Christina Rossetti
1830-1894 19th century Feast day: April 27
When there is nothing else, giving one's heart (poverty made into an offering).
Who was Christina Rossetti?
English poet, sister of the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an Anglican shaped by the Oxford Movement. Ill for much of her life, she broke off two engagements over questions of faith and served for ten years at a refuge for women of the street. Her poems (including the carol In the Bleak Midwinter) are among the purest in the English language.
In their own words
What can I give Him, poor as I am? … Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
None other Lamb, none other Name, none other hope in heaven or earth or sea, none other hiding-place from guilt and shame, none beside Thee.
Give me the lowest place: or if for me that lowest place too high, make one more low where I may sit and see my God.