See C.W. Andrews, _A Monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean)_, (London, 1900).
CHRISTODORUS, of Coptos in Egypt, epic poet, flourished during the reign of Anastasius I. (A.D. 491-518). According to Suidas, he was the author of [Greek: Patria], accounts of the foundation of various cities; [Greek: Audiaka], the mythical history of Lydia; [Greek: Isaurika], the conquest of Isauria by Anastasius; three books of epigrams; and many other works. In addition to two epigrams (_Anthol. Pal._ vii. 697, 698) we possess a description of eighty statues of gods, heroes and famous men and women in the gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Constantinople. This [Greek: ekphrasis], consisting of 416 hexameters, forms the second book of the Palatine Anthology. The writer's chief models are Homer and Nonnus, whom he follows closely in the structure of his hexameters. Opinions are divided as to the merits of the work. Some critics regard it as of great importance for the history of art and a model of description; others consider it valueless, alike from the historical, mythological and archaeological points of view.
See F. Baumgarten, _De Christodoro poëta Thebano_ (1881), and his article in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_, iii. 2 (1899); W. Christ, _Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur_ (1898).
CHRISTOPHER, SAINT (_Christophorus, Christoferus_), a saint honoured in the Roman Catholic (25th of July) and Orthodox Eastern (9th of May) Churches, the patron of ferrymen. Nothing that is authentic is known about him. He appears to have been originally a pagan and to have been born in Syria. He was baptized by Babylas, bishop of Antioch; preached with much success in Lycia; and was martyred about A.D. 250 during the persecution under the emperor Decius.[1] Round this small nucleus of possibility, however, a vast mass of legendary matter gradually collected. All accounts agree that he was of great stature and singularly handsome, and that this helped him not a little in his evangelistic work. But according to a story reproduced in the _New Uniat Anthology_ of Arcudius, and mentioned in Basil's _Monologue_, Christopher was originally a hideous man-eating ogre, with a dog's face, and only received his human semblance, with his Christian name, at baptism. Most of his astounding miracles are of the ordinary type. He thrusts his staff into the ground; whereupon it sprouts into a date palm, and thousands are converted. Courtesans sent to seduce him are turned by his mere aspect into Christians and martyrs. The Roman governor is confounded by his insensibility to the most refined and ingenious tortures. He is roasted over a slow fire and basted with boiling oil, but tells his tormentors that by the grace of Jesus Christ he feels nothing. When at last, in despair, they cut off his head, he had converted 48,000 people.