Robert Ellsberg’s book is a collection of women saints whose lives and spiritual gifts down through the ages are recounted with respect and with depth. By briefly looking at their lives, it makes a serious contribution to the newly emerging consciousness of the full equality of women in the Church, spiritual as well as professional.
285 pp, Darton, Longman and Todd, 2005. To purchase this book online, go to www.darton-longman-todd.co.uk
CONTENTS
Introduction
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
Mary: Mother of Jesus (first century)
Anna: Prophetess (first century)
Sts. Martha and Mary of Bethany: Friends of Jesus (first century)
St. Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles (first century)
St. Marcella: Widow (325-410)
St. Clare of Assisi: Founder of the Poor Clares (1193-1253)
St. Elizabeth of Hungary: Franciscan Queen (1207-1231)
St. Agnes of Bohemia: Princess and Abbess (1203-1280)
St. Angela Merici: Founder of the Ursulines (1474-1540)
St. Jeanne de Chantal: Co-Founder of the Order of the Visitation (1572-1641)
St. Elizabeth Feodorovna: Martyr (1864-1918)
S1. Josephine Bakhita: Ex-Slave and Nun (1869-1947)
St. Katherine Drexel: Founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (1858-1955)
Madeleine Delbrel: Missionary and Activist (1904-1964)
Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus: Founder of the Little Sisters of Jesus (1898-1989)
Mev Puleo: Witness of Solidarity (1963-1996)
Ade Bethune: Catholic Worker Artist (1914-2002)
Hagar the Egyptian: Slave Woman
The Samaritan Woman: Evangelist (first century)
The Anointer of Bethany (first century) St. Monica: Widow (332-387)
Heloise: Abbess of the Convent of the Paraclete (1100-1164) Bd. Angela of Foligno: Franciscan Mystic (1248-1309)
Bd. Lydwina of Schiedam: Patron of Sufferers (1380-1433)
Margery Kempe: Mystic and Pilgrim (1373-1438?)
St. Catherine of Genoa: Mystic (1447-1510)
St. Xenia of St. Petersburg: Holy Fool (late eighteenth century)
Cornelia Connelly: Founder of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus (1809-1879)
Maude Dominica Petre: Catholic Modernist (1863-1942)
St. Edith Stein: Carmelite Martyr (1891-1942) Adrienne von Speyr: Mystic (1902-1967)
Mothers of the Disappeared: Argentina (1977-1983)
Martyrs of EI Mozote: EI Salvador (d. 1981)
Jessica Powers: Carmelite Poet (1905-1988)
Karla Faye Tucker: Penitent (1959-1998)
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK
The Syrophoenician Woman: Faithful Witness (first century)
The Woman with a Flow of Blood (first century)
St. Lydia: “Worshiper of God” (first century)
St. Scholastica: Nun (d. 543)
St. Dymphna: Martyr (d. 6507)
Mechthild of Magdeburg: Beguine Mystic (1210?-1282?) Bd. Margaret Ebner: Mystic (1291-1351)
Bd. Julian of Norwich: Mystic (1342-1416)
Emily Dickinson: Poet (1830-1886)
St. Therese of Lisieux: Doctor of the Church (1873-1897)
Mary Slessor: Missionary (1848-1915)
Evelyn Underhill: Spiritual Guide (1875-1941)
Edel Quinn: Missionary of the Legion of Mary (1907-1944)
Anne Frank: Witness of the Holocaust (1929-1945)
Gabrielle Bossis: Mystic (1874-1950) Martyrs of Birmingham (d. 1963)
Gladys Aylward: Missionary (1902-1970)
