Australian Woman Head of Knighthood Order

The Record » First Australian woman installed as head of knighthood order

After 20 years as a dame of the Queensland chapter of the legendary Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, Dr Monica Thomson adds a black cape and a gold mantilla to her hooded robes to distinguish herself as the new chapter leader.

Her robes were blessed during the installation by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge. “I am very proud to be the first woman in Australia, and the seventh worldwide,” Dr Thomson, 65, mother of three sons and grandmother of eight, said. “I was one of the original members when our chapter was formed and I hope to carry on the good work during my term as lieutenant.”

Knights and dames of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre are devoted to building up the faith and practice among members, and sustaining the spiritual, charitable, and social works of the Church in the Holy Land including Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.

In 1888, Pope Leo XIII authorised the order to give women similar honours to men.

Read rest of article here at The Record

Sanghamitta Theri - Liberation of Lankan Women

From LankaWeb:

No other historical event impacted on the status of Lankan women as the establishment of the Bhikkuni Order by Sanghamitta Theri. Her arrival in Sri Lanka on a Unduwap full moon Poya day 2245 years ago gave new directions to Lankan women taking them out from cultural wilderness and bringing them into the socio-cultural mainstream as literate persons. This led them to play a role in matters of historical significance.

The Kuveni episode in early history reveals the acceptance of a woman as a political leader by the indigenous Lankan society. But there are no clues that shed light on the kind of position occupied by women in general at that time.

Religionwise, there may have been varied faiths of Indian origin floating around as well as indigenous beliefs practiced by an agricultural community, a scenario which Mahinda Thero may have studied prior to his mission to Sri Lanka. In India, although the Bhikkuni Order had been established, by and large, women’s role was insignificant under a rigid Brahminic society which Buddhism was attempting to break through. Mahinda Thero perhaps expected a similar situation in Sri Lanka.

Monastic Orders in Medieval England

Here is a short list of the various Monastic Orders that were to be found in Medieval England.

Benedictines:

The Black Monks founded by St. Benedict or Benedict of Nursia (c.480 - 543). Benedict founded many monasteries, the most notable being at Subiaco.

Websites: Order of St. Benedict and St. Benedict on Wikipedia.

Cluniacs:

Foundations began at Cluny in France (910) by Abbot Berno and Count William of Auvergne. Their Rule was stricter than that of the Beneditines. The Cluniacs also supported the reforms of Pope Gregory VII. Widespread throughout England and France.

Websites: Cluny Abbey on Wikipedia and The Church in Britain - Cluniacs

Cistercians:

The White Monks were founded by Stephen Harding of Dorset and St. Bernard of Citeaux. They tended to inhabit lonely areas and toiled the land. The Order was considered austere and their Rule was considered strict.

Website: Cistercians on Catholic Encyclopedia

Carthusians:

Also called the Order of St. Bruno founded 1084 in the French Alps. Followed the Rule of St. Benedict but lived a more solitary life (strictly cloistered), meeting only in Church, in silence. Not particularly widespread in England.

Websites: Carthusian Monks & Nuns and Carthusians on Catholic Encyclopedia

Augustinians:

The Black Canons were founded by St. Augustine of Hippo (d.430). They were considered to be priests rather than monks, and preached in public. There was also a stricter Order of the White Canons or Premonstratensians.

Websites: Augustinians and Augustinians on Wikipedia

Gilbertines:

Founded by Gilbert, a Lincolnshire priest (1130) for monks and nuns with separate cloisters. This was a purely English Order.

Websites: Gilbertines on Catholic Encyclopedia and The Gilbertines

Other Websites:

* Religious Orders in Medieval Britain

US: Crusading Dominican Nun Rebuked

From the Chicago Tribune:

For decades, Sister Donna Quinn has championed the rights of women to use contraception, seek ordination and end unwanted pregnancies.

The Dominican nun has picketed for abortion rights in the nation's capital, petitioned the pope to select a female archbishop and escorted women into abortion clinics.

But as the Vatican turns up scrutiny of the nation's nuns and America's Roman Catholic bishops refuse to support universal health care if it covers abortion, Quinn has put her crusade on hold.

Raised on Chicago's Southwest Side, Quinn expressed her calling to serve the church when a visiting priest asked her seventh-grade class who wanted to be ordained. The boys chuckled when her hand went up. After graduating from Visitation High School in 1955, Quinn joined the Dominican Sisters in Sinsinawa, Wis.

In 1974, she returned to Chicago where she helped start Chicago Catholic Women. Six years later, she became a leader of the National Coalition of American Nuns, a national organization with a similar mission of advocating for women's rights.

Battle Over Mother Teresa

From BBC News:

India has rejected a demand by the Albanian government for the return of the remains of Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, buried in the city of Calcutta.

"Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and she is resting in her own country, her own land," Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.

A spokeswoman for the nun's Missionaries of Charity described the Albanian request as "absurd".

Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, was born in Skopje, now part of Macedonia.

Correspondents say that the row over her resting place could develop into an ugly three-way squabble between India, where she worked most of her life, Albania where her parents came from and Macedonia where she lived the first 18 years of her life.

The row is expected to intensify by August next year - the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth - by which time many commentators expect her to have been canonised as a saint.

The ethnic Albanian nun, who was known as the "Saint of the Gutters" for her work among the poor of Calcutta, was given Indian citizenship in 1951.

Mother Teresa once said: "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world."

USA: Nuns on the Run

From David Usborne @ the Independent:

American nuns could be said to have their habits in a twist in the face of two investigations by the Vatican into whether they have come to espouse lifestyles and views on the Church that may just be a tad too modern. Except that many don't wear habits any more. They wear regular clothes, even jeans.

Many nuns have stretched beyond the cloistered life to enter professions like teaching, the law and social work, and often eschew convents in favour of living alone. But, for the Vatican, it seems that American nuns may have strayed a bit too far from the traditional path.

There was a warning shot in March when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a decree telling Catholics that they should desist from practising Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing technique increasingly favoured by nuns involving the laying-on of hands, and very far from the traditional approach that Rome seems to prefer.

Pressure on the nuns, whose numbers in the US have dwindled in the last four decades from 180,000 to just 60,000, has grown however since the launch of a so-called Apostolic Visitation ordered by the Vatican. With interviews and questionnaires, this is a formal inquiry into the activities of women's religious institutions being conducted by Mother Mary Clare Millea, an American nun who lives in Rome.

Catholic Women in the US

From Community Press Cincinnati:

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, along with 20 women religious congregations from greater Cincinnati, are featured in a nationally touring exhibit that celebrates the contributions of Catholic women religious in the United States.

The exhibit, "Women & Spirit, Catholic Sisters in America," starts Saturday, May 16, and runs through Wednesday, Aug. 30, at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., will also host the traveling exhibit at a later date.

The exhibit tells the story spanning three centuries of Catholic Sisters in America who served with compassion, dedication, determination and faith in education, health care, and social services. Sisters ministered as missionaries, serving the poor and marginalized. They embraced the tide of immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries, welcoming all nationalities into neighborhoods, schools and parishes.

US: Women's Religious Orders

From CNews:
"The Vatican has begun a first-ever comprehensive study of women's religious orders in the United States, four decades into a steep decline in the number of Roman Catholic sisters and nuns in the country.

The study, ordered by a Vatican congregation in December and announced Friday in Washington, will examine "the quality of the life" of 59,000 members in more than 400 Roman Catholic women's religious institutes, said Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, a spokeswoman for the study, which is called an apostolic visitation."

More info: Apostolic Visitation

Mary Ward

Mary (Joan) Ward

Mary was an English lay sister who entered the convent of Poor Clares at St.Omer (1606) and adopted the name of "Mary".

Mary founded a religious community for women in France three years later (1609) that included a school for girls. Mary went on to establish communities at: Liege, Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Rome, Naples and elsewhere. Each community would have a school for English refugee boarding students and poor local girls.

Mary attempted to establish a school in England (1619) similar to those she had established throughout Europe, emphasisng the study of Latin. However, she was forced to deny charges that it was her intent to have these women preach sermons and administer the sacrements. As such, the English authorities suppress her schools for girls. Mary will continue to operate them, defying persecution.

Pope Urban VIII issues a Decree (1631) dissolving her institutes for women. However, upon hearing of Mary's imprisonment in Germany, Pope Urban VIII orders her release from her small cell.

Mary will go to Rome where she will remain. Mary will again return to England (1639) and opens a school in her hometown of York. The Civil War is raging throughout the English countryside, causing disruptions of her classes at her schools (1642). Mary is now 57yo.

Mary will continue to run the school at York until her death (c.1645).

More on Mary Ward.

~~~ Melisende

Catalina Erauzo

Catalina de Erauzo
(1585 - 1650)

Catalina was a Spanish Novitate, who aged 15yo (1607), escaped from her convent in boys clothing. She assumed the name of "Antonio Ramirez de Guzma; and embarked upon a life in which she would develope a reputation for purse-snatching, gambling, dueling and womanizing.

Catalina accidentally killed her own brother in a fight that took place at night - she could not she who she shot at (c.1620 - 1621). She was then convicted of murder (1623) and hid in a Church for 8 months. When she made her escape, Catalina found herself convicted for a different murder altogether.

On the day of her execution, Catalina confesses all to her enemies and reveals her true sex to a clergyman. Catalina is taken to a convent for examination by nuns who discover not only is she a woman, but she is also a nun and a virgin.

Catalina is freed. She is given permission to wear men's clothing and absolved of his sins by Pope Urban VIII.


For a more in depth biography: Catalina de Erauzo


~~~ Melisende