Saint Christine was born into a
royal family. The King and Queen had a total of three children, but she was the only girl child born to them. Of all the girls in the kingdom, her beauty surpassed them all. Her
father knew that princes from all around the world would want to marry
his daughter when she became of age. He decided to keep her hidden away
in her room so that no man would ever desire her because of her beauty.
Their castle was the largest in the land and Christine's room was on the
highest level of the castle. She hardly ever got to venture out of her own room much less out of the castle. Her brothers were able to come and go
as they pleased and that irritated her beyond belief. One of her greatest desires was to be independent and not be dictated to by her father.
Christine's family also
believed in pagan gods. As she grew up, her family forced her to kneel down and
worship these pagan gods too. But her feelings started to drastically change as she grew closer to adulthood. When she became a teenager, she rebelled
against her father's beliefs. Christine was forming her own opinions and
beliefs while she was growing up, but she kept them a secret from her parents.
While wandering through the vast castle one day, she happened upon a room she
had never ventured into before. The room was a library full of books.
Hidden behind a stack of novels, she found a book about a christian God and was
intrigued by its title. She read this book incessantly for days and days. Christine became obsessed with reading about this wonderful, forgiving God.
A few days later, her father told her to come downstairs from her room so they could pray and give offerings of gold and silver to the pagan gods. She refused to leave her room. Her father became angry and yelled at her. Christine finally worked up the nerve to tell her father that she no longer believed in his gods and that she had converted to Christianity. Her father became enraged and ordered his daughter to be tortured for her newfound beliefs. In her father's eyes, Christine became a traitor to the pagan gods and his family.
She endured many forms of torture, but never relented in her Christian beliefs. Christine was tortured for many weeks. The mighty Christine suffered through the burning of her flesh and extended periods of imprisonment. Her torturer also ripped the flesh off of her body thinking that Christine would recant her beliefs. She became numb to the pain and claimed it was because God was giving her the strength to survive. Christine’s mother visited her while she was imprisoned in the dungeon, but Christine sent her away when she realized that her mother was not there to save her. Her mother's ulterior motive was to get her to renounce her faith in Christianity. Her mother never returned to the prison to see her again.
She finally succumbed to her death when her torturer shot her with an arrow through the heart. Christine became a martyr for her Christian beliefs. Her father buried her lifeless body behind the castle where she lived her whole life. After burying her body, her father never spoke of his daughter ever again.
A few days later, her father told her to come downstairs from her room so they could pray and give offerings of gold and silver to the pagan gods. She refused to leave her room. Her father became angry and yelled at her. Christine finally worked up the nerve to tell her father that she no longer believed in his gods and that she had converted to Christianity. Her father became enraged and ordered his daughter to be tortured for her newfound beliefs. In her father's eyes, Christine became a traitor to the pagan gods and his family.
She endured many forms of torture, but never relented in her Christian beliefs. Christine was tortured for many weeks. The mighty Christine suffered through the burning of her flesh and extended periods of imprisonment. Her torturer also ripped the flesh off of her body thinking that Christine would recant her beliefs. She became numb to the pain and claimed it was because God was giving her the strength to survive. Christine’s mother visited her while she was imprisoned in the dungeon, but Christine sent her away when she realized that her mother was not there to save her. Her mother's ulterior motive was to get her to renounce her faith in Christianity. Her mother never returned to the prison to see her again.
She finally succumbed to her death when her torturer shot her with an arrow through the heart. Christine became a martyr for her Christian beliefs. Her father buried her lifeless body behind the castle where she lived her whole life. After burying her body, her father never spoke of his daughter ever again.
painting by Francesco Cairo
I did not make any major changes to the storyline, but I did make some minor changes. In addition, I did pull some ideas from the Disney movie "Tangled." In the original story, Christine's father kept her in a tower in Italy. I changed the setting a little bit by putting Christine in a castle in the highest room. The setting is one of the parts of the story that resembles the "Tangled" movie storyline. The other part of the story that somewhat resembles the movie is that the King and Queen had a beautiful daughter together. Also in the original story, there was no mention of how many children were born to the King and Queen. Therefore, I added that detail into my version of the story.
In the original scene between Christine and her mother, the story really didn't expound very much about her mother's intentions when she came to visit her in the prison. Therefore, I decided to change the storyline a bit, so that there was more interaction between them. Her mother must have been very sad to see her daughter imprisoned and hoped that she would come home with her.
I chose this picture of Saint Christine because it shows her natural beauty and innocence. The other reason I chose this picture is because it was included in the original story from the unit I read. I chose to read and write about this story because I have an affinity toward princess and heroine story lines. Women who are powerful are an inspiration to me. Saint Christine is a perfect example of a woman who is powerful by standing by her beliefs. She also survived numerous forms of torture and in my opinion, you have to be a tough, strong and determined woman to survive all of that. In addition, it didn't matter to her what the cost was for believing in a Christian God instead of the pagan gods.
