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See also:SAINT See also:CHRISTOPHER (See also:Christophorus, Christoferus) , a See also:saint honoured in the See also:Roman See also:Catholic (25th of See also:July) and Orthodox Eastern (9th of May) Churches, the See also:patron of ferrymen . Nothing that is See also:authentic is known about him . He appears to have been originally a See also:pagan and to have been See also:born in See also:Syria . He was baptized by Babylas, See also:bishop of See also:Antioch; preached with much success in See also:Lycia; and was martyred about A.D . 250 during the persecution under the See also:emperor See also:Decius.' See also:Round this small See also:nucleus of possibility, however, a vast See also:mass of legendary See also:matter gradually collected . All accounts agree that he was of See also:great stature and singularly handsome, and that this helped him not a little in his evangelistic See also:work . But according to a See also:story reproduced in the New Uniat See also:Anthology of Arcudius, and mentioned in See also:Basil's See also:Monologue, See also:Christopher was originally a hideous See also:man-eating See also:ogre, with a See also:dog's See also:face, and only received his human semblance, with his See also:Christian name, at See also:baptism . Most of his astounding miracles are of the See also:ordinary type . He thrusts his See also:staff into the ground; whereupon it sprouts into a date See also:palm, and thousands are converted . Courtesans sent to seduce him are turned by his See also:mere aspect into Christians and martyrs . The Roman See also:governor is confounded by his insensi- Or Dagnus—perhaps to be identified with Maximinus Daza, See also:joint emperor (with See also:Galerius) in the See also:East 305-311, and See also:sole emperor 311-313.bility to the most refined and ingenious tortures . He is roasted over a slow See also:fire and basted with boiling oil, but tells his tormentors that by the See also:grace of Jesus See also:Christ he feels nothing .
When at last, in despair, they cut off his See also:head, he had converted 48,000 See also:people
.
The more conspicuous of these legends are included in the Mozarabic See also:Breviary and See also:Missal, and are given in the See also:thirty-third See also:sermon of See also:Peter See also:Damien, but the best-known story is that which is given in the See also:Golden See also:Legend of Jacopus de Voragine
.
According to this, Christopher—or rather Reprobus, as he was then called—was a See also:giant of vast stature who was in See also:search of a man stronger than himself, whom he might serve, He See also:left the service of the See also: Sinemus, See also:Die Legende vom h . See also:Christophorus (See also:Hanover, 1868) ; and other literature cited in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. iv . 6o . |
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