Christina the Astonishing

Last week I enjoyed adding many of my books to the little library
gizmo on my sidebar. I happened onto a book that I had totally
forgotten. Lucy's Eyes and Margaret's Dragon, The Lives of the Virgin
Saints, charmingly written and illustrated by Giselle Potter, whose
illustrations have been published in The New Yorker and The New
York Times Magazine. This book contains short bios on thirteen
female saints, accompanied by fabulously quirky paintings. Today,
July 24, happens to be the feast day of Saint Christina the

Astonishing, who is also the patron saint of psychiatrists. She was

born in Brussels in 1150, orphaned at an early age and suffered from

epilepsy. At 21, she suffered such a massive seizure, that witnesses

assumed she had died. At her funeral, she was said to have rose from

her coffin and levitated to the church rafters. The mourners all fled in

horror except for her sister, to whom Christina complained of the

offensive garlicky breath of the congregation! She explained that she

had returned to liberate the souls she had seen in purgatory. For the

rest of her life she had an acute sense of smell and often climbed tall

trees to escape the odors of man! (I have often wondered what life

before toothpaste must have been like.)

.....

"Many texts question the existence of some of these women, but
whether they are mythical characters of heroines of history, they
still have admirers around the world. These virgin saints are

examples of strength and courage for all women." Giselle Potter