An image of Saint Christine, "Vies de Saints," found here.
Author’s Note: My story is based off of Saint Christine (original story found here). I was inspired by how many of our children’s fairy tales are based on really cruel stories (like how in the original Cinderella, her toes were cut off to fit in the shoes). Christine’s story immediately made me think of Fiona in Shrek. Christine was so beautiful that her father locked her in a tower. She wouldn’t sacrifice to pagan gods, and she argued with her earthly father that God was the only Lord. All of the things that happened to Fiona in my story happened to Christine – and more. I really did try to make this story more friendly. They continued to torture Christine brutally after her father’s death, but I didn’t want to write about anymore, as the methods of torture became increasingly more drastic. The readers will get the gist of her story; it was just important to me to show the lengths that Saint Christine went to in order to hold onto her beliefs and to demonstrate the unbearable strength and bravery it must have taken. I tried to do so by adapting the story into one that we are more familiar with, as many people know Shrek and the fire-breathing dragon! However, in my story, the dragon is evil instead of good (spoiler alert: in Shrek, the dragon helps them escape and ends up married happily-ever-after).
They locked Princess Fiona locked away for her whole life.
How come no suitors ever came to find her, you might ask?? Well, you haven’t met her father.
Everyone knows about the fairytale dragon-who-guarded-Fiona's-castle and Shrek-the-gruesome-yet-loveable-ogre. But what we don’t tell the kids is about what really happened to poor Fiona.
Originally, Princess Fiona was the most sought after woman in the land. The men adored her. However, she only had her eyes on one – her God – and the suitors sacrificed to pagan gods. She devoted herself to God, her heavenly father, and did not want to commit herself to any other man who would take that from her.
Her earthly father did not take this idea so well. When he asked her to come down to host eager suitors, she remained in her room.
“Fiona, I’ll give you one chance. Don’t test me on this,” he warned, calling up the stairs.
“I know my values and my place,” replied Fiona.
The king collected himself and went to find his henchmen.
Soon after, Fiona heard a knock at the door. The first, biggest henchman that the king had was waiting for her.
“Last chance, princess.” He grinned. Fiona looked him straight in the face and said nothing.
To keep the story brief for the younger eyes reading this, the henchman took Fiona deep into the dungeon's abyss and beat her to the point of exhaustion. But not her exhaustion. She was beaten until the gnarliest henchman was so tired that he could not continue.
The king sent a messenger down to ask her to come up and rest so that she may marry one of the young men awaiting her.
She spit on him.
The king sent another henchman to her.. and another… and another. Fiona endured the torment of a dozen of his strongest men.
Afterward, while Fiona was banished into her room, her mother came to visit her.
“Honey, why do you do this? You do not have to believe what those men believe – just play along and act like you do. You will save yourself so much pain,” she begged her only daughter.
“Simply by asking this of me, you do not understand what I believe. My God died for me – he was tortured. I want to honor his sacrifice and show my faith to others. They will know him through me,” she replied.
Again, the henchman set about to destroy our princess. They doused Fiona in oil, and as she stood waiting to be burned, the king became the fire-breathing, terrifying dragon of the Shrek stories. If she would not submit to his ways and marry a man who practiced his beliefs, then no other man was going to marry into his bloodline. He used his burning rage and pride to ignite the oiled beam that held Fiona.
The beam went up in smoke as the bystanders screamed and scrambled to move away from the heat. By the works of a miracle, Fiona calmly removed herself from the fire, alive and worshipping her God.
“I’VE HAD IT!!” the king raged, still in his dragon form and storming about as a true beast of legends. “She is a monster. She is disgusting. Tie a stone around her neck and throw her into the sea,” he demanded, shouting to his crew.
Fiona, a true picture of beauty and a warrior, calmly let herself be led to the ocean while four men had to carry the stone that was tied to her slender neck. A boat took her to her soon-to-be watery grave.
She glanced down to the water, then to heaven, and slowly slipped overboard.
No one truly knows what happened next, for no one actually saw him with their own eyes and lived to tell the tale. But everyone knows who it was. Fiona’s God, Jesus, descended into the water and pulled her out, safely delivering her to the land.
Fiona's God brought justice throughout the land, and the rage-fueled fire that replaced the king's heart was extinguished. The next morning, the king was found dead in his chambers. The great dragon was slayed.