ST. CHRISTINA 177 snch dreadful pains that sbe thought thiR must he hell. She was then shown hell, where also she recognized some of her friends. Afterwards she was taken to paradise, where God welcomed and congratulated her on her arrival, and bade her choose whether she would remain with Him in heaven for ever, or return to earth for some years and €ufifer, that her sufferings might avail to release all the souls she had seen and pitied in purgatory, and also, by a life i)f penance, convert many persons still living in the world. She chose, with- out hesitation, to go back and suffer. She added that her friends must not bo astonished at the wonderful things that would happen to her, as they were ordained by God. From this time Christina fled from the presence of her fellow-creatures with horror, and abode in desert places, in trees, or on the tops of towers or churches. People thought her possessed of devils, and caught and bound her repeatedly, but in vain ; she always escaped again. "When she was suffering from hunger she would on no account return home, but prayed God to mitigate her suffer- ingp. In answer to her prayer she was enabled to live on milk from her own breast for nine weeks. She used to go into hot ovens, and scream as if in tor- ments, but always came out uninjured. She threw herself into boilers full of boiling water, and while remaining there some time she screamed and groaned, but no trace of scalding or burning was visible on her body after- wards. She held her hand in the fire, spent days in icy water, she was bitten by dogs, went round in a mill-wheel, hung herself on a gibbet under the corpses of robbers, and spent some time in graves. Once in an ecstasy she span round like a wheel, uttering an inarticu- late song. She ran so fast that a man, who was employed to catch her, had a very long run, and at last knocked her 4lown with a blow of a stick, which broke her shin. Sometimes she would roll herself up in a ball like a hedgehog. When her clothes were worn out she begged others of any one she met; if her gown wanted a sleeve, she begged a sleeve, and did not mind if it was of another colour. If she received bread bought with unjust gains it caused her the most agonizing pain. If any one in the town died whom she believed to be damned, she screamed and howled, and twisted her arms and hands as if there were no bones in them. People thought there was something demoniacal in her wish for death, and her horror of her fellow-creatures. Her sisters had her chained to a pillar, believing her to be mad or possessed of devils. When she had broken loose repeatedly, and was tied tighter, and had sores from the tightness of her chains, oil that flowed from her breasts made a healing oint- ment for her wounds, and also served her for food. Then her sisters wept, and thought only the special inter- ference of God could have wrought this miracle. They prayed, and so did many persons who came to see the miracle, that Christina might be able to live amongst other people. Their prayers were heard. Soon after, she went into a church, and, finding the baptismal font open, she immersed herself entirely in it; after this she was better able to endure the presence and the smell of human beings. One day, being providentially con- ducted by extreme thirst to the table of a very wicked man, who was sitting at a sumptuous banquet, she asked for some- thing to drink. The sinner was moved with a feeling of unwonted pity and charity, and entreated her to drink some wine. She then foretold, much to the surprise of all who knew the man, that he would die penitent and pardoned. She had a kind of second sight, by which she saw battles and deaths that were happening at a great distance, and could discern good people from bad. She foretold the fall of a nun of the convent in her native town, also the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin. After a time she left her own people and joined a recluse, named Ivetta, Yetta, or Juera, at Los, or Loen, on the borders of Germany. There she fre- quented the church, singing like an angel at night, when all the other people had gone away. She knew if the clergy N