Sister Thea Bowman: African American Franciscan (1937-1990)
BLESSED ARE THOSE
WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Rahab: Faithful Prostitute
Mary and Elizabeth: Prophetic Mothers (first century)
Lady Godiva of Coventry: Defender of the Poor (eleventh century)
St. Birgitta of Sweden: Mystic and Prophet (1303-1373)
St. Joan of Arc: Maid of Orleans (1412?-1431)
St. Teresa of Avila: Mystic, Doctor of the Church (1515-1582)
Anne Hutchinson: Puritan Prophet (1591-1643)
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Poet and Scholar (1651-1694)
Margaret Fell: Quaker (1614-1702)
Sarah Grimke (1792-1873) and Angelina Grimke (1805-1879): Abolitionists and Feminists
Lucretia Mott: Abolitionist and Feminist (1793-1880)
Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist Preacher (1797-1883)
Pandita Ramabai: Indian Christian and Reformer (1858-1922) Mother Jones: Labor Agitator (1830-1930)
Simone Weil: Philosopher and Mystic (1909-1943)
Viola Liuzzo: Martyr for Civil Rights (1925-1965)
Fannie Lou Hamer: Prophet of Freedom (1917-1977)
Catherine de Hueck Doherty: Founder of Madonna House (1896-1985)
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL
St. Brigid of Ireland: Abbess of Kildare (c. 450-525)
St. Mechtild of Hackeborn: Nun and Mystic (1241-1298)
St. Louise de Marillac: Co-Founder of the Daughters of Charity (1591-1660)
St. Joan Delanou: Founder of the Sisters of St. Anne of the Providence of Saumur (1666-1736)
Nano Nagle: Founder of the Presentation Sisters (1718-1784)
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton: Founder of the Daughters of Charity of St. Joseph (1774-1821)
Elizabeth Fry: Quaker Reformer (1780-1845)
Bd. Anne-Marie Javouhey: Founder, Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny (1779-1851)
Bd. Jeanne Jugan: Founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor (1792-1879)
Florence Nightingale: Healer (1820-1910)
Harriet Tubman: Abolitionist (1820?-1913)
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini: Founder, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (1850-1917)
Rose Hawthorne: Founder of the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer (1851-1926)
St. Maria Skobtsova: Orthodox Nun and Martyr (1891-1945)
Caryll Houselander: Mystic (1901-1954)
Satoko Kitahara: ‘The Mary of Ants Town” (1929-1958)
Maura O’Halloran: Christian Zen Monk (1955-1982)
Corrie Ten Boom: Rescuer and Witness (1892-1983)
Bd. (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta: Founder of the Missionaries of Charity (1910-1997)
BLESSED ARE THE PURE OF HEART
St. Thecla of Iconium: Evangelist (first century)
St. Agnes: Virgin and Martyr (d. 304?)
St. Catherine of Alexandria: Martyr (date unknown)
St. Hilda of Whitby: Abbess (610-680)
St. Christina of Markyate: Maiden of Christ (1097-1161)
St. Hildegard of Bingen: Abbess and Visionary (1098-1179)
Beatrice of Nazareth: Mystic (1200-1268)
Hadewijch of Brabant: Beguine Mystic (thirteenth century)
St. Gertrude the Great: Mystic (1253-1302)
Bd. Kateri Tekakwitha: “Lily of the Mohawks” (1656-1680)
Mother Ann Lee: Shaker (1736-1784)
St. Bernadette Soubirous: Visionary of Lourdes (1844-1879) St.
