By DEB PIROCH
Never was there a child born so meant to be a mystic as Blessed Christina, daughter of well-to-do farmer Heinrich Bruso and wife Hilla. They lived in a village about nine miles outside of Cologne, Germany, where the cathedral now has a statue of Christina among the many holy people portrayed there.
Already at the age of five, she was having visions. Some say that had she not had bystanders to testify to her life’s events, she would have been written down as mentally ill. However, any actions that happened clearly bear witness to the supernatural presence of good and evil in her life.
She believed that at age ten she became the bride of Christ and, by age 12, when her parents hoped to find her a husband, she ran away to join a religious community. She became a member of the Beguines. This was a group dedicated to practicing religion and poverty, and caring for the poor and sick. They did not take vows, but she would continue to wear the habit — even when the community asked her one day to leave. She endured self-inflicted penances that were harsh, and was even having convulsions. Having lived in the Middle Ages, her causes of convulsions would not have been solvable, but these could have been of entirely natural origin.
Then, at the mere age of fifteen, she received the stigmata. She had the marks in her hands, her feet and on her head, the crown of thorns. Even after death, the relic of her skull still bears the imprint of a circle of thorns.
Meanwhile, that was not the extent of the supernatural events. The Devil became highly active and her community, not understanding any or all these eccentricities asked her to go, and she returned home. Some accounts say the parish priest helped her find a place to stay.
What evidence we have attesting to the truth behind her holiness and these experiences are chiefly in the writings of Fr. Peter of Dacia (i.e., Scandinavia), a Dominican priest who had been studying in Cologne. She met him, likely through her priest, at aged 25. The first time he saw her, she was literally being thrown around the room and pierced by unseen demonic hands. Yet, he was not the only witness in her life, merely the one to keep the account.
Others who saw such events included other Dominicans and laypersons, too, for many knew of her holiness. Sadly, we cannot quote any of her letters as we do not have access; and other documents do not appear to be online but were obviously part of her cause, for Pope Pius X declared her to be Blessed Christina of Stommeln in 1908.
The Devil used a myriad of temptations, cruel as he is, and he did so for weeks and years at a time. They would mysteriously cease upon the death of Fr. Peter in 1288. Fr. John, her parish priest, had already died in 1277 and so after his death, from 1279-1287, the information sent to Fr. Peter seems exaggerated and unreliable, not being policed Church hands. Perhaps, one speculates, without Fr. Peter as a supportive friend to document her life, Our Lord felt this aspect of her spiritual life had run its course. She would, however, live to the ripe age of 70.
Because of the length of centuries and lack of information, we not know her favorite devotions or mystical leanings. We can discuss what aspects of her life the Devil attacked. It is known Satan disguised himself as St. Bartholomew and attempted to get young Christina to commit suicide, so awful were the torments and pains she underwent. One does not get the stigmata without a profound identification with Our Lord’s Passion, and she would exude streams of blood for Christ, most especially during Holy Week.
Fr. Peter’s testimony was very particular in the details. Some were so repulsive with regard to what the Devil visited on Christina that Butler’s Lives waived repeating it all. However, they and the Beguines community state some of the menaces Christina faced from the Devil, including:
She was scourged;
Her bed was infested by thousands of fleas;
She was unable to sleep, as she would be attacked by blows;
Her skin would erupt in pustules all over;
She would bleed from her mouth and nose;
And at least at one point for weeks, anyone who came to visit, layperson or religious, was covered in showers of filth that seemed to come from nowhere.
The Devil was hemmed in and angry. Christina’s brother would join the Dominicans like Fr. Peter. Fr. Peter was a student of St. Albert the Great in Cologne. St. Albert had another great student; the future St. Thomas Aquinas.
What we should take away from all of this as a core message is that the struggle with good and evil, even for the most holy, is real. Why do we say the Hail Mary, the rosary? “…Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen.” Because it can be the Devil tempts us at the very end to despair, and we pray Mary is at our side, interceding and crushing his head with her heel. Our Lord will always honor the requests of His Mother. Prayer is not only for some of us; it is for all of us, always, our entire lives. It is supplication, it is honor, and it is thanks.
St. Catherine of Siena was another mystic and stigmatist of the Middle Ages. As she approached her death, she clung to prayer:
“Her bodily suffering increased, but so did her devotion to prayer. She would pray 1-2 hours in the morning, walk a mile to St. Peter’s Basilica and spend the rest of the day there in prayer. . . . But her suffering was not only physical but spiritual. . . . When she seemed to become aware that her end was drawing near [she] asked for absolution from a priest for her sins. A priest arrived and offered her both absolution and extreme unction. Then suddenly, it appeared to those around her that she was experiencing a demonic attack:
“After this unction she began altogether to change, and to make various signs with her head and her arms as if to show that she was suffering from grave assaults of demons, and remained in this calamitous state for an hour and a half, half of which she began to say: ‘I have sinned! Oh Lord, have mercy on me!’ And this she repeated more than sixty times, raising each time her right arm, and then letting it fall and strike the bed. Then, changing her words, she said as many times again, but without moving her arms, ‘Holy God, have mercy on me!’
“Finally, she became more peaceful and joyous, and said aloud prayers asking God’s forgiveness for her failings:
“Then she requested a plenary indulgence from the priest, saying that it had been granted her by the Pope. . . . And imitating the example of Christ, she said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,’ and died” — churchpop.com.
Christina of Stommeln’s feast day is November 6, during the Month of the Holy Souls. Let us remember then and all year long to include in our prayers for the dying and for ourselves the petition for final perseverance that we, too, may see the face of God.
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