Saint Nino

In servitude, her spirit was not captive; she served God there with admirable innocence and purity. Prayer was her life and fasting her food. She obeyed her master and mistress with a gentleness, patience, and modesty that delighted them; she despised gold, silver, and bodily ornaments, and concerned herself only with adorning her soul with the noblest virtues; one would see her, after having fulfilled the duties of her station, withdraw into a corner of the house and spend entire hours there, both by day and by night, with tears in her eyes, and in very fervent prayer. This conduct first astonished the women of the land. They could not sufficiently admire that she remained chaste in a corruptible body, and that she was joyful and content in such a miserable condition. Her prayers and abstinences, so long and so constant, frightened them, and they did not understand why she refused all the pleasures of life, even when she could have enjoyed them and they were offered to her. They questioned her about all these things, and she told them that the God she adored was a God of infinite purity; that Jesus Christ, His Son, having descended to earth for the salvation of men, had given them, by His example and by His word, lessons of mortification and penance that she was obliged to practice, and that she awaited after this life of misery an eternal happiness, which would abundantly reward all her good deeds.

This answer astonished them even more, but they understood nothing of it. As it was their custom, when a child was sick, to carry it to their neighbors to see if they had any remedy for its ailment, one of these barbarians brought her son to her one day and asked if she knew of any way to heal him. She told her that she knew of no natural remedy, but that Jesus Christ, her Lord and her God, could do it, and that she hoped He would not refuse her this grace. Indeed, she took him, placed him on the haircloth that served as her bed, and through a fervent prayer, she restored his health. This miracle caused a great stir in the city; the Queen, who was extremely ill, was informed of it, and she immediately sent for the captive to receive the same benefit from her; but this wise Christian refused to go, out of modesty and humility, so the Queen had herself carried to her room, where, having lain down on her haircloth, she was healed in the same way through her prayer. Our Saint immediately told her that since Jesus Christ had healed her, she must believe in Him if she wished to avoid the eternal punishments prepared for idolaters and infidels. As soon as she returned to the palace, she told the King what had happened, and this prince, wishing to send great gifts to Christiana in recognition of such a considerable grace, the Queen told him that the captive wanted neither gold, nor silver, nor precious garments, because she loved poverty and suffering; but that she asked only that Jesus Christ be recognized as the true God, and that the superstition of idolatry, which is but an abominable worship of demons, be abandoned.

The king at first turned a deaf ear to these proposals; but having gone hunting and finding himself in great danger of death, he vowed, if he were delivered, to embrace the religion of the captive and to believe in Jesus Christ. His deliverance followed immediately upon his vow; thus, having returned safe and sound to his palace, he called for our Saint and asked her for the necessary advice to embrace this new religion. She explained our mysteries to him, according to the instructions she had received in the Church and the supernatural lights that had been given to her in prayer, and asked him to build a church for which she gave him the plan. He yielded to everything she wished, assembled his people with the lords of his State, made them the proposal of everything he had learned from such a holy woman, recounted to them the miracles that Jesus Christ had already performed through her, and exhorted them like an apostle to leave the errors in which they had lived until then, to recognize the truth of one God. The queen, for her part, and our Saint, preached to the women in a very strong and touching manner. Thus, everyone agreed that they must embrace Christianity, destroy the idols and their temples, and build a church where Jesus Christ would be worshipped.

The king and queen applied themselves with great zeal to this construction, where it happened that the enclosure of the walls being made and two columns already placed on their base and pedestal, the third became so immovable that neither men nor oxen could ever move it; but at night, at the prayer of the captive, it rose of its own accord above its base, in such a way, however, that it was suspended in the air a foot above its foundation. In the morning, everyone witnessed this wonder, and the column was seen to descend little by little to the place where it was to be positioned. The Iberians, having seen this new miracle, were perfectly confirmed in the faith. The king, by the counsel of Christiana, sent ambassadors to Constantine to obtain a b ishop and Constantin Roman emperor whose conversion ended Christian persecutions. priests, and he obtained what he requested, with great honors that the emperor bestowed upon him of his own accord. He was baptized with all his people, and maintained throughout his life the ardent zeal he had for the Christian religion. As for our blessed captive, she continued until death the holy life she had led among these peoples, and she confirmed them always more and more in the faith by her words and by her miracles. Finally, the great Father of the family called her to heaven to reward her for the services she had rendered him on earth, and the whole country honored her thereafter as a Saint.

Mgr Jauffret, Bishop of Metz, founded in 1807 a teaching Congregation, known as Saint-Chrétienne. He had initially given it the name of the Congregation of the Holy Childhood of Jesus and Mary. But as several religious Congregations were already recognized in France under this beautiful title, it seemed appropriate to distinguish the one that was about to be formed with a particular name, while keeping for it the divine protectors it had chosen from its very origin. The pious bishop searched his thoughts for a Saint who could become, with Jesus and Mary, the patron of the nascent society. In his perplexity, he opened the Roman Martyrology, and the first name that struck his gaze was that of thi s humble slave, to w cette humble esclave A young Christian slave who became the apostle of Iberia. hom the nation of the Iberians owed the knowledge of the Gospel, and who is known among men only by her title of Christian. The prelate believed that she was indeed a good protectress to offer in heaven to nuns who, on earth, should aspire to nothing other than to do what she had done first, that is to say, to lead a life entirely hidden, to ambition nothing but obedience, to practice the evangelical counsels in silence, and to contribute to the salvation of souls by examples much more than by words. The Congregation of Saint-Chrétienne, whose seat is in Metz, has numerous and important houses of education in this diocese, in those of Reims, Châlons-sur-Marne, and in Germany. This biography is taken from Enfin, book IV of his History, and supplemented by Notes thro Enfin Ecclesiastical historian whose work serves as a source (erroneously mentioned as 'Enfin'). ugh the kindness of Abbé Noël, of the diocese of Metz.