Maria Goretti: Martyr (1890-1902)
Etty Hillesum: Mystic of the Holocaust (1914-1943)
Mollie Rogers: Founder of the Maryknoll Sisters (1882-1955)
Raissa Maritain: Poet and Contemplative (1883-1960)
Flannery O’Connor: Novelist (1925-1964)
Cassie Bernall: Witness of Columbine (1981-1999)
Daria Donnelly: Laywoman (1959-2004)
St. Catherine of Siena: Doctor of the Church (1347-1380)
St. Elizabeth of Portugal: Queen (1271-1336)
Ida B. Wells: Reformer (1862-1931)
Jane Addams: Social Reformer and Nobel Laureate (1860-1935)
Sophie Scholl and Companions: Martyrs of the White Rose (d. 1943)
Kithe Kollwitz: Artist (1867-1945)
Muriel Lester: “Ambassador of Reconciliation” (1884-1968)
Dorothy Day: Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker (1897-1980)
Peace Pilgrim (?-1981)
Mirabehn: Servant of Peace (1892-1982)
Penny Lemoux: Journalist (1940-1989)
Eileen Egan: Peacemaker (1912~2000)
Dorothee Soelle: Theologian (1929-2003)
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED
FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SAKE
St. Blandina and Companions: Martyrs of Lyons (177)
Sts. Perpetua and Felicity: Martyrs (d. 203)
St. Crispina: Martyr (d. 304)
Marguerite Porete: Beguine Martyr (d. 1310)
Anne Askew: Protestant Martyr (1521-1546)
St. Margaret Clitherow: English Martyr (d. 1586)
Mary Dyer: Quaker Martyr (d. 1660)
Mary Ward: Founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1586-1645)
Rebecca Nurse and Companions: “Witches” of Salem (1692)
Bd. (Mother) Theodore Guerin: Founder of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods (1798-1856)
Bd. Mary McKillop: Founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart (1842-1909)
Agneta Chang: Maryknoll Sister and Martyr (d. 1950)
Alicia Domon: Martyr (d. 1977)
Maura Clarke and Companions: Martyrs of El Salvador (d. 1980)
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Chapter One: BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
The Mother of Jesus – a Franciscan princess – an emancipated slave – an heiress – a modern mystic – an artist – a witness to solidarity
In St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes this opening verse is somewhat different – simply, “Blessed are the poor” That is consistent with Luke’s overall emphasis on Christ’s preferential option for the poor and marginalized. Matthew’s Beatitudes, in contrast, address the qualities of true discipleship. The spiritual poverty cited here is not measured by the lack of property. It implies, instead, a spirit of emptiness and availability for whatever gifts, plans, or mission God may send us. As the Virgin Mary replied to the Angel Gabriel, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.”
Such a spirit is inconsistent with the avarice and ambition that drive our culture. To be spiritually poor is to stand apart from the criteria by which the world measures success, status, and achievement. For that reason, the lives of most saints are marked by a certain” downward mobility.”
Above all, those who are poor in spirit have an acute sense of their own limitations and of their reliance on grace. As one translation puts it, “Blessed are those who know their need of God.”
“The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”.
Mary:
Mother of Jesus (first century)
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”
Mary, a young Galilean woman of Nazareth, was betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph. One day, according to the Gospel of Luke, she was visited by the angel Gabriel, who greeted her with the words, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” After calming her fears he announced that she would conceive and bear a son named Jesus, who would be called “the Son of the Most High.”
Mary was troubled by this news, for she was as yet unmarried. If she were charged with adultery she could be stoned to death. But the angel told her that she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit. “With God nothing will be impossible,” he assured her. And so Mary responded in faith: “Let it be done to me according to your word.”
It was in the space created by Mary’s faith – and not simply in her womb – that the Word became flesh. For this reason she has been called not only the Mother of Jesus but the Mother of the Church. In the past it was common to emphasize the ways in which Mary was set apart from and above all other women and the ordinary conditions of humanity. Today there is a new emphasis on her status as a woman of the people and her solidarity with the rest of humanity. A “Mariology from above” emphasized God’s initiative in selecting Mary for her part in the divine mystery of redemption. In contrast, a “Mariology from below” begins with the poor woman, Mary of Nazareth, who was rooted in the faith and struggles of her people, subject to the cruelties of the world, and heir to the ancient hope for deliverance and salvation. In this light, Mary is honored not so much for her special nature as for her exceptional faith.
Two stories in the Gospels highlight this point. One time Jesus was told that his “mother and brothers” were looking for him. Gazing at those who were seated around him he answered, “Who are my mother and my brothers? These are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me” (Mark 3:33-35). Another time someone called out from a crowd, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” To this Jesus responded, “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:27-28).
Neither of these stories reflects a disregard on the part of Jesus toward his mother. But they do show that he rejected the claims of blood or natural kinship in favor of discipleship. In this perspective Mary’s preeminence is due to her having exemplified the spirit of true discipleship: attention, reverence, and obedience to the word and will of God.
