I hope Abby Sale will forgive me for adding to his "happy?" column, but this is just too interesting.

I discovered this late last night, and I could hardly wait until this morning to tell my wonderful wife, Christina, that the saint for tomorrow, July 24, is...

St. Christina the Astonishing


Visionary (1150–1224)
Christina, a peasant girl born near Liège in Belgium, was orphaned at the age of fifteen. At twenty-two she suffered a seizure so severe that she was pronounced dead. As she was carried into church in an open coffin she suddenly sat up and flew up to the rafters "like a bird," as she later explained, to escape the smell of sin. When the priest coaxed her down she related an extraordinary story—of how she had been shown the souls suffering in purgatory, and then led into the court of heaven, where she was offered a choice. She might either remain in heaven or "return again to Earth to accomplish a mission of charity and suffering," relieving the suffering of those in purgatory and, through her example, inspiring sinners to be converted. Without hesitation, Christina chose to return, and immediately she woke up in her own funeral Mass.
Christina's subsequent way of life provoked contrasting reactions. She dressed in rags and slept out in the open; she would climb and perch on treetops; she would jump into flames, without suffering harm, or swim in the frozen River Meuse. Viewed by many as mad she was often taunted and persecuted. But others, including the respected Cardinal James de Vitry, regarded her as a holy prophet. She spent her last years in a convent, where she evidently was a model of obedience, and died at the age of seventy-four.
"O most beloved body! Why have I reviled you? O best and sweetest body, endure patiently."
—St. Christina the Astonishing

(from "Give Us This Day" Magazine - saint biographies written by former Catholic Worker editor Robert Ellsberg, son of Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame)

My Christina, of course, is also legendary. Those of you who know my Christina, will recognize many parallels.

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If you read stories like these as stories, they can be entertaining and colorful and fun; and they can have some good lessons for us to learn. If you take them as literal truth and view them either critically or uncritically, it can lead you into some seriously problematic thinking. It's really a shame to let the truth get in the way of a good story. Better to just read the story and enjoy it. More Christina stories at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_the_Astonishing

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CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING
(Nicholas Edward Cave)
recorded by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Christina the Astonishing
Lived a long time ago
She was stricken with a seizure
At the age of twenty-two

They took her body in a coffin
To a tiny church in Liege
Where she sprang up from the coffin
Just after the Agnus Dei

She soared up to the rafters
Perched on a beam up there
Cried "The stink of human sin
Is more that I can bear"

Christina the Astonishing
Was the most astonishing of all
She prayed balanced on a hurdle
Or curled up into a ball

She fled to remote places
Climbed towers and trees and walls
To escape the stench of human corruption
Into an oven she did crawl

O Christina the Astonishing
Behaved in a terrifying way
She would run wildly through the streets
Jump in the Meusse and swim away

O Christina the Astonishing
Behaved in terrifying manner
Died at the age of seventy-four
In the convent of St Anna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KygSpvCd_o