Today (27 April) the Church celebrates the life and ministry (through her poetry) of Christina Rossetti.

Christina Rossetti was born in 1830 and was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which her older brother, Dante, was a prominent member.

Her elder sister became an Anglican Religious. Christina’s own fame rests upon her poetry, which dealt mainly with religious subjects but also the sadness of unrequited or disappointed love. Her first recorded verses, addressed to her mother on the latter’s birthday, were written on 27 April 1842.

She was the author of the Christmas carol In the bleak mid-winter.

She died on 29 December 1894.