Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

24 July, 2026

Saint Christina. Virgin And Martyr. Feast Day, Today, 24 July. Red Vestments.


Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Christina.
   Virgin.
   Martyr.
   Feast Day 24 July.

Simple.

Red Vestments.

Saint Christina giving her father’s idols of gold to The Poor.
17th-Century Painting. National Museum, Warsaw, Poland.
Artist: Anonymous. Follower of Massimo Stanzione
(1586–1656).
Current location: National Museum in Warsaw, Poland.
Source/Photographer: cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl
(Wikimedia Commons)



English: Statue of Saint Christina.
Church of Saint Christina, Ravensburg, Germany.
Deutsch: Hl. Christina von Bolsena.
Skulptur von Moriz Schlachter.
Pfarrkirche St. Christina, Ravensburg, Germany.
Photo: 20 January 2006.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Christina was born in Tuscany, Italy. At the age of ten, she took away the silver idols, in her father's house, and broke them up. On this account, she was delivered up to the persecutors, tied to a post, and pierced with arrows.

She thus added, to the merit of her Virginity, that of Christian Fortitude (Collect). This was under the Persecutions of Emperor Diocletian in 300 A.D.

Mass: Me exspectavérunt.



English: The Parish Church of Saint Christina,
Ravensburg, Germany.
Deutsch: Pfarrkirche St. Christina, Ravensburg
Photo: 20 January 2006.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

Saint Christina of Bolsena, Italy, also known as Christina of Tyre, or, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, as Christina the Great Martyr, is Venerated as a Christian Martyr of the 3rd-Century A.D. Archaeological excavations of an underground cemetery, constructed at her tomb, have shown that she was Venerated at Bolsena by the 4th-Century A.D.

The existence of Christina is relatively well attested. Although some versions of her legend place her in Tyre (Phoenicia), the most credible evidence points to Bolsena, Italy: An ancient town in central Italy, near an Etruscan site called Volsinium, with catacombs, in which archaeologists have found the remains of an Early-Christian Church and the tomb of a female Martyr.

Inscriptions, found on the site, confirm that this Martyr had a name like Christina and that the local community was Venerating her as a Saint by the end of the 4th-Century. Some corroborating evidence is provided by a 6th-Century mosaic in the Basilica of Saint Apollinare Nuovo, at Ravenna, Italy, which includes, in its Procession of Virgins, a Saint named Christina, wearing a Martyr's Crown.


The Mass at Bolsena.
Artist: Raphael (1483–1520).
Date: 1512.
This File: 30 March 2007.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Mass at Bolsena is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist, Raphael. It was painted between 1512 and 1514 as part of Raphael’s commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Raphael Rooms, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. It is located in the Stanza di Eliodoro, which is named after The Expulsion Of Heliodorus From The Temple.

The Mass at Bolsena shows an incident that is said to have taken place in 1263. A Bohemian Priest, who doubted the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, Celebrated Mass at Bolsena, Italy, where the Bread of The Eucharist began to Bleed. The following year, in 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi, to Celebrate this miraculous event.



The Priest was saying Mass, and, when he doubted the Transubstantiation, Blood spouted from the Host and fell onto the Altar Cloth, in the shape of a Cross, and he was re-converted.

Present in this painting, is a self-portrait of the artist, Raphael, as one of the Swiss Guard in the lower right of the fresco, facing out with bound-up hair. This is one of several instances in which Raphael has placed himself in his paintings. 

Also shown in the work is Pope Julius II (1443-1513), kneeling at the right, and his daughter, Felice della Rovere, shown on the left at the bottom of the steps, in profile, in dark clothes. The four Cardinals, to the right, have also been identified as Leonardo Grosso della Rovere, Raffaello Riario, Tommaso Riario and Agostino Spinola, relatives of Julius.


The Martyr, Christina, lived in the 3rd-Century A.D. She was born into a rich family, and her father was Governor of Tyre. By the age of 11, the girl was exceptionally beautiful, and many wanted to marry her. Christina’s father, however, envisioned that his daughter should become a pagan priestess.

To this end, he placed her in a special dwelling, where he had set up many gold and silver idols, and he commanded his daughter to burn incense before them. Two servants attended Christina.

According to legend, on one occasion, Christina was visited by an Angel, who instructed her in the True Faith. The Angel called her a Bride of Christ, and told her about her future suffering. Christina smashed all the idols in her room and threw them out the window.