I have never read this story before so I am not sure what in it you had changed. While I was reading the story all I could think was woman power and being independent. I am glad she didn’t give in at the end. She stuck out for herself and her own beliefs, regardless of the punishment. To me, that is a very strong woman.
ReplyDeleteI read the same unit and did a storytelling on a similar story (Saint Barbara). I liked how you added to Christina’s personality, especially how she started out as meek, subservient young girl and became and independent, stubborn girl who refused to recant her beliefs. The castle description was lovely and I liked the idea of a hidden library. The picture you chose to use was gorgeous (renaissance?). Great rendition!
ReplyDeleteHello Krista, I was not familar with this story, so when I read your version I think you did a good job of presenting the information from the original. I can't speak from the point of view of someone that has read the original and that is ok because your version I feel would be great for people who have never heard of it and for people that know the story, because your story telling perspective is one that seemed much like a history lesson...Good Job
ReplyDeleteHey, Krista! Overall, I really enjoyed your retelling of Saint Christine’s story. However, there were a couple areas of improvement that I noticed throughout. First off, in the first sentence you use the phrase “most beautiful girl child in the kingdom.” While this does invoke a great concept, it doesn’t quite flow well and maybe using fewer words or more specific adjectives this would have created a more evocative first sentence. Also, in the next sentence, you employ both “one day” and “when she became of age,” when you could simply have utilized one or the other and cleaned up the sentence nicely. Another simple (and altogether too common) mistake you made was putting “its’” rather than “its.” Honestly, I even make this mistake sometimes, but it definitely confuses the issue if the wrong one is used.
ReplyDeleteThe emotion running throughout this story is vivid and heartbreaking, more than making up for any grammatical or structural errors that are present. Great job!!
Wow! This was a powerful story! You did a great job of invoking true emotion with this story. I had not read the story of Saint Christine before, but was not disappointed. She was incredibly strong for enduring so much and sticking true to her beliefs. Sometimes it can be difficult to persevere when everyone around you is completely close-minded. Plus, it is hard to change your own opinions and beliefs when you grew up with them. It must have been really hard for her to tell her dad about her change of faith.
ReplyDeleteYou had a few grammatical errors and sentence structure issues, but they didn't distract from the story. Though, at the very beginning you say that she was the "most beautiful girl child in the kingdom" and that did seem strange. I think it just needs some rewording. Overall, the structure and flow was really nice. I also thought you broke it up nicely. The paragraphs weren't too long or so long they became tedious.
I really think this was a well written story and invokes the image of a powerful woman you were trying to convey. It was easy to see that Saint Christine was a powerful woman who stood up for her beliefs. The story itself flowed well and I do not think there was any unneeded material and everything added to the story was worth mentioning.
ReplyDeleteAs other have stated above there were a few grammatical errors but I don't feel like they made the story unreadable or unenjoyable. For me, the paragraphs seemed to be a little long. I feel that some of them could have been broken into two separate paragraphs and it would have made the story flow even better. I do not think this was a major problem as I see people that commented before think they are just fine. This is just personal preference to me.
Overall, I think this was a greatly written story. Good job!
I really enjoy your version of the story. I liked how strong she was and how she was determined to believe in Christianity even if it meant sacrificing her own life. It is sad that someone's family could be so cruel as to have them tortured and killed just for believing differently. I think that your story was easy to read and easy to understand. I do think that it might help if you added some dialogue into it. It would be interesting to actually hear the interactions that Saint Christine had with her mother or father or even with those that were torturing her. Another minor thing would be to maybe break up the paragraphs a little. When there is so much into each paragraph, people tend to start scanning it over instead of reading all of it. Besides these very minor details, I think it was good overall. I really enjoyed the story and felt that it was easy to follow. Good job!
ReplyDeleteWell I think that you made a great choice by retelling this story; I could really tell that you felt a connection to St. Christine. I also really like the picture you chose to include. To me, it shows Christine’s innocence almost as well as it shows her beauty.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is a really good story, it is also a very sad story. I’m not sure why exactly, but I kept waiting for something to happen. Even as she was brutally tortured, I thought maybe the mother would save her, or the father would have a change of heart and spare his only daughter, or I thought there might have been some divine intervention that spared Christine’s life. So I was pretty bummed out when I read that she was killed when an arrow pierced her heart.
Technically, everything looked very good in your story. As I said before, the picture was a great choice, your author’s note had good insight, and you even had a like to the real St. Christine. Great Job!
I loved the version of this story! The way you tied in ideas from Tangled was really fun! But boy if I were Christine I couldn't imagine being locked up by my father. I liked the christianity ties you brought in as well. I loved the choice Christine made to stand up for herself and face her father. Great story!
