Hristina of Novo Selo

The nun Hristina († 1876) was one of the nuns of the Holy Trinity convent at Novo Selo (today Apriltsi), killed by the Turks on 9 May 1876 in the massacre at the convent. She was canonized as a holy martyr by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on 3 April 2011; she is commemorated on 26 April (9 May by the new calendar), together with the other martyrs of Novo Selo.

Her name stands in the list of the martyrs, among those of the nuns Susana Somleva, Sofia Pavkova, Elisaveta Zliyska, Efrosiniya Moftieva, Kalista and Katerina. No details of her life survive. It is known that the nuns of the convent, who lived in angelic virginity, helped the soldiers with food and clothing in the days of the uprising of May 1876, then, when the bashi-⁠bazouks and Circassians burst in, took refuge in the church. The Turks fired through the windows, entered and cut down those in the church; before the altar and within it the abbess, six nuns and one laywoman died. Four sisters escaped with their lives and told afterwards what had happened. The relics of the martyrs are today in the monastery church.