One of the most beautiful purely Christian female names in Europe is the name Christina. In this article we will talk about what days and in whose honor its bearers celebrate their name days.
About name days
As you know, every person baptized in the Catholic or Orthodox Church is named after a particular saint, who is later considered the patron saint of the believer. The day of the church memory of this saint or the saint of God becomes what people call the Day of the Angel. Another name for this day is name day. The name Christina is especially lucky in this sense, because there are quite a few holy women named by her.
Nevertheless, every woman, like every man, can only have one Angel Day a year. Therefore, at baptism, it is necessary to choose exactly your patroness. To do this, we will give below a list of the main ones revered in the Russian Orthodox Church. Surely there are others, but the trouble is that there is no single list of all the saints in the world - there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions. And there are new ones all the time. For each saint on our list, we will attach the date of the celebration and a briefbiography so that you can decide which one you like best. But one more thing must first be noted - in the Eastern Christian tradition, the name Christina is usually transliterated in the Greek manner, namely as Christina. This is his church pronunciation.
19 February. Martyr Christina of Caesarea
Christina, whose name day (Angel's Day) falls on this winter time, celebrates the memory of her eponymous martyr, who came from Caesarea in Cappadocia and lived in the 3rd century. It was a difficult time for believers, when simply for recognizing oneself as a Christian one could be subjected to torture, confiscation of property and death. Nevertheless, believers endured all sorrows courageously and bravely, meeting torment and death with joy, as a feat for the sake of Christ. Some, of course, due to cowardice, weakness of character and fear fell away and renounced their faith. Christina was from the first category. She, along with a sister named Callista, was seized for belonging to the church and forced to recant. The girls categorically refused, for which they were tied to each other with their backs and burned alive in a barrel soaked in resin. Christina's name day in honor of this woman is celebrated on February 19.
March 26th. Martyr Christina of Persia
Slightly later than the previous martyr, namely in the 4th century, another Christina suffered for her faith in Christ. This time it was in Persia, where the local pagans also opposed the spread of Christianity. Moreover, in the Roman Empire, faith in Christ was already legalized and even made the state, official religion instead of the former paganism. Therefore, Persia, which perceived Byzantium as its political opponent, saw Christians as potential traitors, agents of influence of the Roman Empire and politically unreliable people. Because of this, believing Christians were persecuted in every possible way and forced to renounce their faith. Saint Christina refused to do so and was beaten to death with whips for her faith. The name day of Christina, named after this saint, is celebrated on March 26.
May 31st. Martyr Christina of Lampsaki
Another martyr during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. By order of Emperor Diocletian, another wave of oppression and demonstrative executions broke out in the state. During this process, a resident of the city of Lampsacus of the Hellespont also suffered. She was beheaded for refusing to renounce her Christian confession. She probably had Roman citizenship, since only the Romans were executed in this way, because other methods of execution in relation to them were prohibited. Christina's birthday, bearing her name in memory of this woman, is celebrated on the last day of May.
June 13th. Martyr Christina of Nicomedia
It so happened that all the saints of Christ, listed in this article, are martyrs. The woman that will be discussed now is no exception in this sense. On the 13th day of the first summer month, Christina celebrates her name day, named in her memory. But little is known about the details of the life of this saint. We can only say with certainty that she came from the cityNicomedia, where she was killed for being a Christian and not willing to give up her beliefs when required.
August 6th. Martyr Christina of Tire
This holy woman was not just a Christian. She was born and lived in the 3rd century and came from the family of the ruler of the city of Tyre. According to legend, her father prepared her for the career of a pagan priestess, but the daughter, contrary to the hope of her parents, converted to Christianity and flatly refused to fulfill her parents' will. In anger, the father, as the life of the saint says, first beat her, trying to force her to apostate, but, not having succeeded, he brought her to justice. In the future, no matter how parents or judges tried to persuade the girl to return to the bosom of paganism, she remained true to her choice. In the end, she was hacked to death with a sword. The memory of this martyr for her faith falls on August 6.
August 18th. Martyr Christina
This is the last one in our list of saints named Christina. Orthodox name days can be celebrated in her memory, despite the fact that absolutely nothing is known about her, except that she once lived and was forcibly put to death for her faith in God.
