CHRISTINA OF STOMMELN, BL.

Beguine; b. Stommeln, near Cologne, Germany, 1242; d. there, Nov. 6, 1312. At 13 she left her prosperous peasant family (Bruso), and became a beguine in Cologne. When her singular devotions and austerities disquieted her companions, she left the Beguine convent and returned to Stommeln. In 1267 she came under the direction of the Swedish Dominican Peter of Dacia (d. 1288), who kept a record of her experiences, the sensational nature of which has led some scholars to conjecture hallucinations or hysteria. Throughout her ordeals, however, Christina's firm faith and purity were evident. After the departure of Peter of Dacia in 1269, she corresponded with him through her parish priest, who added his own comments. Her relics were translated first to Niedeggen and then to Jülich, where they are still venerated. Pius X approved her cult in 1908.

Feast: Nov. 6.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum June 5:231–387. petrus de dacia, De gratia naturam ditante, sive, De virtutibus Christinae Stumbelensis, critical edition by m. asztalos with English abstract (Stockholm 1982); Vita Christinae Stumbelensis, ed. j. paulson (Göteborg 1896, rep. Frankfurt am Main 1985). c. ruhrberg, Der literarische Körper der Heiligen: Leben und Viten der Christina von Stommeln (Tübingen 1995). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 4:277–279. j. torsy, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:1129.

[m. j. finnegan]