In visiting his daughter, Christina’s father, Urban, asked her where all the idols had disappeared. Christina was silent. Then, having summoned the servants, Urban learned the truth from them.

A second legend is connected to Saint Christina. The Miracle of Bolsena, often considered to be the catalyst for the Feast of Corpus Christi, recalls an event in the Umbrian region of Italy in 1263. A Priest, named Peter, from the City of Prague, nurtured doubts regarding the Transubstantiation of The Host during Mass, and, during his Pilgrimage toward Rome, Prayed to be relieved of his questions.

While saying the Words of Consecration, in the Church of Saint Christina, in Bolsena, Italy, the Host dripped Blood on his hands and on the Altar Cloth. The Miracle of Bolsena is depicted on the walls of the Vatican, in a painting by Raphael.

The Vigil Of Saint James The Great. Apostle. Today, 24 July. Violet Vestments.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Vigil of Saint James.
   Apostle.
   24 July.

Violet Vestments.


Saint James the Greater.
He is depicted clothed as a Pilgrim.
Note the Scallop Shell on his shoulder
and his Staff and Pilgrim's Hat beside him.
Artist: Rembrandt (1606–1669).
Date: 1661.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Saint James the Greater.
Artist: René de Cramer.
“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.
Used with Permission.

Like most of The Feasts of The Apostles, which were formerly of Obligation, that of Saint James is preceded by a Vigil.

This Saint was one of The College of Twelve, who, like The Twelve Sons of Jacob, received his inheritance and had to evangelise part of The Church, figured of old by The Promised Land (Epistle).

With his brother, Saint John, and with Saint Peter, he was privileged to witness The Transfiguration of Jesus and His Agony in The Garden of Olives.


He was the first among The Apostles to have the honour of bearing witness to Christ by shedding his blood in the City of Jerusalem. He thus gave, like his Master, the proof of the greatest love, which consists in sacrificing one's life for those one loves (Gospel).

Let us, with The Church, prepare ourselves in Meditation and Prayer for The Feast Day, tomorrow.

Mass: The Vigil of an Apostle: Ego autem.
Commemoration: Saint Christina. Virgin and Martyr.
(By Collects of Mass: Me exspectavérunt).


King Henry VII Lady Chapel. Westminster Abbey. A Glorious Example Of Late-Mediæval Architecture.



King Henry VII Lady Chapel,
Westminster Abbey.
Illustration: WESTMINSTER ABBEY


Text and Illustrations, unless otherwise stated, from WESTMINSTER ABBEY

The 16th-Century historian John Leland called the Henry VII Lady Chapel “the wonder of the World” and it continues to inspire wonder amongst those who visit it today.

It’s a glorious example of Late-Mediæval architecture with a spectacular Fan-Vaulted Ceiling.


King Henry VII Lady Chapel, 
Westminster Abbey.
Available on YouTube

It is the burial place of fifteen Kings and Queens, including Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, and what is thought to be the remains of Edward V and Richard Duke of York, the “Princes in the Tower”.



King Henry VII Lady Chapel.
Westminster Abbey.
Artist: Canaletto (1697–1768).
Date: Early-1750s.
Collection: Private Collection.
Source/Photographer: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Below the Central Aisle is the Hanoverian Vault, where George II and members of his family are buried.

The Stuart Vault is in the South Aisle, where Charles II, William III and Mary II, and Queen Anne, lie buried.


Incredible Burials Of The Henry VII Lady Chapel, 
Westminster Abbey.
Available on YouTube

King Henry VII lavished huge sums on his new Lady Chapel, which was begun in 1503 but not completed until 1516, nearly six years after his death.

Henry’s imposing tomb at the East End of the Chapel has magnificent Gilt Bronze effigies of the King and his wife, Elizabeth of York, made by the brilliant Florentine Renaissance sculptor, Pietro Torrigiano.



King Henry VII Lady Chapel.
Westminster Abbey.
Photo: 10 April 2008.
Author: Josh Hallett, Winter Haven, U.S.A.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The King and Queen lie in a Vault below their monument, together with James I. The Bronze Screen is by Thomas Ducheman. Henry’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, also has a tomb designed by Torrigiano in the South Aisle.

Since 1725, the Lady Chapel has been used for installations of Knights of the Order of the Bath, and the colourful banners of living Knights hang here.



Great East Window,
King Henry VII Lady Chapel,
Westminster Abbey.
Photo: 27 September 2006.
This File is licensed under the 
2.0 Generic licence.
Author: Herry Lawford, London, U.K.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Brass Plates with Coats-of-Arms of current and former Knights are attached to the Stalls. The Sovereign and the Great Master of the Order continue to install new Knights in the Chapel, usually every four years.

