Blessed Christine, through the way she lived her life, has left all an
example of how to carry out, responsibly and lovingly, the duties assigned
to the Christian community, with great solicitude for the brethren entrusted
to it.
Mattia
Ciccarelli was born at Colle di Lucoli (L’Aquila), Italy, in 1480
and spent the first twenty-five years of her life in the family home, devoted
to prayer and penance. In 1505 she entered the Augustinian monastery of
Saint Lucy at L’Aquila and took the name Christine. Against her will
she was elected several times abbess of her monastery. She guided her community
with example and words, calling it to a constant spiritual reform in an
historical period of general decadence and laxity. Two facts stand out as
distinctive in the life of Christine: her devotion to the eucharist—she
had a famous vision once on the feast of Corpus Christi—and her devotion
to the passion.
She died on 18 January 1543, the eve of the opening of the Council of
Trent. She was laid to rest in the monastery of Saint Lucy and, when it
was suppressed in 1908, her remains were transferred to the Augustinian
monastery of Sant’Amico, also in L’Aquila.
Her feast is celebrated by the Augustinian Family on 18 January.
