File:Relics of St Christine - St John the Evangelist Cathedral (40508950153).jpg

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Relics of St. Christine (aka St. Christina) in the Mortuary Chapel of St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

The cathedral was begun in 1848 and completed in 1852. The Catholic diocese of Cleveland was so poor that the bishop had to make years-long fundraising tours to Europe to build it, and even then the interior was not complete until 1879. The regular glass windows were replaced with leaded glass and the interior upgraded in 1884, and stained glass windows arrived in 1902. Per the rules of the Catholic Church, the 1852 main altar contained the recognizable relics of a saint. (No idea which saint.)

In 1927, the interior was redecorated and the crypt below the church rebuilt and redecorated. The relics of St. Christine were received and placed in the crypt.

Reconstruction of the cathedral began in 1946, and was completed in 1948 in time for the cathedral's 150th anniversary. Per the rules of the Catholic Church, each of the new altars in the cathedral -- Blessed Virgin Chapel, Mortuary Chapel, Terce Chapel, and Blessed Sacrament -- contained the recognizable remains of a saint.

The Mortuary Chapel (now sometimes called the Resurrection Chapel) is where the bishops of Cleveland are buried. St. Christine's relics were moved there in 1948 as well.

Christina lived in 3rd century AD in the central Italian village of Bolsena. NOTHING is known about her, except that by the 4th century Christians in the area considered her a martyr and saint. The tradition is that she was a beautiful teenage girl whose father wanted her to become a pagan priestess. She refused, even after being imprisoned, and he tortured her to death. (This is the same story applied to a bunch of early Christian martyrs, so it's unlikely to be true.) Her remains were placed in the catacombs beneath the town and revered.

The Catholic church at Toffia (in central Italy) claims to have her relics. So does the Catholic church in Palermo, Sicily. So does St. John the Evangelist, which says that Pope Pius XI gave the church St. Christine's entire skeleton and a vial of her blood (which has now turned to dust).

The poor girl's skull and all her bones are on display in a red velvet and gold gilt case with a glass front, which itself is under glass below the chapel altar.

English: St. John's Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
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Source relics of St Christine - St John the Evangelist Cathedral
Author Tim Evanson from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Tim Evanson at https://flickr.com/photos/23165290@N00/40508950153 (archive). It was reviewed on 31 May 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

31 May 2019

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current11:20, 31 May 2019Thumbnail for version as of 11:20, 31 May 20191,667 × 2,500 (2.53 MB)Balabinrm (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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