Sister Christine or Christina Greenstidel[1] (17 August 1866 – 27 March 1930)[2] was a school teacher, and close friend and disciple of Swami Vivekananda.

[3] On 24 February 1894, Christine attended a lecture of Vivekananda in Detroit, United States which inspired her.

When Christine was three years old, her family moved to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan.

She was seventeen years old when her father died, and she became the sole breadwinner of the family, obtaining a job as a teacher in the Detroit Public School system in 1883.

Ever after, India became the land of heart's desire.After Vivekananda left Detroit, contact between him and the two young women ceased for a time.

[7] In July 1895, Christine and Funke decided to travel to Thousand Island Park in Northern New York State to meet Vivekananda; he was staying there and teaching a group of his disciples.

During the journey, they were caught in a rainstorm and finally reached Thousand Island Park at night, "wet, bedraggled and totally unexpected.

[11] When Christine and Funke attended the first Saturday lecture, they learned that Vivekananda was initiating some of his disciples.

[13] Christine and Funke continued to attend Vivekananda's lectures until he left for New York on 7 August 1895.

[2][5] He had written in one of his letters to her, when he announced his plan to visit London, "It will be such a pleasure to see you" and closed with the blessing, "Mother knows best.

According to the notes of Swami Brahmananda's notebook, Christine started visiting Belur frequently and came to the Math on 18, 23, 25, 26 April and 1, 4 May and stayed for the entire day each time.

[14] In the summer, as the weather of Kolkata became very warm and dry, Vivekananda decided to send his Western women disciples to Mayavti.

I can only tell Dear, that if my presence could keep you there, you were never absent from his side on Saturday ... Death came to him so beautifully on Friday night!

A half hour's sleep after meditation, and he was gone!After the death of Vivekananda on 4 July 1902, she came back to Kolkata.

She lived in a house of Bosepara Lane, and joined the school run by Sister Nivedita as a teacher.

[4] In 1924, she returned to India but found that life on Bosepara Lane had changed in her absence and the house where she had lived a decade before had collapsed.

In Almora she delved deeper into Raja Yoga, which Swami Vivekananda had asked her to follow.

In New York, she fell seriously ill and was admitted to a nursing home of her friend, where she died on 27 March 1930.