Sister Christine
| Sister Christine | |
|---|---|
Sister Christine
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| Native name | Christine Greensfield |
| Born |
Christina Greenstidel 17 September 1866 Nuremberg, Germany |
| Died | 27 March 1930 (aged 63) New York, United States |
| Cause of death | Illness |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | Bhagini Christine |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Teacher |
| Known for | Social work in India |
| Home town | Detroit, Michigan |
Sister Christine or Christina Greenstidel (17 August 1866 – 27 March 1930) was a school teacher, and close friend and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. On 24 February 1894, Christine attended a lecture of Vivekananda in Detroit, United States which inspired her. She started communicating with Vivekananda through letters. Christine went to India in 1902 and began working as a school teacher and a social worker.
In 1911, after the death of Vivekananda's disciple Sister Nivedita, Christine took charges of Nivedita's girls' school. Some scholars of Vivekananda's life, including Sister Gargi and Pravrajika Vrajaprana, believe that Vivekananda regarded Christine as his daughter.
Sister Christine was born as Christina Greenstidel on 17 August 1866, in Nuremberg, Germany. She was a Lutheran who later became a Christian Scientist. She had five younger sisters. When Christine was three years old, her family moved to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan. Christine's father was a German scholar, but the family lacked financial resources. She was seventeen years old when her father died, and she became the sole breadwinner of the family, obtaining a job as a teacher in the Detroit Public School system in 1883.
In 1894, Christine was attending a series of lectures in Detroit with her friend Mary Funke. Swami Vivekananda was in Detroit early that year for six weeks; he delivered several lectures while there. On 24 February 1894, Christine attended a lecture by Vivekananda. She was so impressed by Vivekananda that she attended many more of his lectures and became an admirer and disciple. She later recounted her experience of that first lecture:
Never have I heard such a voice, so flexible, so sonorous. It was the voice of God to me! That range of emotion, that silvery music—I have never heard in any other. It was sheer music...
It was the mind that made the first great appeal, that amazing mind! What can one say that will give even a faint idea of its majesty, its splendour? It was a mind so far transcending other minds, even of those who rank as geniuses... Its ideas were so clear, so powerful, so transcendental that it seemed incredible that they could have emanated from the intellect of a limited human being.
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