Happy Friday!

I will be away for the next two weeks! I am thrilled to announce that Cecily will be taking the editorial reins during this time, excited to see what she does with the place.

Given my upcoming holiday I planned do a feature on saints from the places I am going to. This plan went a bit awry, but in a way I hope you will find interesting.

We start in Italy, with Catherine of Genoa, noted female mystic whose marriage started off so bad that she apparently prayed to be ill so that she wouldn't have to talk to her husband - much like those wishes for a broken leg (that doesn't hurt? is that a thing? etc) in times of work stress. This prayer was not answered but she had a conversion experience and devoted herself to mystical works and

unselfish service to the sick in a hospital at Genoa, in which her husband joined her after he, too, had been converted. He later became a Franciscan tertiary, but she joined no religious order. Her husband's spending had ruined them financially. He and Catherine decided to live in the Pammatone, a large hospital in Genoa, and to dedicate themselves to works of charity there. She eventually became manager and treasurer of the hospital.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Genoa

Catherine of Genoa is also featured in The Dinner Party, by Judy Chicago:

an icon of feminist art, which represents 1,038 women in history—39 women are represented by place settings and another 999 names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor on which the table rests. This monumental work of art is comprised of a triangular table divided by three wings, each 48 feet long​

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/home/

Which in turn led me to Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women's rights activist:

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman?

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/sojourner_truth

Back in a bit,

Alex.