The saint of the day 24 July is Santa Cristina di Bolsena martyr, which name day is celebrated and other saints who are celebrated on this date.
Santa Cristina di Bolsena
Santa Cristina di Bolsena, also known as Santa Cristina di Tiro and lived between the third and fourth centuries, was a virgin and martyr who, according to what has been handed down, was tortured and killed in the year 200, during the periods in which ruled the emperor Septimius Severus.
According to the story reconstructed from the sources, Cristina was a young girl of exceptional beauty, destined by her parents to be consecrated to pagan worship.
For this reason, Father Urbano, the emperor's officer, locked her in a tower in the company of twelve handmaids, trying to convince her to renounce her Christian faith.
Remaining unheeded, her father scourged her and imprisoned her, then handed her over to the judges who inflicted terrible tortures on her.
In prison she was consoled and healed by three angels, later she was thrown into Lake Bolsena with a heavy stone around her neck tied with a rope, but also this time the angels reversed which prevented the stone from sinking, effectively bringing the girl back to shore.
At that sight Urban could not cope with so much pain and died.
Cristina was taken back to prison and, under the successor of her father Urbano, named Dione, she was sentenced again to terrible torture, which also proved ineffective, in the end, lost all hope of making her change her mind, she was killed with two spear blows.
The relics were found in 1880 in the sarcophagus located in the catacombs located under the basilica of Santi Giorgio e Cristina.
Some of them are still kept in a display case, others are in Sepino, where two pilgrims who stole them in 1098, while heading to the Holy Land, had to leave them, donating them to the locals, as with the precious load they were prevented to continue their journey.
From that moment, Sepino was also infected by the cult for Santa Cristina, the relics are now partially preserved, only one arm, in the church dedicated to her, while the other relics were moved between 1154 and 1166 in Palermo where the saint was chosen , for a time as a celestial city patron. In Sepino, Santa Cristina is celebrated by the faithful four times a year.
Recommended readings- July 11: saint of the day, name day
- July 3: saint of the day, name day
- July 13: saint of the day, name day
- 4th of July: saint of the day, name day
- July 28: saint of the day, name day
In Bolsena, Santa Cristina is celebrated by means of a large religious event which includes, on the eve of the feast on July 23 evening, a procession with the statue of the saint, which takes place in the darkened square in front of the basilica where, at the same time, the on the right of the churchyard opens the curtain of a small illuminated stage where a living picture silently depicts a scene of martyrdom.
Other saints and celebrations on July 24th
- San Liborio
- San Charbel (Sarbel, Jerbello) Giuseppe Makhluf
- Blessed Antonio Torriani (Della Torre) from L'Aquila
- San Baldovino (Balduino) from Rieti
- Saints Boris and Gleb of Russia
- San Declano
- Sant'Eufrasia
- San Fantino il Vecchio (or the thaumaturge)
- San Giovanni Boste
- Blessed Giovanni Tavelli from Tossignano
- St. Joseph Fernandez
- Blessed Giuseppe Lambton
- Santa Kinga (Cunegonda)
- Blessed Ludovica of Savoy
- Blessed Maria degli Angeli di S. Giuseppe (Marciana Valtierra Tordesillas)
- Blessed Maria Pilar of S. Francesco Borgia (Jacoba Martinez Garcia)
- Blessed Mercedes of the Sacred Heart (Mercedes Prat Y Prat)
- Blessed Modestino of Jesus and Mary (Domenico Mazzarella)
- Blessed Nicolao Garlick, Robert Ludlam and Riccardo Simpson
- Blessed Xavier (Javier) Bordas Piferer
- Santa Sigolena
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