Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Elizabethan England was dangerous for Catholics. The persecuted church went underground and priests (mostly Jesuits) were smuggled onto the island, protected by the old aristocracy. These great “safe houses” were headed by widows who found much solace in the “old religion.” These prominent women secretly kept the Catholic Church alive for common folks hungry for the sacraments.
Among these widows were Elizabeth Vaux and Eleanor Brosby who hid Jesuits in “priest holes,” crafted behind fireplaces, staircases, and under floor boards in attics. These shrewd widows were labeled “Jesuitesses” and “a stain and dishonor to womanhood” by the authorities.
Mrs. Peachock was a stalwart and a constant at Sacred Heart Church on Youngstown's east side for over 30 years. Officially she was the sacristan, but for decades she kept the pulse of the parish, knowing who was sick or in need of help. Parish staff relied on her to keep them informed of what was happening in the trenches. Widowed at a young age, she was a deacon all but in name.
Today, Sabina Moran, also a widow, keeps the wheels oiled and running smoothly in her parish in Michigan. She does it all from training the servers, serving as a catechist, and scheduling perpetual adoration. When parishioners are in a bind they call her. Clergy come and go but stalwart Sabina is always there.
New to the parish, I cannot list the generous women who serve or have served in keeping IC rooted in Christ over the decades. But you know who they are.
Women serve in the forefront of the Church and its mission, largely unseen and unappreciated. Modeling Christ the Servant, they wear no official stole. These ladies, including many widows, are true daughters of Lydia, who we encounter in today's first reading from Acts.
Widow Lydia was the first European convert to Christianity, baptized by St. Paul himself.
Upon their first arrival to European shores at Philippi, missionaries Paul, Silas, Timothy, & Luke encountered “God fearing” women gathered for prayer. “Godfearers” were Gentiles attracted to Judaism. Where the Zygakti River forms a cross, they met Lydia, a dyer and seller of purple---a “purpuraria.”
Lydia was an emancipated and successful businesswoman, extraordinary for the times. Purple cloth was expensive. Only imperial officials and the elite could afford the purple, so she had influential clientele. Today in Acts, Lydia offers her home to Paul and his companions, the first European “house church.” The house church was the standard way Christians gathered in the early centuries.
This wasn't without risk. Citizens in Philippi objected strenuously to Lydia's hospitality and leadership in allowing her home to be Paul's base (not mentioning the first ever church in Europe.) They would have seen her as acting beyond her station amid the masculine dominant first century. “Know your place, woman!” Can you hear them?
But Lydia refused to “know her place.”
By the grace of God, purpurania pressed on. The first baptized European lead the way for countless women and men yet to come, despite prejudice and entrenched sexism.
John Paul II & Benedict XVI have called sexism “sin.” Pope Francis has stated that “we must see in the modern women's movement the working of the Spirit.” But let there be no question. The rejection of chauvinism in all forms originated not with Paul or Silas or Timothy or Luke, but with Jesus of Nazareth.
Timothy J. Cronin