Christina the Astonishing

Nick Cave and the bad seeds

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