Cristiana of Santa Croce (of Lucca), Blessed

CRISTIANA da SANTA CROCE (da LUCCA), blessed. — Born to poor parents at S. Croce sull'Arno in 1240, she died there on 4 January 1310. At Baptism she was given the name Oringa; later the people called her C. She always preserved her virginity intact, even amid unheard-of dangers. In her youth, from Lucca, where she was in the service of a noble family, she went on pilgrimage to the Gargano and Assisi. Upon returning to S. Croce, she founded a monastery in 1279 and gave the nuns the rule of s. Agostino. She shone particularly for her devotion to the Eucharist and to the Most Holy Virgin, and for her admirable conformity to the will of God. The faithful call her «saint». Her cult, affirmed by Leo X, Sixtus V, Clement X and Clement XIV, was officially approved by the Church in 1776. Feast on 18 February.