A Lady Chapel is a Chapel dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary and is common to most Cathedrals and large Churches.



King Edward VII Lady Chapel’s Fan-Vaulted Ceiling, Westminster Abbey.

The outstanding feature of the Lady Chapel is the spectacular Fan-Vaulted Roof with its carved Pendants.

Around the walls are ninety-five statues of Saints. Beneath the Hinged Seats of the Wooden Stalls are beautifully-carved Misericords.

At the East End is the Royal Air Force Chapel. The Stained-Glass Window by Hugh Easton depicts the Badges of the Fighter Squadrons that took part in the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Above, in The Great East Window, is Stained-Glass designed by Alan Younger, installed in 2000.



King Henry VII Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey. 
Fan-Vaulting Ceiling and Flags of The Order of The Bath.
This file is licensed under the
2.0 Generic licence.
Author: amanderson2
(Wikimedia Commons)

In May 2013, two new Windows, designed by Hughie O’Donoghue, were installed either side of the Central East Window. Predominantly Blue in colour, they incorporate emblems related to The Blessed Virgin Mary, including Lilies and Stars.

All three East Windows were presented by Lord and Lady Harris of Peckham.

The West Window is filled with Stained-Glass designed by John Lawson, with Coats-of-Arms, or initials, of many people who contributed to the restoration of the Chapel, completed in 1995.

It particularly honours Sir John Templeton, a major benefactor. Smaller Stained-Glass Windows for other donors are in the Side Chapels.

The Westminster Abbey Web-Site can be found

23 July, 2026

World-Wide Consecration To The Immaculate Heart Of Mary.



Illustration: RORATE CÆLI

This Article is a re-print from 2021.

Because of the state of the World, today, one wonders 
whether it is necessary to consider duplicating this Consecration to The Immaculate Heart of Mary.



This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at,

As endorsed by several fellow Catholic blogs and pages, we urge you to get your Traditional Latin Mass community to join this global effort. This is very important! We can only win this generational battle through prayer and through the intercession of the Victorious Mother.

The Holy Catholic Church is in an unprecedented worldwide crisis. The only hope for the Faithful is a Divine intervention, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Two priests who wish to remain anonymous - one a Diocesan, the other a Religious, both of whom offer exclusively the Traditional Mass - propose a world wide consecration to the Immaculate Heart by all TLM communities on 15 August, 2021, the feast of Our Lady’s Assumption.

They hope that many Cardinals and Bishops will also associate themselves with this entrustment.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary triumph and reign !




“Titulus Floralis Beatæ Mariæ”: “Floral Titles Of Our Lady”: Our Lady Of The Meadows; Our Lady’s Ear-Drops; The Passion Flower; Lady Bell; Lady’s Slipper; Lady’s Needlework; Lady’s Thimble; Lady's Mantle.



“Lady’s Thimble”
(Campanula Rotondifolia).
Photo: 17 July 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: Tigerente.
(Wikimedia Commons)


“Mater Dolorosa”.
(Mother of Sorrows).
Artist: Carlo Dolci (1616–1686).
Date: Circa 1600.
Current location:
Tokyo, Japan.
Source/Photographer: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The following Text is from THE MARIAN LIBRARY

List of Mediæval Flowers of Our Lady from surviving oral popular Religious Traditions of the U.K. Countryside.

The primary sources are Britten and Holland’s Dictionary of English Plant Names (1886) and Grigson's “An Englishman’s Flora” (1958,) both based on local Texts and oral Traditions.

Britten and Holland’s listing is alphabetical; Grigson’s listing is by botanical family, with information of the County location(s) in which each name was found to be current.



An additional source is Dowling’s “The Flowers of the Sacred Nativity” (1900), based on a survey of Religious and Folklore Texts for shrubs and trees associated with Religious Customs and Celebrations.


Dode Church,
near Gravesend, Kent, England.
The Dedication of this Mediæval Church
is “Our Lady of The Meadows”.



Religiously-named flowers, introduced from other Countries, are not included here, except for a few, whose names have become current in the U.K., such as Ladies’ Ear-Drops (Fuchsia) and the Passion Flower.

Special mention should be made of the National Collection 
of Passiflora, in Bristol, documented, with exquisite photographs, by John Vanderplank in Passion Flowers (Second Edition), MIT Press, 1996.


