Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/807

 CHRISTINE

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CHRISTINE

It was from Innsbruck that the European Courts were officially informed of her change of faith. On 2M December she reached the capital of Christendom, which was decorated in her honour. The pope came personally to meet her. administered the Saeramenl ■ ! Confirmation, and added Alexandra to her name. Al Home Christina's home was the Palazzo Farnesc; during her residence here she sought to satisfy her intellectual ambitions as well as the longings of her devout and loving heart. She visited the sacred places to pray, went as a ministering angel into the hovels of the poor, and devoted herself to the study of the collections of art and the libraries. She drew into the circle of her fascinations the leading families of the Eternal City, arranged concerts and plays, and

Monument ok Christina of s

knew how to delight everyone by her acuteness ami learning. She was not willing, however, to drop

rough Sv. edish customs, and allowed herself to display various peculiarities of dress and manner, so that many people avoided her. In 1656 and lti.">7 Chris tins went to France, the first time with a retinue, the' second time incognito. On the latter trip her eon- i \cited much displeasure, as among other eccen- tricities she dressed as a man. Much more severe censure was aroused by the trial, without proper legal forms, of an old servant, Monaldeschi, and his subse- quent execution, although as a sovereign she had the right to pronounce sentence of death, or at least be- lieved herself entitled to this authority. Returned to Home she gradually fell under the displeasure of the pope, for like a t rue da lighter of < rUStavUS Adolphus she at times defied foreign laws and customs in too arrogant a fashion. Christina suffered much annoy- ance from the failure to receive with regularity from i the income to which she was entitled; some- time^ no money came at all. Moreover a woman so active intellectually had no taste or time for keeping accounts. Dishonesty in the management oi her money affairs naturally followed, and the disorder in her finances was not overcome until the Curia through Cardinal Azzolini provided her with a competent bookkeeper.

After the death of Charles ( iustavus (1660) she returned to Sweden to have her rights again legally confirmed. A second visit home (Kill?) was not of long duration as, in the pettiest manner, difficulties were thrown in the way of the exercise of her religion. After this for a time she lived at Hamburg, but she made her continued stay in that city, then very rig- idly Lutheran, impossible by organizing festivities in honour of the newly-elected pope which ended in tumult and bloodshed. In Kids she returned to Rome and never again left the Eternal City. Her new home was the Palazzo Riario, and she filled her residence with great collections of books and objects of art. Her palace became a centre both for the learned world and for artists and sculptors; to the latter Christina both gave aid and generously paid commissions. Her forethought and care were not limited to her acquaintances and the members of her household, the poor of Rome also found in her a charitable mother. As she grew older she fulfilled her religious duties with increasing intelligence and zeal, and the approach of death had no longer any terrors for her. Piously and bravely she prepared herself for the end; after arranging her worldly affairs she re- reived the sacraments with humble devotion and died a true child of the Catholic Church. Against her ex- press wish the pope had the body embalmed and brought to St. Peter's, where it was buried under the high altar. Her ostentatious but not prepossessing monument is the work of Carlo Fontana. Christina made Cardinal Azzolini her principal heir, while the Papal See and various Catholic - ivereigns also re- ceived legacies. Unfortunately, after t he death of Az- zolini much of her valuable art collection passed into the hands of strangers; the greater part of her very rich library is, however, in the Vatican. Pictures and plastic art of various kinds have preserved the knowl- edge of Christina's features. Although not beauti- ful, yet in her youth her appearance must have been interesting. In later years she grew too stout to retain any trace of good looks. Only the flashing, piercing eye gave any evidence of the fiery spirit which the exterior concealed. In character the northern sovereign remained very much the same through life. Receptive for everything good and great, she unfalteringly inn-sued her quest after knowl- edge of the truth and after many wanderings found it in the bosom of the Catholic Church. She had a ten- der, sympathetic heart, yet was subject at times to fits of severity, even of cruelty. She was no saint, but was probably better than the members of her former confession pictured her. Any objective por- trait of her will always bear out the judgment of Axel Oxenstiern, "After all she was the daughter of the Great Adolphus", both in her faults and in her virtues.

Veibull and H"ji h. ed., Sverigee hisloria fran Sldsia tider

a J, mar (Kill 171s . 1\. 1'nn i Una af

Srrrnn, 1626-16S9 (Copenhagen, 1896), a work of Protestant

tendencies; Bn.nT, Drottnina Kruiinaa rich ia dnqnr (1897),

vol \ o£ the "Skriften"; Wi bad. Memoir of Christina,

< (London, 1863 ,11; Bain, Christina, Queen

London, 1890); Dentoche-Grauert, Kimigin

indihr ll„l (Honn. ls.is 1842, J vols.);

Bnsaoti \weden in Tyrol (Innsbruck. 1884);

Fat, A ', Atlolfs

■, lh\itl>, llir, I;,. u Schirfl.n, in PreiUI.

ch:i; d. in France, 1130. Although an Italian by birth, she was French at heart as well as in education and fame. When she