The Gospel of John places Mary at the foot of the cross beside “the beloved disciple.” According to Luke, she was among the disciples who gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem after Jesus’ ascension. She was in effect the first and paradigmatic disciple. She is thus the first to be honored among the saints. In the darkness of faith, she offered her consent to the mysterious plan of God. In the light of grace she responded with her extraordinary song of praise and thanksgiving:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name. . . .
See: Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Saints and Mary,” in Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives, vol. 2, ed. Francis Schussler Fiorenza and John P. Galvin (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991).
Anna
Prophetess (first century)
“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Panuel of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel. “
– Luke 2:36-38
This short text is all that is recorded of the prophetess Anna, an old Woman who haunted the temple of Jerusalem awaiting some sign of Israel’s Redeemer. Her long years of patient vigil were rewarded one day when Mary and Joseph brought their infant son to the temple for his ritual presentation to the Lord. Anna’s story follows the longer account of Simeon, an old man who had been assured by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. When he saw the child Jesus accompanied by his parents, he blessed God and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples.”
Although no words are attributed to Anna, there is a similar sense of fulfillment in her story. Beyond Jesus’ immediate family, she is the first woman to be granted such insight into’ the divine mystery concealed in these humble beginnings. And she is the first to proclaim this good news to those like herself – poor and of no account – who lived by faith and waited in hope.
Sts. Martha and Mary of Bethany
Friends of Jesus (first century)
“If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” – John 11:21-22
Sts. Martha and Mary make significant appearances in the Gospels of both Luke and John. These two sisters and their brother Lazarus evidently enjoyed a special relationship with the Lord, who was a frequent guest in their home in Bethany. It is a fact, as John puts it, “that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”
Martha and Mary are best remembered for one occasion when Jesus was visiting their home. While Mary sat at the Master’s feet and “listened to his teaching,” Martha was left to wait on their guest. When she pointedly suggested to Jesus that he instruct Mary to lend her a hand, he answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”
This passage in the Gospel of Luke has drawn enormous attention. In the history of Christian spirituality the story of Martha and Mary has often been interpreted to represent the contrast between two types of living: the active or apostolic way (Martha, busy in the kitchen) and the contemplative way (Mary, silently taking in the word of the Lord). Naturally, those who followed the contemplative path found particular justification in this passage. The fourteenth-century English mystical classic The Cloud of Unknowing devotes several chapters to this story. It is Mary, who” gazed with all the love of her heart” and who focused her attention on “the supreme wisdom of his Godhead shrouded by the words of his humanity,” who is the evident hero of the story. It is she who has chosen” the better part.”
But the implications of this story for women in general have been ambiguous. On the one hand, this passage has been used to set the contemplative life of cloistered nuns on a higher, ideal level, above the ordinary life of women bustling in the world. Women through the centuries who have “merely” occupied themselves with the necessary work of cooking, cleaning, and maintaining life have surely felt the sting of Jesus’ retort. At the same time, however, the story shows Jesus challenging the kind of gender stereotypes that would restrict women to domestic work. Breaking with custom, he recognizes Mary’s right to assume the role of a religious disciple, to sit at the Master’s feet and study his -teachings. Was his statement really a rebuke to Martha, or was it not also a powerful sign directed at the other disciples who recorded his words?
The Gospel of John has Martha engaging Jesus in a theological exchange. When he arrives – too late, it seems – after the burial of her brother Lazarus, it is Martha (the “active one”) who rushes out to him, crying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” This time Jesus does not trivialize her concerns but draws her into a conversation about deeper mysteries. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he tells her; “he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Does she believe him? Here it is Martha who responds with the great words of faith, otherwise attributed only to his closest disciples: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” Her faith is justified when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
John describes a final encounter that occurs soon after. Only days before his Passion, Jesus is once again enjoying the hospitality of his friends Martha and Mary, their ardor for their guest doubtless magnified by his miraculous gift of their brother’s life. Once again, “Martha served,” though this time without complaint. Mary makes a gesture otherwise attributed in the Gospels to another unnamed woman in Bethany: She takes a pound of costly ointment and proceeds to anoint Jesus’ feet and to wipe them with her hair. Once again her attitude toward Jesus is criticized by the bystanders-not, this time, by her sister, but by the false disciple, Judas, who notes that this oil could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But once again Jesus affirms the value of Mary’s deed, at once deeply intimate and mysteriously christological in its import: “Leave her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Both Martha and Mary, in their different ways, had found the” one thing necessary” – to respond with love, in whatever appropriate fashion, to the Christ in their midst.
