By Jean Peerenboom
“Blessed Among All Women: Women Saints, Prophets & Witnesses for Our Time” by Robert Ellsberg (The Crossroad Publishing Co., paperback, $16.95).
Blessed are the women who forced Robert Ellsberg, author of “All Saints,” to put together a follow-up: “Blessed Among All Women.”
In his introduction, Ellsberg says this 2005 book, now out in paperback, builds on his previous “All Saints.” He writes, “Soon after that book’s publication, I was pleased to receive an invitation from a small contemplative community of Maryknoll Sisters. While they appreciated my nontraditional approach to ‘Saints,’ they noted with some passion that I had maintained the traditional imbalance of women and men – about one out of four. Reinforcing their point, they plied me with several lists of possible candidates for a future volume.”
He says other female readers followed suit and he was “chastened as well as inspired” to do a volume entirely on women.
Ellsberg has profiled more than 130 women and offered insights into how they lived lives of sanctity, mysticism, social justice and world reform. “They struggled to assert their full humanity and follow God’s call – even when this challenged the prevailing options of their time,” he says.
The book is organized around the beatitudes with chapters: “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit,” “Blessed are Those Who Mourn,” “Blessed are the Meek,” “Blessed are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness,” “Blessed are the Merciful,” “Blessed are the Pure of Heart,” “Blessed are the Peacemakers” and “Blessed are Those Who are Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake.”
Many of the names are easily recognizable; others are more obscure – some are totally unexpected. Ellsberg draws on women of many faiths and backgrounds.
He opens with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and ends with Maura Clarke and companions, martyrs of El Salvador in 1980. In between we find women such as Sts. Martha and Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Edith Stein, Mothers of the Disappeared (Argentina 1977-1983), Anne Frank, Martyrs of Birmingham (1963), St. Thea Bowman, Lady Godiva of Coventry, Lucretia Mott (abolitionist and feminist), Mother Jones, Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry (Quaker reformer).
One moving profile is of photographer Mev Puleo (1963-1996). In her short life, she felt and expressed a strong sense of religious wonder. She dedicated her life to building a bridge between the different worlds of the very rich and the very poor. Her theology studies convinced her of the need for a “new language of faith, a language addressed not only to the head but to the heart.”
In 1995, she received the U.S. Catholic Award for furthering the cause of women in the Catholic Church. A year later, she died of a brain tumor, leaving a legacy of showing us all how to live and love as Jesus did.
The profiles in “Blessed Among Women” are fascinating and inspiring.
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Jean Peerenboom is the former religion/books editor from the Green Bay Press Gazette. Jean is currently the volunteer coordinator at the NEW Community Shelter, 301 Mather St., Green Bay, and a candidate with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Cross. She writes a monthly book review for the Holy Cross Family Blogspot.
