The Palace Can Wait
Correction: In our story, we describe Christina as visiting first Hell, then Purgatory, before being offered a chance to return to earth to make reparation for the poor souls she saw. Thomas of Cantimpré, who wrote an biography of her a few years after her death, says that, escorted by angels, she visited Hell, then Purgatory, then Heaven, where she stood before the throne of Jesus Christ. It was there that He offered her to either stay in Heaven or make reparation for some more years on earth.
Our Lord said to Christina, “Certainly, my dearest, you will be with, but I now offer you two choices, either to remain with me now or to return to the body and suffer their the sufferings of an immortal soul in a mortal body without damage to it, and by these your sufferings to deliver all those souls on whom you had compassion in that place of purgatory, and by the example of your suffering and your way of life to convert living men to me and to turn aside from their sins, and after you have done all these things to return to me having accumulated for yourself a reward of such great profit.” (from The Life of Christina the Astonishing, by Thomas of Cantimpré).
Latin encourages run on sentences.
While we should probably not imitate St. Christina’s specific penances, her practice of offering sacrifices for the poor souls in Purgatory is noble and worthy of imitation.
St. Christina the Astonishing
We first learned about St. Christina the Astonishing through Sarah Gallick’s The Big Book of Women Saints (or as we call it, the Crazy Lady Saint Book).