St. Mary Magdalene
Apostle to the Apostles (first century)
“I have seen the Lord.” – John 20:18
Mary Magdalene was one of the original Galilean disciples of Jesus and the most eminent among the many women who followed in his itinerant ministry. Little can be said about her origins; she is characterized simply as “a woman from whom seven demons had gone out,” a statement subject to various interpretations. It was St. Gregory the Great who identified Mary with the woman, “a sinner,” who sought Jesus out in the home of a Pharisee to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. This gesture, which scandalized the other dinner guests, prompted Jesus to say, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.” From this conflation, now rejected by scholars as well as the church, there came about the popular representation of Mary Magdalene as a penitent sinner or prostitute.
This image of “the Magdalene” has appealed to artists and dramatists throughout history, and it has doubtless been a comfort to many. But in attaching such a stereotypically female image to Mary Magdalene the Western fathers also helped to efface the memory of the leadership and prominence of women in the early Jesus movement. This amnesia was already well under way by the time the Gospels were written in the late first century. One of the most distinctive features of Jesus’ movement was the presence of women among his intimate disciples. And yet the story and even identity of many of these women was left on the margins.
It is all the more significant when women such as Mary of Bethany, her sister Martha, or Mary Magdalene are named. It is a sign of just how vital a place they still occupied in the church’s living memory. Mary Magdalene, in particular, was firmly associated with two vital facts: that she was a witness to the crucifixion and that she was the first witness of the Risen Lord.
All four Gospels name Mary among the women who followed Jesus to Golgotha and there witnessed his passion and death. While all the male disciples fled, it was these women who remained faithful to the end. It was also they, including Mary Magdalene, who went to his tomb on the day after the sabbath hoping to anoint his body.
Instead they found an empty tomb, guarded by an angel who revealed the astonishing news that Jesus was risen. The women were charged to tell the disciples to meet the Lord back in Galilee. In the Gospels of John and Matthew Mary Magdalene actually sees the Risen Lord. John provides a particularly poignant account, reflecting most clearly the special relationship that evidently existed between Mary and Jesus.
Here, after summoning Peter and the “beloved disciple” to see the empty tomb for themselves, “Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.” Suddenly she sees Jesus, but does not recognize him. Taking him to be the gardener she. says, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus answers her with a single word – “Mary” – which is enough to identify him. “Rabboni!” she cries, “Teacher.” He instructs her not to hold him, “but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” And so Mary goes out to the disciples and says, “1 have seen the Lord.”
Nothing else is known of Mary Magdalene. Her deeds are not reported in the Acts of the Apostles, nor does she figure in the writings of Paul. (In listing the appearances of the Risen Lord he begins with the appearance to Peter.) But the name of Mary Magdalene deserves special honor, particularly at a time when women are struggling to be heard in the church and society. It was she, the faithful disciple, who first proclaimed the good news to the Twelve. Thus she has often been called the “Apostle to the Apostles.”
St. Marcella
Widow (325-410)
“By heaven’s grace, captivity has found me a poor woman, not made me one. Now I shall go in want of daily bread, but I shall not feel hunger since I am full of Christ.”
All that we know of Marcella is contained in the many letters that she received from her friend St. Jerome and especially from an eloquent memorial, in which he called her “the glory of all the saints and particularly of the city of Rome.”
Marcella was born to a wealthy and noble family of Rome. After the death of her father she was urged to marry and did so. Her husband was also a wealthy man, but his death left her a widow after only several months of marriage. Henceforth she resisted all invitations to remarry, happily dedicating herself to a life of chastity. When a ranking and elderly – consul proposed to leave her all his money if she would marry him, she answered, “If I wished to marry… I should in any case look for a husband, not an inheritance.”
