The New Feminism

“The moral and spiritual strength of a woman,” wrote Pope John Paul II in Mulieribus Dignitatem, “is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way...a woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting...

“Thus the ‘perfect woman’ (cf. Prov 31:10) becomes an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual strength for other people, who perceive the great energies of her spirit. These ‘perfect women’ are owed much by their families, and sometimes by whole nations.”

Indeed sometimes by more than nations. After considering how the femininity of Mary guides men to God, Fr John Saward lists nine such women in his book The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty. He writes, “The immaculate beauty of Mary challenges men to love and look upon women in a more than merely erotic way. True Marian devotion initiates a man into the chivalry of the gospel. It is a Christ-given remedy against the threefold concupiscence, and instrument of the cauterizing fire of the Holy Spirit, purging away the dross of male pride and lust. Turning to their spiritual Mother helps men to be small and therefore strong, small like her in themselves, strong like her in the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Devotion to Our Lady has not been tried and found wanting; it has not been properly tried. The Reformation cut it short, and Europe, the world, has ever since been paying a terrible price.

“In the Middle Ages, the healing influence of devotion to Our Lady was starting to be felt. There was a place for women. The Mother of God was mediating to men and women a sense of the ‘feminine genius’. For the bridal love of the Prince of Heaven, Etheldreda and Frideswide resisted the potentates of the world. A peasant girl, Joan of Arc, took up the sword for the truth of Christ and the honor of France, shaming the lies of the greybeards. In the service of incarnate Wisdom, the abbess of Hildegard excelled as musician, physician, metaphysician, theologian and prophetess. Gertrude, the Mechthilds, and Lady Julian received revelations from the Heart of Jesus. Ever faithful to the Lamb, Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Sienna, widow-queen and virgin-daughter of a dyer, corrected, even commanded, His Vicars [the Popes]. In the lifetime of Fra Angelico, Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) wrote an exhilarating Mary-centred paean of womanhood in L’Epistre au Dieu d’amours. ‘All this tempered male authority’, says Jack Scarisbrick, ‘and…asserted the dignity of womanhood.’”

There is much to ponder here! And the more familiar we are with the women listed, then the more impact Saward's analysis makes.

Below are (sometimes approximate) dates for the lifetimes of the nine women.

Etheldreda 630-679
Frideswide 650-735
Hildegard 1098-1179
The Mechthilde 1210-1285
Gertrude the Great 1256-1302
Bridget of Sweden 1303-1373
Julian of Norwich 1342-1416
Catherine of Sienna 1347-1380
Christine de Pizan 1364-1430
Joan of Arc 1412-1431

And at the end of the Middle Ages, building on what all these women had achieved, indeed pro-active in bringing the world to a new stage of awareness, is the Servant of God Queen Isabel (1451-1504). Isabel reached unprecedented heights in what was formerly a man’s world. She became the pre-eminent political person in the world’s pre-eminent political power (and indeed she forged Spain to be such). Yet it was not in opposition to Isabel’s roles as devoted wife, loving mother and prayerful daughter of Mary that she achieved this, but in many respects it was a very fruit of her feminine vocation.

Was it in reaction to these developments that in the following century the world launched its most furious attack yet on womanhood? More to follow. Meanwhile we welcome your comments.

[Image: The Blessed Virgin of Vladimir, icon]