View Message

I've been told, by way of explaining two great-grandmothers (?) named Christiana, that in the 19th century in England, The Pilgrim's Progress (17th century, by John Bunyan) was frequently given as a Sunday-School prize. The hero of the first part is a man named Christian, who journeys through various allegorical landscapes and meets people who are either good or bad influences on him. He eventually makes it into Heaven. Meanwhile, he left his wife and four sons behind, and they eventually follow, in Part 2: the boys marry women with names like Grace and Mercy, and their mother's name is Christiana. I suppose some real-life boys must have been named Christian - it wouldn't be too surprising today - but Christiana, with that pretty -a ending making it sound like Christie-Anna, seems to have been really popular, at least for a while.

---

No clue if Krystiana is a sign that TPP was ever translated into Polish!