After this Marcella’s life was occupied by prayer, study of scripture, and frequent visits to the shrines of the martyrs. She gave away all her fortune, “preferring to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse.” At this time she came across an account of the life of St. Antony and was inspired, as much as her circumstances would allow, to emulate his monastic life. Thus she began to gather a community of like-spirited women, both widows and unmarried maidens, who shared her appetite for holiness. Most were of similar social background, though they conformed to Marcella’s voluntary poverty. ” They followed no formal rule. Nevertheless, this was perhaps one of the earliest such communities of Christian women.
When Jerome arrived in Rome, he was introduced to Marcella’s circle of holy women, and he was induced, somewhat reluctantly, to serve as their spiritual director. So impressed was he by their learning and piety that he compared them to the holy women who surrounded Jesus. Marcella, he claimed, was another Mary Magdalene. A number of these women became his lifelong friends. So frequent a visitor to this community was Jerome that, in “a slander-loving place… where the triumph of vice was to disparage virtue and to defile all that is pure and clean,” his enemies found ample material for gossip. Such an atmosphere contributed to his decision to flee Rome for the Holy Land. Nevertheless, he maintained his close correspondence with Marcella until her death.
She continued her holy life until the sack of Rome in 410. The spectacle of this violence and the ensuing famine made an impact on the entire classical world. As Jerome wrote, “The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken.” At one point the invading hordes broke into the home of Marcella, then eighty-five, and beat her savagely in order to discover her hidden treasures. In vain she protested that she owned nothing but the robe she wore, and she had fears lest they would take even that from her. Nevertheless her brave composure arrested the assault, and eventually the shame-faced attackers escorted her to the refuge of a nearby church.
Marcella died within a few months of this assault. Though her sistes wept, Jerome writes, “she smiled, conscious of having lived a good life and hoping for a reward hereafter.”
See: St. Jerome, “Letter CXXVII: To Principia,” in Select Letters of St. Jerome, trans F. A. Wright (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1932).
St. Clare of Assisi
Founder of the Poor Clares (1193-1253)
“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!
Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!
Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!
And transform your whole being into the image
of the Godhead Itself through contemplation!”
The story of St. Clare of Assisi is inevitably linked with St. Francis, the one she called her Father, Planter, and Helper in the Service of Christ It was Francis who gave her a vision and enabled her to define a way of life apart from the options offered by her society. But her goal in life was not to be a reflection of Francis but to be, like him, a reflection of Christ. “Christ is the way,” she said, “and Francis showed it to me.”
Like Francis Clare belonged to one of the wealthy families of Assisi Like everyone else in the town, she was aware of the remarkable spectacle that Francis had made in abandoning his respectable family and assuming the poverty of a beggar. Doubtless there were those in Assisi who respected Francis as a faithful Christian, just as there were others who believed he was a misguided fool. It was bad enough that a man of his background was tramping about the countryside, repairing abandoned churches with his bare hands and ministering to the poor and sick. But within a few years he had begun attracting some of the most distinguished young men of the town to follow him in his brotherhood.
What Clare’s family thought of all this is not known. But we know what impact it had on Clare. She heard Francis deliver a series of Lenten sermons in 1212, when she was eighteen. She arranged in stealth to meet with Francis and asked his help that she too might live “after the manner of the holy gospel” On the evening of Palm Sunday, while her family and all the town slept, she crept out a back door, slipped through the gates of Assisi, and made her way through the dark fields and olive groves to a rendezvous with Francis and his brothers at the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels. Before the altar she put off her fine clothes and assumed a penitential habit, while Francis sheared off her long hair as a sign of her espousal to Christ.
It is tempting to read into this episode the romance of a spiritual elopement. To understand Clare, however, we must realize that it was not Francis whom she rushed to meet in the night. He provided the meeting place. But her assignation was with Christ.
