Christina The Astonishing

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds · Henry's Dream [1992]

Christina the astonishing

Lived a long time ago

She was stricken with a seizure

At the age of twenty-two

They took her body in a coffin

To a tiny church in liege

Where she sprang up from the coffin

Just after the agnus dei

She soared up to the rafters

Perched on a beam up there

Cried 'the stink of human sin

Is more that I can bear'

Christina the astonishing

Was the most astonishing of all



She prayed balanced on a hurdle

Or curled up into a ball

She fled to remote places

Climbed towers and trees and walls

To escape the stench of human corruption

Into an oven she did crawl

O christina the astonishing

Behaved in a terrifying way

She would run wildly through the streets

Jump in the meusse and swim away

O christina the astonishing

Behaved in terrifying manner

Died at the age of seventy-four

In the convent of st anna