron saints in various cities of Italy, species of the center.
The altar on which the Eucharistic miracle took place
Finally, it must be remembered that the Basilica of Santa Cristina has the altar which, as already mentioned, is formed by the stone of the torture of the martyr and that precisely on this altar in 1263 a Bohemian priest, who had doubts about the truth of the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, while celebrating the mass, saw the drops of blood gushing from the consecrated host, who placed themselves on the corporal and on the floor, referred to Urban Pope IVwhich was in Orvieto, who established the year after the Corpus Domini festival.
The passion of Santa Cristina has constituted a privileged subject by the artists of all times, such as Signorelli, Cranach, Veronese, from the Robbiawho not only represented it in scenes of his martyrdom with his symbols, the mola, the snakes, the arrows, but enriched with their works of painting, sculpture and architecture, the basilica dedicated to her, more after the Eucharistic miracle that took place
