5 Women Who Marked History By Their Strength Of Action Through Faith
On this International Women's Day, here are five women of faith to remember who were pillars for building their societies.
Sojourner Truth. Creative Commons photo
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
Resistance for truth and the right to life marked Sojourner Truth's journey. The youngest daughter of Elizabeth and James Baumfree, the girl born Isabella of rural New York became a noted pioneer and orator for the abolition and women's rights movements in the U.S.
One of her best-known milestones came at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, where Truth made her famous “Am I not a woman?” speech. In it, she questioned the prevailing notions of racial and gender inferiority and inequality. “Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as man 'cause Christ wa'n't a woman. Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him,” said Truth.
In her book “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth,” she wrote that faith in God was her light and her source of strength to flee with her baby daughter Sophia in search of freedom. It was after this that she became a Methodist and changed her name as she felt the Spirit of God calling her to preach the truth.
Tenzin Palmo. Creative Commons photo
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (1943-)
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was born in England in 1943, as Diane Perry. She is recognized for her spiritual achievements and efforts for the equality and rights of women in Tibetan Buddhism. She is one of the first Westerners to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. During her training living in Khamtrul Rinpoche's monastery, she was the only nun among 100 monks.
Frustration at not having the same ease of access to Buddhist teaching as the monks made her found — after more than 36 years of study and preparation — an all-female monastery in India, the Dongyu Gatsal Ling, where she is also a teacher.
“I have made a vow to attain enlightenment in the female form — no matter how many lifetimes it takes,” she said, according to “Cave in the Snow,” Palmo's biography.
In addition to this achievement, Palmo is president of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women, founding director of the Alliance of Non Himalayan Nuns, founding member of the Committee for Bhiksuni Ordination and honorary advisor to the International Network of Engaged Buddhists.
Prathia Laura Ann Hall (1940-2002)
Born into a home striving for socio-racial justice and Black theology, Prathia Laura Ann Hall followed the path of seeking equal rights and living in equality. She preached for a long time at Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, founded by her father, the Rev. Berkeley Hall. In her studies, she specialized as a womanist theologian, becoming the first woman to hold the Baptist Ministers' Conference in Philadelphia.
“God intends us to be free, and assists us, and empowers us in the struggle for freedom,” she believed. “So the stories of our history helped me to understand that we were called to be activists in this struggle for justice.”
As a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Hall was at the forefront of many civil rights efforts, including leading a solidarity meeting after the Ku Klux Klan burned down a popular Black church in 1962. After this, she became known for inspiring Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I have a Dream” speech.
Mother Teresa. Creative Commons photo
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta — born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in the capital of the Republic of Macedonia — began her faith journey at the age of 18 with a group of nuns in Ireland. The “Calcutta” in her name refers to the city of Kolkata in India, where she took her first vows. There she came face to face with extreme poverty and terminal illness in a ghetto of the city. She created a new order — The Missionaries of Charity — in which the nuns cared for people, giving them basic access to food, shelter and medicine to live the last days of their lives with dignity.
The order’s work crossed borders and marked the care of people in extreme vulnerability around the world. In 1965, former Pope Paul VI granted the society a Decree of Praise, allowing it to expand internationally. The founding of Missionaries of Charity earned Mother Teresa the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
Her acceptance speech shows the basis of her courage and faith: “Lord, make me a channel of your peace, that where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith.”
Zilda Arns. Creative Commons photo
Zilda Arns (1934-2010)
Zilda Arns was born in the state of Santa Catarina, in the south of Brazil, and was the founder and coordinator of the Children's Pastoral and Pastoral Care for the Elderly, both milestones in the country's public health system. The creation of the pastoral in the state of Paraná, also in the south, was strongly influenced and supported by Zilda Arns' brother, Dom Paulo Cardeal Arns, and by the Archbishop Dom Geraldo Majella Cardeal Agnelo.
The result of the work was stark. When the Children's Pastoral began its activities in the state of Paraná in 1983, the infant mortality rate reached 127 for every 1,000 children. After a year of activity, the number fell to 28 deaths per thousand, as reported by the Brazil Agency.
Arns, with strong Roman Catholic roots, emphasized that “faith in God and love for one's neighbor go together,” and this is how she spread her work throughout the country. She later worked in Haiti, sharing practices to reduce child malnutrition.
Camila da Silva is an intern for Religion Unplugged from Brazil. She is the 2022 Arne Fieldstead scholar at the John McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in New York. You can find her on Instagram @silva.jornalismo.