{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/santa-christina",
 "title": "Santa Christina",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Henry van Dyke Jr.",
 "poet_slug": "henry-van-dyke-jr",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 60,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1920,
  "venue": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1920)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1920 collected edition. That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume gathers work published from 1897 onward, and which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/henry-van-dyke-jr_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16229",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16134",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10679",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3525",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9372",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29314",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43094",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/buildersotherpoe00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/toilingoffelixan00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/musicotherpoems0000henr_c7v6",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsnowfirstcol00vanduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsoutofdoors0000vand",
   "https://archive.org/details/thyseaisgreatour00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/chosenpoems0000vand"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Saints are God’s flowers, fragrant souls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That His own hand hath planted,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not in some far-off heavenly place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or solitude enchanted,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But here and there and everywhere⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In lonely field, or crowded town,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "God sees a flower when He looks down.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some wear the lily’s stainless white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some the rose of passion,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And some the violet’s heavenly blue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But each in its own fashion,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With silent bloom and soft perfume,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is praising Him who from above",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beholds each lifted face of love.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One such I knew⁠—and had the grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thank my God for knowing:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The beauty of her quiet life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was like a rose in blowing,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So fair and sweet, so all-complete",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all unconscious, as a flower,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That light and fragrance were her dower.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No convent-garden held this rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Concealed like secret treasure;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No royal terrace guarded her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For some sole monarch’s pleasure.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She made her shrine, this saint of mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a bright home where children played;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And there she wrought and there she prayed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In sunshine, when the days were glad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She had the art of keeping",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The clearest rays, to give again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In days of rain and weeping;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her blessed heart could still impart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some portion of its secret grace,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And charity shone in her face.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In joy she grew from year to year;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sorrow made her sweeter;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And every comfort, still more kind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every loss, completer.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her children came to love her name⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Christina,”⁠—’twas a lip’s caress;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when they called, they seemed to bless.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No more they call, for she is gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too far away to hear them;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet they often breathe her name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if she lingered near them;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They cannot reach her with love’s speech,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when they say “Christina” now",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis like a prayer or like a vow:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A vow to keep her life alive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In deeds of pure affection,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So that her love shall find in them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A daily resurrection;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A constant prayer that they may wear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some touch of that supernal light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With which she blossoms in God’s sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}