Christopher, St.

Christopher, St., (the Christ-Bearer), according to Christian legend a giant of great stature and strength, who, after serving the devil for a time, gave himself up to the service of Christ by carrying pilgrims across a bridgeless river, when one day a little child, who happened to be none else than Christ Himself, appeared to be carried over, but, strange to say, as he bore Him across, the child grew heavier and heavier, till he was nearly baffled in landing Him on the opposite shore. The giant represented the Church, and the increasing weight of the child the increasing sin and misery which the Church has from age to age to bear in carrying its Christ across the Time-river; the giant is represented in art as carrying the infant on his shoulder, and as having for staff the stem of a large tree.

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)