Christina of Markyate Christina Theodora
Christina was betrothed and married against her will, spending the first years of married life as a prisoner, refusing to consummate the union. With the help of a hermit named Eadwin, she escaped, and fled to Flamstead where she lived for two years with an anchoress named Alfwen. She moved to a hermitage at Markgate in 1118, becoming the spiritual student of the hermit Blessed Roger of Albans.
In 1122, Burktred obtained an annulment from Thurstan, Archbishop of York. This and the death of bishop Bloet in 1123 allowed Christina to return to Markgate where she lived the rest of her life.
Her reputation for holiness soon attracted others, and her house became a priory of nuns. She was offered the position of abbess in York, Fontevrault, and Marcigny, but stayed at Markgate.
A skillful needle worker, Christina embroidered mitres and sandals for the English Pope Adrian IV, a former student of Saint Albans. While noted as stable and balanaced, she was given to ecstacies and visions.