Born around 1150 AD in the small town of Sint-Truiden, in present-day Belgium, Christina Mirabilis was orphaned as a teenager and worked as a shepherdess. Then, sometime in her early 20s, she suffered from a massive seizure. When the episode passed, she was found lying on the ground completely limp. Unable to see breathing or hear a heartbeat, those with her pronounced dead.
Soon after, a funeral was held at her local parish. During her funeral Mass in Sint-Truiden, she suddenly stood up in the open casket and levitated up to the rafters of the church (explaining that she “could not bear the smell of the sinful people there” ).
While most of those in attendance fled in terror , the priest made Christina come down and continued celebrating Mass.
She stated that she had actually been dead; that she had gone down to Hell and there recognized many
friends, and to Purgatory, where she had seem more friends, and then to Heaven. God offered her a choice of going to heaven or accepting severe penances on earth in reparation for sinners. She chose the latter, and endured many sufferings, including being accused of insanity and tortured.
She dressed in rags, and behaved survived by begging and adopted a somewhat strange manner. The last years of her life Christina passed in the convent of St. Catherine at Saint-Trond, and there she died around the age of seventy-four.
But not everyone thought she was menally ill: the prioress of St. Catherine’s praised her obedience, Saint Lutgardis sought her advice and Blessed Mary of Oignies praised her,
Where are the relics of Saint Christina the Amazing?
We don’t have any definite information about her relics…apparently the monastery where she ended up was destroyed after her death. We suspect it was the convent where she lived, but our research has not turned up any definite information…and the convent itself has long since been torn down. Can you help us? If you know where her relics are, please send us an email so we can add a page to our site.
About the canonization of Saint Christina the Amazing:
Around the time in history the Church was still forming the modern canonization process, and so she’s never been been formally canonized. Nonetheless, she was popularly considered a saint for centuries after her death.
She is patron saint of psychiatrists, psychologists and those suffering mental illness.
