Female Luminaries

I reflect and admire the wonderful things women have done for the Church throughout her history. Curiously, though, there were no women writers during the first 1200 years of Church history. They were all men. Women only appeared at critical times of history, when it seemed like everything would end for the Catholic Church.


St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena were the women influential and effective in having the Pope return to Rome from Avignon in the "Babylonian captivity of the Church." One might ask today: "What difference does it make where the Pope lived?". In those days, the Pope had left Rome to live in Avignon, France. In the meantime, an anti-pope became bishop of Rome. A third one was elected elsewhere. At this point no one would know who the real Pope was and Apostolic succession would end right then and there, and with this, the Catholic Church itself. Thanks to Catherine and Bridget, they settled the situation by actually convincing the Pope to return (something the other male saints were unable to do).

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque appeared at a critical time and saved the Church once again. While thousands were leaving the Church because of Jansenism, she brought them all back with the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Saint Teresa of Avila saved the Church from the Protestant onslaught with her correct notions of the spiritual life. In a century of disbelief, St. Theresa of Lisieux, saved the Church from extinction,  through her teaching of loving trust and confidence in a heavenly Father's love.

We wonder what was the actual importance of St. Joan of Arc. Why was God interested in a political question? What did it matter who ruled France, whether they themselves or the English? England had nearly all of France in the 15th century. If she had been successful, she would have an empire extending from Scotland to Switzerland. With such power, it would be easy to defeat weak Spain, the Italian or German principalities or Scandinavian countries and be a real match for the rising Austrian empire. She would have had all of Europe before Napoleon ever dreamed of it. The Protestant reformation would soon take place in the 16th century. With Henry VIII leaving the Church and persecuting the Catholics, he would have no problem in destroying them completely, with France under his power.

By taking France out of England's claws and making it free, Joan of Arc preserved at least one powerful nation for the Catholic Church that checked the Protestant advance, and kept the Faith for the future array of saints that would soon come around. Without Joan of Arc, France would have turned Protestant under England and lost all the saints she might have had. We would have ten times more Puritans in the world than we actually have. The maid of Orleans did something extremely important for the world, when she obeyed her voices and engaged in warfare that many, at that time, did not understand the purpose of.

Today, Mary Joyce is a part of this history and belongs to a critical moment. Someday, the Church will bow to her and thank her for the good she did in saving it from annihilation.