Reading Notes: Women Saints Part A
Bibliography
"Saint Christine" from The Golden Legend edited by F. S. Ellis, Read it here
This unit was quite strange to read through. Since the stories are about women saints, I assumed that each story would have some sort of lesson or moral that its readers could decipher and then apply to their own lives in some way. But if this is the case, then I have no idea what the moral or lesson is supposed to be.
Each story reads very similarly. There is a beautiful girl or woman who is devoted to Christ, despite the obstacles they face. Each woman is tested in some way, which usually involves torture. Despite the horrific torture, the woman stays devoted to God and proclaims their faith, so they continued to be tortured and suffer until finally they are killed and become martyrs for dying for their faith.
I can't really figure out a lesson from the stories, because the 'hero' is very passive and doesn't do much besides accept their fate, even in situations where speaking up and telling the truth would prevent them from being tortured, like in the story of Saint Marina/Pelagien, where she is disguised as a male monk and is accused of fathering a child. All Marina has to do is either say that she is a woman or simply deny that she fathered the child, instead of lying and confessing to the sin, but she doesn't and dies as a result. It's not even a case of her suffering because she is devoted to Christ. Instead, she suffers and dies because she follows along with a lie, which doesn't make any sense at all to me why she then would be martyred.
There's not much to any of the stories. I think the most interesting story is the story of Saint Christine, in which Christine is so beautiful that her father locks her up in a tower to keep her away from all of the men who want to court her. While she is in the tower, Christine is supposed to make sacrifices to the pagan gods, but Christine is inspired by the Holy Spirit to become a Christian and refuses to worship the false gods. So naturally her father begins to torture her. Christine survives each round of torture which varies from being set on fire to being thrown in the ocean with a stone tied to her neck, but her father dies, which brings a new round of torture from two different local government officials since it is now believed that she is a witch or some other supernatural being. They are also unsuccessful in either killing Christine or getting her to renounce her Christianity, until finally two arrows are what manage to kill Christine, despite her surviving several other seemingly worse punishments. Thus, Christine is made a martyr, and succeeds in the ultimate teenage rebellion.
"Saint Christine" from The Golden Legend edited by F. S. Ellis, Read it here
This unit was quite strange to read through. Since the stories are about women saints, I assumed that each story would have some sort of lesson or moral that its readers could decipher and then apply to their own lives in some way. But if this is the case, then I have no idea what the moral or lesson is supposed to be.
Each story reads very similarly. There is a beautiful girl or woman who is devoted to Christ, despite the obstacles they face. Each woman is tested in some way, which usually involves torture. Despite the horrific torture, the woman stays devoted to God and proclaims their faith, so they continued to be tortured and suffer until finally they are killed and become martyrs for dying for their faith.
I can't really figure out a lesson from the stories, because the 'hero' is very passive and doesn't do much besides accept their fate, even in situations where speaking up and telling the truth would prevent them from being tortured, like in the story of Saint Marina/Pelagien, where she is disguised as a male monk and is accused of fathering a child. All Marina has to do is either say that she is a woman or simply deny that she fathered the child, instead of lying and confessing to the sin, but she doesn't and dies as a result. It's not even a case of her suffering because she is devoted to Christ. Instead, she suffers and dies because she follows along with a lie, which doesn't make any sense at all to me why she then would be martyred.
There's not much to any of the stories. I think the most interesting story is the story of Saint Christine, in which Christine is so beautiful that her father locks her up in a tower to keep her away from all of the men who want to court her. While she is in the tower, Christine is supposed to make sacrifices to the pagan gods, but Christine is inspired by the Holy Spirit to become a Christian and refuses to worship the false gods. So naturally her father begins to torture her. Christine survives each round of torture which varies from being set on fire to being thrown in the ocean with a stone tied to her neck, but her father dies, which brings a new round of torture from two different local government officials since it is now believed that she is a witch or some other supernatural being. They are also unsuccessful in either killing Christine or getting her to renounce her Christianity, until finally two arrows are what manage to kill Christine, despite her surviving several other seemingly worse punishments. Thus, Christine is made a martyr, and succeeds in the ultimate teenage rebellion.
The beautiful but stubborn Saint Christine, as painted by Sante Peranda.
(Image source: Wikimedia)
_-_Martyrdom_of_St_Christina_by_Sante_Peranda.jpg){kind=link}
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