St. Christina’s life is probably more fiction than fact, but her cult grew in the Middle Ages adding currency to her name. She was born in Persia as the beautiful daughter of a powerful judge named Urbanus. While she had converted to Christianity, her pagan father worshipped golden idols. She destroyed these symbols of paganism and then distributed the gold pieces to the poor. Enraged, Urbanus spent the rest of his life persecuting his daughter. The methods of these tortures ranged from iron hooks, furnaces and fire, snakes, arrows and the ever-popular ancient torture wheel. Each time Christina was exposed to such ruthless torment, God intervened to prevent the girl’s death. One story purports that she was thrown into a burning furnace for five days only to exit unscathed. This sort of pious, popular fiction spread in medieval times depicting lovely maidens harmed at the hands of evil pagan men.