“Our Lady’s Ear-Drops”
(Fuchsia).
Photo: April 2003.
Source: Own work.
Author: Ellen Levy
(Wikimedia Commons)



Other, Secondary Sources, are:

The Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition, 1985),
which contains the notation under “Lady”:

“In names of plants, “Lady’s” . . . is a shortening of “Our Lady’s”, and became familiar through the 16th-Century herbalists.

In more recent times, Ladies’ has, in some cases, been substituted, the change being perhaps assisted by the old spelling “Ladies” of the possessive singular.


The designation is usually given to plants of a more than usual beauty or delicacy. (Cf. German: Marien-; Frauen-. French: De Notre Dame)”.

“The Mary Calendar”, by Judith Smith (1930), which is included because it is the source of the list of plants desired for the planting by Frances Crane Lillie of Our Lady’s Garden at the Angelus Tower of Saint Joseph’s Church in Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, in 1932 - The Mother Garden of the contemporary Mary Garden Restoration Movement.

Smith’s listing is by bloom time through the year.


“The Passion Flower”
(Passiflora Cærulea),
This File: 24 August 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Tomas Castelazo.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Also included is the list of the plants “associated by
Tradition and legend with The Blessed Virgin Mary” planted
in beds of The Cloister Garden of The Cathedral Church of
The Blessed Virgin Mary, in Lincoln, by John Codrington,
of The Lincoln Herb Society, in 1979.

This composite listing is alphabetical by botanical name, and includes listings of multiple Religious Names for the same plant where they occur.

Columns (B)ritten, (C)odrington, (D)owling, (G)rigson, (O)xford, and (S)mith indicate sources in which they are found.

Also given, is the primary source from which each listing has been obtained.

Many of the U.K. Religious Flower Names are paralleled 
by similar names in the oral Religious Traditions of other Countries, such as France, Germany, Ireland, Spain and the Latin American Mission Countries - which are, or will be, listed in other studies on this Web-Site.


“Lady Bell”
(Adenophora Confusa).
Illustration: WHITE FLOWER FARM



Contemporary Mary Gardens typically draw on plant materials from all these Traditions to provide for horticultural and theological comprehensiveness, not limited to the plants of any one Tradition.

A unique aspect of the Old Religious Flower Names from the U.K., as can be seen from the list, is that they preponderantly refer to Our Lady, and, in this, to her Motherhood at the Nativity and in her envisaged life at Nazareth - to her person, garments and household articles.


English:
“Lady’s Slipper”
(Anthyllis Vulneraria).
Nederlands:
Deze foto toont de Alpen-wondklaver.
Photo: 14 August 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: TeunSpaans.
(Wikimedia Commons)



In this, there is a striking correspondence with Old Marian English Poetry, which is most sublime in its praises of Mary’s Maidenly Spirituality and her Divine Maternity.

No doubt, there are correspondences here to the calling of England “Our Lady’s Dowry”, and to the Spirituality of Walsingham.

As each of the Nations glorifies God and the Salvation of the World in a special way, England, as reflected in its Religious Flower symbolism, offers the World a special sense of the Nativity of Christ, of Mary’s Divine Maternity, and of the Way to Jesus through Mary’s Joyful Mysteries.

It is to other Traditions — those of France, Germany, Spain and Latin America — that we turn for additional Flower Symbols of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, and of the Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of Our Lady.


“Lady’s Needlework”
(Anthriscus Sylvestris).
Illustration: FLOWERS.LA.COOCAN.JP


The U.K. Flowers of Our Lady.

References:

BRITT - Britten and Holland, A Dictionary of English Plant Names, Trubner, London, England, l878.

CODRIGTON - Codrington, John, The Plants of the Cloister Gardens, Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln, England, 1979.

DOWLING - Dowling, Alfred E.P. Raymond; The Flora of the Sacred Nativity; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Ltd, London, England, 1900.


“Lady’s Thimble”
(Campanula Rotondifolia).
Photo: 17 July 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: Tigerente.
(Wikimedia Commons)



GRIGSON - Grigson, Geoffrey, The Englishman’s Flora, Phoenix House Ltd, London, England, 1958.

OXFORD - The Oxford Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, 2nd Edition, 1989.

SMITH - Smith, Judith, The Mary Calendar, St. Dominic’s Press, Ditchling, England, 1930.


“Lady’s Mantle”.
(Alchemilla Vulgaris).
Illustration: RESEARCHGATE.NET
(uploaded by Graeme Tobyn).
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