Yet after Clare had taken the plunge of rejecting her family and her social station, it was not clear what the next step should be. Apparently neither Clare nor Francis had considered that far ahead. Although she wished to identify with Francis’s community, it was not seemly that she should live with the brothers. Francis arranged for her to spend the night in a nearby Benedictine convent. There her family and a company of angry suitors tracked her down some days later in Holy Week. When pleading proved fruitless, they laid hands on her and tried to drag her out by force. She finally stopped them short by tearing off her veil and revealing her shorn head. They were too late. She was already” one of them. “
Francis had long intended that a community of women, corresponding to his fraternity, should be established. In Clare he had found the partner he was seeking. She was easily persuaded to found a women’s community, which was established at San Damiano. It required considerably more effort by Francis to persuade her to serve as abbess. Nevertheless, Clare quickly attracted other women. Over time these included a number of her personal relatives, including her sister Catherine and even her widowed mother. Within her lifetime additional communities were established elsewhere in Italy, France, and Germany.
Unlike the Friars, the Poor Ladies, as they were originally known, lived within an enclosure. But Clare shared Francis’s passionate commitment to “Lady Poverty.” For her this meant literal poverty and insecurity – not the luxurious “spiritual poverty” enjoyed by so many other convents, richly supported by gifts and endowments. To defend this “privilege of poverty” Clare waged a continuous struggle against solicitous prelates who tried to mitigate her austerity. This was the centerpiece of the rule she devised for her community. When the pope offered to absolve her from her rigorous vow of poverty, she answered, “Absolve me from my sins, Holy Father, but not from my wish to follow Christ.” Two days before her death, in 1253, she enjoyed the grace of receiving from Rome a copy of her rule embellished with the approving seal of Pope Innocent IV. A notation on the original document notes that Clare, in tearful joy, covered the parchment with kisses.
It has been said that of all the followers of Francis, Clare was the most faithful. Many stories reflect the loving bonds of friendship between them and the trust that Francis placed in her wisdom and counsel. According to one story, Francis put the question to Clare whether he should preach or devote himself to prayer. It was Clare who urged him to go into the world: “God did not call you for yourself alone, but also for the salvation of others.” During a period of dejection, Francis camped out in a hut outside the convent at San Damiano. It was there that he composed his exultant hymn to the universe, “The Canticle of Brother Sun.” Later, when Francis received the stigmata, Clare thoughtfully made him soft slippers to cover his wounded feet.
Finally, as Francis felt the approach of Sister Death, Clare too became seriously ill. She suffered terribly at the thought that they would not meet again in this life. Francis sent word that she should put aside all grief, for she would surely see him again before her death. And so the promise was fulfilled, though not as she had wished. After Francis’s death, the brothers carried his body to San Damiano for the Sisters’ viewing. Francis’s early biographer, Thomas of Celano, records that at the sight of his poor and lifeless body Clare was” filled with grief and wept aloud.”
Francis was canonized a mere two years later. Clare lived on for another twenty-seven years. In her own final “Testament,” written near the end of her life, Clare makes only a discrete reference to the pain of their separation and what it meant to her: “We take note… of the frailty which we feared in ourselves after the death of our holy Father Francis. He who was our pillar of strength and, after God, our one consolation and support. Thus time and again, we bound ourselves to our Lady, most Holy Poverty.”
See: Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, trans. Regis Armstrong, O.F.M.Cap., and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist, 1982).
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Franciscan Queen (1207-1231)
“We must give God what we have, gladly and with joy.”
St. Elizabeth was the daughter of Hungarian royalty. At the age of four, in a politically arranged match, she was betrothed to the future landgrave (prince) of Thuringia in southern Germany. So she was sent away from her family to live in the castle of her future husband, Ludwig, at the time a boy of nine. It may be supposed that such matches seldom tended to genuine romance. In this case, however, it appears that the two children developed an intimate friendship that eventually blossomed into loving devotion. This endured the growing disapprobation of Ludwig’s family as Elizabeth’s piety steadily transgressed the boundaries of what was considered good taste. The young princess dressed too simply, it was said; she was inordinate in her prayer and profligate in her almsgiving. Ludwig, however, rejected any suggestion of returning her to Hungary; he declared that he would sooner part with a mountain of gold than be parted from the woman he affectionately called his “dear sister.”
