lessed Christine, through the way she lived her life, has left 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 Cucoli (L’Aqula), 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 great 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, 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.
Rotelle, John, Book of Augustinian Saints, Augustinian Press 2000
Blessed Christine of L’Aquila
