The Basilica of St Christina in Bolsena, Italy

Today is the feast of St Christina, a less well-known member of the illustrious company of ancient virgin martyrs whose true histories have been lost in the mists of time. The pre-Tridentine Roman breviary gives three brief lessons about her, which state that she took from her father, the prefect of the area around the lake of Bolsena in northern Lazio, some idols made of gold and silver, had them destroyed, and used the precious metal to benefit the poor. For this, her father had her tortured her in various ways, and then attempted to kill her by drowning her in the lake. As is so often the case in such legends, nature refused to cooperate with the persecution of God’s saints, and Christina was rescued from drowning by an angel; eventually her father’s successor as prefect had her killed by being shot full of arrows. This is said to have taken place during the persecution of Diocletian, at the very beginning of the 4th century.

St Christina Giving Her Father’s Golden Idols to the Poor; first half of the 17th century, by an anonymous Flemish follower of the Neapolitan painter Massimo Stanzione (1585-1656).

The editors of the Tridentine breviary, recognizing the legendary character of the story, which has likely been confused with that of another Saint of the same name from Tyre in Lebanon, reduced her feast to a commemoration on the vigil of St James the Greater. However, her church in the town of Bolsena (about 69 miles north north-west of Rome) is famous as the sight of the Eucharistic miracle which is traditionally said to have given rise to the feast of Corpus Christi, and one can still see the altar within it at which this miracle is said to have taken place. (As painful as it is to impugn this beautiful story, the bull of Pope Urban IV which promulgated the feast makes no mention of it, nor does St Thomas Aquinas, who composed the Mass and Office of the feast at his behest. The story does not appear in any source, in fact, until quite some time later.) It was originally consecrated by Pope St Gregory VII in 1077, and the interior preserves the form of an early central Italian Romanesque basilica. A lovely Renaissance façade was added to it by the Florentine architects Francesco and Benedetto Buglioni in 1492-94, at the behest of the papal legate to nearby Viterbo, Cardinal Giovanni di Medici, the future Pope Leo X. The bell-tower was added in the 13th century. (All photos by Nicola de’ Grandi.)

The large chapel on the left of the main church is the original site of the Eucharistic miracle, completely rebuilt in the Baroque period.

The oratory on the right is dedicated to St Leonard.

The relics of St Christina are now within the reliquary in this side-altar.

To the left of the chapel of the Eucharistic miracle is a grotto dedicated to St Christina, which contains this beautiful cenotaph of her, mounted on top of the sarcophagus which originally contained her relics. This in turn leads into a small catacomb, which we will present in another post later this week.

The altar of the Eucharistic miracle.

On the front of it is mounted this stone, which is connected to legend of St Christina. The story goes that when her father had her thrown into the lake, it was bound around her neck with a rope to weigh her down, but an angel intervened and made the stone so light that it floated, so it could bring her safely back to shore, and so soft that it retained her footprints. (None of this part is included in the pre-Tridentine Roman breviary.)   

The mensa of the altar...

oddly decorated with this image of a knight on horseback.

and the signature of a priest named Lampert.

A Latin inscription which tells the story of the Eucharistic miracle, that a Bohemian priest named Peter who was traveling on pilgrimage from his Prague to Rome, and was tormented by doubts about the Church’s teaching on transubstantiation, had his faith confirmed while he was celebrating Mass at this altar, as the Host was for a moment transmuted into actual flesh in his hand, and stained the corporal beneath it with blood. The corporal was then brought to Pope Urban IV (r. 1261-64) at Orvieto, where the Popes often resided in those days (about 11 miles away.) And as noted above, this was said to be the reason why Pope Urban instituted the feast of Corpus Christi. The original corporal is still kept in a large side chapel of the cathedral of Orvieto... 

while a copy is displayed at Bolsena over this altar.

The church also boasts five well-preserved terracotta pieces in the style of the famous Florentine artists of the Della Robbia workshop: the lunettes over the main façade and that of the oratory of St Leonard; this altarpiece...

this crucifix...

and the arch over this one.

The polyptych of the high altar, by the Sienese painter Sano di Pietro (mid-15th century.)

The arch over the door which leads from the main church into the chapel of the miracle is composed of old fragments of the original Romanesque construction.