20. St. Christina was born at Brusthem in 1150. Her piety manifested itself in extremely bizarre and outlandish ways, which earned her an unusual nickname; what was it?
From Quiz Flemish Saints
Answer:
Christina the Astonishing
Christina was an epileptic, a condition little understood in the 12th century; her seizures were considered a sign of madness, demonic possession, or both (there were other reasons for this belief, however, as you'll see). At age 21, Christina suffered a cateleptic seizure which left her in such a catatonic state that she was presumed to be dead. During her funeral mass, she suddenly sat up in her coffin and levitated to the rafters of the church. When the priest ordered her to come down, she descended to the altar, and announced that she had visited heaven, hell, and purgatory. In the latter place, she had encountered a number of her fellow villagers, and she had decided to devote herself to their release into Paradise.
Christina's spectacular levitation at her funeral was but one of several such feats. Oddly, her levitations were not motivated by religious fervor (as is often the case), but by her utter repugnance for the odor of human flesh (she claimed that she could smell the sin in people although, given the state of personal hygeine in 12th century Europe, one suspects that it was something other than sin). She resorted to many bizarre means of distancing herself from her fellow mortals, such as climbing trees, hanging from weathervanes, and hiding in ovens (she was impervious to both heat and cold). Passionately devoted to the holy Eucharist, she once awakened the local priest in the middle of the night and begged him to let her receive the sacrament. When he refused, she ran screaming into the frigid Meuse river, and swam away. In lighter moments, she was wont to amuse herself by taking rides on mill-wheels (as though they were ferris-wheels); she suffered no apparent injuries when the wheels carried her under. Small wonder that even the usually reserved Alban Butler (author of "Butler's Lives of the Saints") refers to Christina as "...a pathological case."
In her later life, after spending an evening submerged in a baptismal font, Christina apparently was cured of her overly acute sense of smell and was able to join a community of nuns at the convent of St. Catherine. The prioress at the convent subsequently insisted that Christina, despite her "eccentricities", was a model of obedience and humility. She came to be renowned for both her wisdom and her sanctity, and was consulted by many notable people, including the Count of Looz. She died in 1224 at age 73.
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