ReplyDeleteHey Krista, this is such a great and powerful story! I loved how you wrote the story and the character development, especially because you created such a wonderful character. Also, the picture you incorporated also helped me picture the story better and made it clear what your vision was. I thought the way you wrote it was great and it was very well-written. This made it so interesting and kept me interested. I also loved that you incorporated ideas from Tangled. I also loved that Christine stood up for herself. So so great! Overall, great job and I am looking forward to more stories in your portfolio!
ReplyDeleteI really love this story, Krista! Even though the ending for her is really sad, I love how Christine followed her beliefs. It definitely reflects independence and strength, which I really love. Just a few things I noticed you could add or alter is n the first paragraph, you don’t have to put “a total of” to introduce the number of children. Also, why does the father lock her up? Is it just because she is beautiful? Maybe you could write a sentence of two so the reader knows why he locked her up. Also, if she was in a room to herself unable to venture anywhere, how was she able to know anything other than the teachings of her family? It would be cool if you explained how she got her different ideas and beliefs. Maybe they could have a huge library filled with books that she read daily or maybe she received messages from a god. Other than those few things, I really like your writing style, structure and grammar choice!
ReplyDeleteHi Krista! I really like your story even though the ending was a little sad. I definitely did not expect it. I haven't read this story so I really like how you wrote about what you changed in the author's note. I really like how you explained where you got certain ideas from too. I like Christine had a different set of beliefs from her parents and stuck with them no matter what happened to her. I didn't see many grammatical errors, but one thing that you could change is the way some of your sentences are formed. Like Tom said, some of the sentences are quick little bursts. If you combined some of them into compound sentences or added more detail, I think that the story would flow better. Other than that, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very sad story. Christine lives a life that many people, male or female, could hardly have stood (I don't think I could have). The way you tell this story reflects the respect you have for this woman. I, too, am very impressed with anyone who does not renounce their beliefs under such terrible, despicable treatment. And by her own family no less! I wouldn't hold it against anyone who would give in and recant their beliefs just so the torture would stop, but there is something special about someone who will not compromise their beliefs no matter what. There was a part, though, where it got a bit repetitive. In the next to last paragraph, you use the word torture a lot and you basically repeat the idea that she is being tortured three times in the row. Perhaps you can change the sentences so that they each express a different idea. Overall, I liked this story. Good job.
ReplyDeleteHi Krista! This was a very gripping read. Saint Christine had such a rough life from the start. Her father imprisoning her just for her beauty is no way to live your childhood. I honestly did not think that it would be able to get much worse for her than being locked away. I was definitely wrong. Her persecution for her religion went to an entirely different level. i would have never expected her father to execute her for her beliefs; especially since he cared so much about her to lock her up when she was a child to prevent potential suitors from coming after her. It is crazy to think that he ended up doing the most harm to her when he had always had the guise of acting like he was trying to protect her. She did show that she was able to have a very strong moral compass despite having such a tough time. I can’t wait to read your next story!
ReplyDeleteHello Krista! This was quite the read. I thought it was well thought out and very creative, good job! As I was reading the story, I could not believe everything that was happening to to Saint Christine and I was baffled when things went from bad to worse. It was an incredible story, but so sad. I think it is really cool that she was so strong in her beliefs, but it breaks my heart that her father could not accept that and killed her.
ReplyDeleteYour format was good and I thought it helped to reader flow through the story well. I liked how you didn't make any paragraph too long, too. Your writing style is cool and creative and made the story more enjoyable to read.
I chose your story at random and I am glad I did, it was a really great read. Thanks for the good read, I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future!
Hey Krista!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. I liked how in the beginning it was kind of similar to Tangled. At first when I began to read your story, I was like "this sounds familiar." The familiarity of the beginning of the story made me think that I knew the story. I thought that this story was going to just be another fairytale but then as I progressed through the story I realized that it was not. It was a martyr story. This caught me off guard -- in a good way. This made me more interested in the story. It kept me intrigued. It was very inspiring.
I liked the picture you selected to depict Christine. It really does portray her innocence and peaceful demeanor. It shows her as non-violent and someone who sturdily stands by her values. It depicts her as a christ- figure, which is what I believe she is in this story.
Hi Krista. I really enjoyed reading your story and I think you did a great job writing it. The beginning made me think that your story was going to be some type of fairytale where the princess gets married to a prince and lives happily ever after, but I guess I was completely wrong. Your story was really easy to follow and you did a great job expressing Christine’s personality. The way that the story is set up (with Christine’s parents making her stay in the castle because of her beauty) makes it easy to understand why Christine was unhappy with her parents and why she chose to explore other religions. I’m also glad that you chose to add the details to the scene where Christine’s mother visited her in the dungeon. The story has a violent ending, but it is very entertaining and I think you did a great job.
ReplyDelete