26 March 2016

Remembering St. Christina of Persia


Holy Martyr Christina of Persia

Back in 2012, Steve Hayes at Khanya posted this brief article about St. Christina of Persia:
… since the 13th March is the feast day of St Christina of Persia, it seemed appropriate to look at her role in the history of Christianity in Persia, or, as it is more generally known nowadays, Iran.

The problem with this is that very little is known about St Christina, other than the manner of her death…

St Christina was whipped to make her renounce her faith in Christ, and when she refused to do so her persecutors carried on beating her until she died, some time in the 6th century.

She may have been the daughter of Yazdēn, governor of Nisibis.
The lack of attestation of her life is probably best witnessed both by the brevity of Mr. Hayes’s article, and by the fact that this is the longest and most complete attestation I’ve yet found of this elusive saint on the Interwebs. However, she is honoured in the Russian Orthodox Church particularly, and I managed to locate a very lovely Russian-style icon of her, shown above.

Holy Martyr Christina, noble sufferer and confessor of Our Lord Christ, pray to God for us!

2 comments: