Search results
steal away or ‘take’ unsuspecting mortals (almost always women or children); supernatural imposters, or fairy-changelings, then took their place in the human world. Irish people commonly associated fairywomen with ‘specific places’;15 as they did so, they mapped meaning onto the female body and the Irish topography. Women who wandered in forbidden or profane places were particularly likely to be ‘taken away’.16 Fairy belief, therefore, reflected realities while it cautioned ‘deviant’ women and constructed an ideal world of gender segregation. It consistently advocated
believed she had a vocation, but did not desire it. She joins the Carmelites in October 1951, as an extern, to try out the life. 38 She finally enters the enclosure after six months. In total, this is 174 pages of indecisiveness influenced by the wisdom of ‘dear Mother’ (the Mother Superior) who ‘sees everything supernaturally’ though not, according to our nun-author, with excessive piety. 39 A strong religious message about the primacy of ‘union with God’ and ‘acceptance of His will’ permeated this work, but the notion of piety was severely underplayed in a pattern
, demography or sociology. It is the whole man and the whole mission to which he is called that must be considered: both its natural, earthly aspects and its supernatural, eternal aspects. 48 While the Pope stressed his intention to provide a holistic view of man’s ‘whole mission’, he simultaneously
to a supernatural end! It is not praising a nun to say that she is a good teacher or a good cook (though these qualities are valuable acquisitions to their Community), but the praise of a nun is to say ‘She is a good religious’.55 Sister Mary Linscott, historian of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, concurred with Frances Taylor; she opined that the early mothers general thought of teaching not as a profession, but as a ‘sublime work in which it was a privilege to be engaged’.56 While teaching qualifications and skills were important, and religious congregations
possessed supernatural powers, sometimes using these powers to punish wayward parishioners; others, however, were bested by parishioners, their attempts at asserting authority mocked.38 Legends about priests and wise women are particularly revealing. A thorn in the side of the institutional Church, the wise woman or healer stood as the priest’s main parish enemy. In reality, both priests and wise women were traditional local authorities who sometimes competed for the loyalty of parishioners. In oral tradition, this struggle for power is displayed through a confrontation
, or, rather, in his very denial of the act of prophesying he sensed that the prophetic spirit was lacking from him. But this is very far from conceding that he did, in fact, lack the prophetic spirit, since that spirit is a light that can possibly be elicited without an act being performed. Hence, it should be noted that according to Thomas [Aquinas], a prophet is, as it were, a medium between the apprehender and the viator, having a supernatural prophetic light relating to the way in which things will happen. 72 And hence, the disposition according to which
, reflecting her deep interior life.’67 These extracts celebrated these women religious for their joyfulness at recreation. They balanced levity with piety. Sister Joseph Mary was ‘charitable’ and her spirit was ‘supernatural’. Sister M. Aquin told amusing anecdotes and her conversations reflected her deep interior life. This balance is critical to the understanding of how joyfulness and humour were laudable elements of religious life. Camaraderie and friendship were extended to women religious outside the convent. Annalists frequently recorded visits of sisters and
the land of Israel or the Temple, without the ability to observe the whole Torah, the days of Israel had come to an end. Thus, they resolved to ‘gradually liquidate (Tamaret 1992 , 78)’ the people through a program of extreme renunciation Tamaret calls ‘neurotic piety (Tamaret 1992 , 76–78),’ 2 which extinguishes ‘every spark of self-awareness (Tamaret 1992 , 82)’ and ensures ‘the negation of humanity and its submission to hidden powers (Tamaret 1992 , 76)’ — supernatural and otherwise. As