page_title: Sister Christine
section_title: Meeting at Thousand Island Park
hierarchical_section_title: Sister Christine / Religious apprenticeship in the United States / Meeting at Thousand Island Park
caption_attribution_description: English: Swami Vivekananda in New York 1895 (probably between February to June)
context_page_description: Sister Christine or Christina Greenstidel was a school teacher, and close friend and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. On 24 February 1894, Christine attended a lecture of Vivekananda in Detroit, United States which inspired her. She started communicating with Vivekananda through letters. Christine went to India in 1902 and began working as a school teacher and a social worker.
  In 1911, after the death of Vivekananda's disciple Sister Nivedita, Christine took charges of Nivedita's girls' school. Some scholars of Vivekananda's life, including Sister Gargi and Pravrajika Vrajaprana, believe that Vivekananda regarded Christine as his daughter.
context_section_description: After Vivekananda left Detroit, contact between him and the two young women ceased for a time. In July 1895, Christine and Funke decided to travel to Thousand Island Park in Northern New York State to meet Vivenkananda; 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." Vivekananda warmly welcomed them. Funke later recalled the incident saying, "He greeted us so sweetly, it was like a benediction." Vivekananda invited them to stay there for a few days and attend his lectures. The two young women at once accepted the invitation. Vivekananda told others that two of his disciples had travelled hundreds of miles to find him. They were to stay from 20 July to 9 August 1895; during that time they attended 18 lectures.
caption: Swami Vivekananda in New York in 1895. That year, he initiated Sister Christine into Brahmacharya at Thousand Island Park.
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