In due time they were married amid much ceremony. Elizabeth gave birth to three children in quick succession, and she rejoiced that as landgravine of Thuringia, she now had much greater scope for her charitable activities. She established several hospitals for the indigent and aroused scandal by nursing the sick and even lepers with her own hands. Her instinctive spiritual poverty was only magnified with the arrival of the first Franciscan missionaries in Germany. She was captivated by the story of Clare and Francis (from whom she received the gift of his cloak), and she eventually embraced the rule of a Franciscan tertiary.
In all her piety and service to the poor, Elizabeth received the loyal support of her husband. When famine struck the kingdom while Ludwig was away, Elizabeth took it upon herself to open the royal granaries to the poor. Many lives were spared through her generosity. Nevertheless, upon his return Ludwig was shocked to discover that his wife had become an object of scorn among the rich and elite members of the court. Aside from her charity, they were offended by a personal discipline she had imposed on herself never to eat any food that might be the fruit of injustice or exploitation.
In 1227 Ludwig revealed that he had accepted command of a force of Crusaders bound for the Holy Land. Elizabeth, who was pregnant, felt a terrible premonition that they would not meet again, and their parting was a scene of heartbreak. Some months later the news returned that Ludwig had died of plague on his journey. In a paroxysm of grief, Elizabeth cried, “The world is dead to me, and all that was joyous in the world.”
Shocking developments followed. Without Ludwig to shield her from the resentment of her in-laws, Elizabeth was banished from the castle. She left in a winter night, leaving her few belongings and carrying nothing but her newborn child. She who had embraced the spirit of poverty now found herself happy to accept shelter in a pig-shed, for no reputable home would take her in. Eventually the scandal of her impoverishment was too much for her relatives to bear, and she was provided with a simple cottage in Marburg. Aside from her virtue, Elizabeth was equally admired for her “dark beauty.” Her fall from grace did not prevent Emperor Frederick II, whose wife had recently died, from making inquiries regarding her marriageability. But she was determined to remain a widow and devote herself to prayer and service of the poor.
Meanwhile, behind these public sufferings, Elizabeth had another cross to bear. Before her husband’s death, she had accepted from Pope Honorius III the services of a spiritual director, Conrad of Marburg, who exacted from Elizabeth a vow of unquestioning obedience. This priest’s most recent service had been as an Inquisitor of heretics, an experience he applied to his new undertaking. Ostensibly his aim was to advance Elizabeth’s sanctification by weaning her of any vestige of attachment to the world. Thus, he cruelly upbraided her and even beat her with a stick for any infraction of his rules. He forced her to part with her two closest friends, the ladies-in-waiting who had accompanied her from Hungary as a child, and he replaced them with two “harsh females” who spied and reported on her activities. Escaping their attentions was one of the benefits of her exile from the court. Despite such treatment she maintained her gentleness of spirit and even responded to these cruelties with subversive humor, evidence, if any were needed, of how little encouragement her sanctity required.
In the meantime Elizabeth’s reputation for holiness began to take root. The spectacle of this princess working at a spinning wheel or nursing the sick in their homes or in the hospices she had endowed inspired the grudging respect of those who had persecuted her, as well as the devoted affection of the poor and common folk. When not at prayer or engaged in other service, she liked to go fishing in nearby streams, selling her catch to provide alms.
In 1231 she fell ill and announced calmly that she would not recover. She died on November 17, at the age of twenty-four. Her confessor, Master Conrad, worked energetically (and with ill-concealed self-interest) to promote her cause. It was easy to assemble a dossier of reputed miracles and other documentation of her sanctity. His efforts were rewarded with her canonization a mere three years after her death – an event, however, which he did not live to witness. For many years the remains of Elizabeth, buried in the church in Marburg, were the object of pilgrimage until, during the Protestant Reformation, a future landgrave of Thuringia had her body removed to an unknown location.
See: Nesta de Robek, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary: A Story of Twenty-Four Years (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1954).
