Saint Alena of Belgium (+ 640)

St. Alena of Belgium (Feast Day - June 18)

Saint Alena was born in Dilbeek, just outside Brussels, Belgium, in the seventh century. She was baptized without the knowledge of her pagan parents, the nobleman Levold and his wife Hildegaart.

Alena secretly attended the Christian liturgy, giving varying excuses to her parents. One night her father told his guards to follow her and, after tracking her for quite some time, they witnessed Alena entering a chapel in Vorst. Her father came to the conclusion that Christians had bewitched her into conversion, and ordered that she be arrested. When her father’s guards attempted to arrest her she resisted. During the struggle, her arm was severed, and she offered her soul up to God. It is said the arm was taken by an angel and placed before the altar in the chapel where she regularly worshiped.

Saint Christiana of Termonde (+ 750)

Saint Christiana was born in England and is said to have been the daughter of an Anglo-Saxon king. An angel visited her in the guise of a poor man, who got her to forsake the idolatry of her country and be baptized by him a Christian. Abdicating her royal position, she decided to devout her life to Christ in asceticism. She crossed over to Flanders in Belgium where she lived in piety under Saint Hilduardus in Dikkelvenne (Ticlivinum), near Ghent, until her death in 750. Her relics were translated from Dikkelvenne to Termonde about the end of the ninth century, and were enshrined with those of Saint Hilduardus. She is commemorated July 24, and also on September 7, the day on which her relics were translated to Termonde. She is the patron saint of Termonde, Belgium.