Comments on: Harpy Hall of Fame: Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)

By: Being a Hermit Sounds Kind of Cool, Actually. - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Being a Hermit Sounds Kind of Cool, Actually. - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:02:24 +0000

[...] This morning, gentle readers, I bring to you, without my usual caterwaul-y commentary, a recent essay by a woman named Rachel Denton entitled “I am a hermit.” Not in the colloquial “I stay in every night and knit” way, but an official Catholic religious woman who lives a life of contemplation and solitude, not unlike Harpy Hall of Famer Julian of Norwich. [...]

By: that brown girl

that brown girl — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:33:41 +0000

I love this feature! It’s great to profile lesser-known (but should be) historical women. I have a similar feature on my blog called Famous Brown Girls – a little more tongue-in-cheek but I figure anything to raise awareness about awesome women is a good thing!

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:08:49 +0000

@JDRegent: Oh, he did. Henry VIII made a fortune off the dissolution of the monasteries. But the Episcopal Church–both in England and elsewhere–re-created religious communities in the 19th century (although not in a big way). They’re very High Church Episcopal, so they feel much more Catholic than Protestant. That link is to an Episcopal community in upstate NY.

By: jdregent

jdregent — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:57:01 +0000

Becky, Tersa, I always thought Henry VIII wrecked all the convents in the UK? Maybe that was my biased, anti-British, anti-protestant upbringing telling me lies again.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:49:37 +0000

@Tersa: The Anglican church still has convents!

http://www.stmaryseast.org/nuns_episcopal.htm

By: Tersa

Tersa — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:46:41 +0000

Reading Julian of Norwich or Hildegard in my midevial theology class in college always made me more upset that all the protestant ditched the convents. Damn you Luther.(I was raised Lutheran and i have issues with that.)

By: jdregent

jdregent — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:43:54 +0000

Meg, isn’t that always the threat of the woman mystic? If we can connect with the divine without the intercession of a male priest, the whole house of cards threatens to tumble down.

Rodriguez, love the yoga cat! I’ve always heard about the “monkey mind” but it’s true that cats are as restless, neurotic and loving as any creature.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:17:10 +0000

This is so awesome. I knew absolutely NOTHING about her. Whenever I read books on Catholicism or took classes on it (both of which were fairly common a few years ago) I almost never heard of the women who dedicated their lives to God, either on a laywoman’s level or as nuns/missionaries.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:04:32 +0000

@rodriguez: Thanks for the link! That art is GORGEOUS. My Oshun altar is about to expand to a whole Oshun corner, so I may get one of the prints (I currently have an oil painting of Caridad del Cobre that I bought in Havana many years ago, but I’d like to have a more African iconographic one too).

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:03:10 +0000

Woohoo, Julian! I wrote my senior thesis on Margery Kempe, so it is really neat to see you guys feature Julian (and mention Margery, yay!) like this. Very cool.

Margery’s Book was often dismissed as the ramblings of a hysterical woman; but, in my opinion, it was actually an amazingly well-constructed piece of slightly subversive devotional literature. Her close, personal relationship with God was doubly threatening to the Church – not only was it intercessor-free, but she was a woman. She did this really cool thing where she couched all that potential heresy in very familiar religious language and imagery, but still shared her mystical experiences.

Sigh. I miss school.