Amma Syncletica was part of a monastic tradition that was established primarily in the desert areas around Jerusalem and Alexandria. Desert Mothers were women, known as ammas or “spiritual mothers,” who lived as Christian ascetics in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. Ammas were women who had achieved a spiritual maturity and wisdom, actively developed during their withdrawal from mainstream society. These women gathered together in monastic communities, but there were also some who lived as hermits. For these early Christian women, one appeal of living in the desert was the freedom they could experience that was not available to...
Last updated August 13, 2024 In 2020, I wrote a blog post, Assumption of Hairy Mary, because I was interested in images of Mary Magdalene that I had come across, where she was shown clothed in nothing other than her long red hair. In some images, she is even depicted with a fur-like suit or hair that is growing directly out of her skin. I never suspected that I would revisit that blog post, but I became aware of this recently revealed woodcut image that appears to be a Hairy Mary Magdalene, shown at left, and I became intrigued. So,...
Last updated: February 5, 2024 Josephine Bakhita (circa 1868-1947,) shown at left, was born into a relatively wealthy family in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region, Sudan in central Africa. At around 7-9 years of age, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders and was given the Arabic name bakhīta (بخيتة), which means “lucky” or “fortunate.” This was a fairly common name for slaves, and so Josephine Bakhita should not be confused with Sister Fortunata Quasce, the first Sudanese nun, also known as Bakhita Kwashe (1841-1899.) Apparently the image below and to the right is of Sister...
I am always so fascinated with learning about the origins of the customs we observe and holidays we celebrate and how they evolved and became secularized, especially as they were romanticized on a large scale in the US, during the 19th-century. You can find my blog post about Saint Valentine’s Day here. And a blog post with a bit of food history related to Halloween here. And another on the origins of the New Year’s Eve tune Auld Lang Syne. But today is the feast day of Saint Nicholas, and I am digging into the origin of our present day,...
I was alerted to the recent buzz about Mary Magdalene by my friend Laurie, who sent me this link to a sermon preached by Dr. Diana Butler Bass on the closing day of the Wild Goose Festival, July 17, 2022. In this sermon, Diana mentions research started in 2017 by Elizabeth (Libbie) Schrader, a PhD student at Duke University. Libbie, based on her examination of various early manuscripts, hypothesizes that the name Martha was added to the original story of the raising of Lazarus in John chapters 11 and 12. If this is correct, she is positing that Mary Magdalene...
Last updated: February 7, 2024 I’m always fascinated about how certain holidays come into being and what their roots are, before they end up being commercialized and trivialized into oblivion, a shadow of what was intended originally. So what’s up with Valentine’s Day? You might have an idea that it is associated with a Saint Valentine, and you would be right. The feast days of saints are often holy-days that are celebrated annually on the anniversaries of their deaths. So here’s how Saint Valentine’s life and martyrdom led us to associate it with romantic love and how it morphed so...
Last updated: March 14, 2024 As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have been collecting art images of Mary Magdalene for a long time. It all began years ago when I was looking on the internet for a few images to use in my Mary Magdalene feast day celebrations. It was interesting to see how she was almost always clothed in accordance with the upscale fashion of the times and the location of the artist. In the Middle Ages, it was common to simplify the art to appeal to and educate viewers, many of whom did not know...
Happy October 1 – Feast Day of Thérèse of Lisieux! Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) was a French Discalced Carmelite nun, who is sometimes referred to as “the little flower.” She entered the Carmelite monastery in Lisieux at the age of 15 and cultivated a spirituality of littleness. This humility can be seen in her prayers, poems and spiritual writings that together comprise a spiritual approach often called “the little way.” She was beatified in 1923, canonized in 1925 and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997. Thérèse of Lisieux was born Marie Francoise-Thérèse Martin...
As I mentioned in my July 22, 2018 blog post on Mary Magdalene’s feast day this year, I have been collecting pins of MM art images on my Pinterest account. It all began many years ago around 2003, when I started looking on the internet for a few images of Mary Magdalene to use in her feast day celebrations. Now of course, there has been an explosion in the availability of art images online, and my board of MM images has already grown to over 500 pins. In any case, in this collection process, I started finding unusual images of...
Last updated: August 5, 2024 Happy July 22 – Feast Day of Mary Magdalene! Unfortunately, the timing was bad this year for hosting the MM feast day ritual at my house. I am heading off to Santa Fe soon for a long weekend with my family to celebrate my sister Lori’s fiftieth birthday. So this feast day I just thought I would offer a few comments regarding some resources related to MM that you may be interested in. Andy and I recently returned from a trip to Spain, and the last place we visited before coming home was the Prado...
Last updated: April 29, 2024 Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was born Caterina di Giacomo di Benincasa to a family of dye merchants in Siena, Italy. She began having mystical experiences in her childhood and decided at age 7 to dedicate her life to God. She did not go to school as a child, but she listened carefully at Mass and she learned about the lives of saints from her orphaned cousin Tommaso della Fonte, who was living with her family while he was studying to be a priest. Encouraged by Tommaso, as an adolescent, she defied her parents by cutting...
