AcknowledgmentsPreface: A Tale about Hope, Courage, and Saints
Introduction: Fire and Gas: Women Saints over Five Centuries
Chapter 1: La Fabbrica dei Santi— How Politics and Culture
Determine Who Is a Saint
Chapter 2: Political Saints and Saintly Politics: Joan of Arc and
Catherine of Siena
Chapter 3: “Holy Anorexics” God, Agency, Women’s Bodies and
Self-Starvation in Early Colonial Spanish-America: Rose of Lima and
Mariana of Quito
Chapter 4: Las Santas Criollas: Rosa de Lima, Mariana de Quito, and
National Identity in Colonial Spanish-America
Chapter 5: Teresa of Avila: The Love of God as Source of
Authority
Chapter 6: Edith Stein: Paradoxes of a Jewish Saint
Chapter 7: Mystics of Political Resistance: Teresa of Avila’s and
Edith Stein’s Visions of Womanhood
Chapter 8: Pain, Loss, and Psychological Distress in Thérèse of
Lisieux, The ‘Little Flower’ who wanted to be a Priest
Chapter 9: Doctors but not Priests- Women Doctors in the Roman
Catholic Church: Teresa, Catherine, Thérèse and Hildegard
Chapter 10: North American Saints: Cabrini, Seton, Drexel,
Tekakwitha…But No Black American Saints Yet
Conclusion: Final Thoughts
References
About the Author
Oliva M. Espín is professor emerita in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University and professor emerita of psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University.
In this extensively researched exploration of a selection of
Catholic women saints, Espín, (emer., San Diego State Univ. and
emer., Alliant International Univ.) considers how these women
accepted and deviated from their specific patriarchal cultural
contexts. After a chapter describing the Catholic Church's process
for canonizing saints, Espín considers Joan of Arc and Catherine of
Siena as political subversives. She then discusses how the
hagiography of the anorexic ascetics Rose of Lima and Mariana
Paredes influenced colonial South America. Following the report on
Teresa of Avila and a masterful discussion of Edith Stein as
mystics of political resistance, she considers the pain and
psychological distress of Thérèse of Lisieux. Her reflection
regarding women proclaimed Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila,
Catherine of Siena, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Hildegard of
Bingen—clearly recognizes that this honor is a pretense of equality
bestowed by an institution that enforces inequality. The author
concludes with brief sketches of North American women saints
Frances Xavier Cabrini, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, Katherine
Drexel, and Kateri Tekakwitha, and she identifies Henriette
Delille, Mary Elizabeth Lange, Julia Greely, and Thea Bowman as
African American women for whom a “cause for canonization” has been
opened. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate
students.
*Choice Reviews*
Women, Sainthood, and Power: A Feminist Psychology of Cultural
Constructions is at once a deeply personal book and a scholarly
analysis of a selection of Catholic, female, Catholic saints from
the fourteenth to the twentieth century, ranging. The saints range
from Catherine of Siena and Joan of Arc to Mariana of Quito,
Tekakwitha, and Edith Stein. Oliva Espín uses interdisciplinary
lenses of psychology, feminism, religious studies, and her own
experience to weaves a fascinating tapestry of these women’s
stories of faith, resistance, and even defiance. Across six
centuries, Espín highlights figures relevant for consideration
today.
*Darleen Pryds, Franciscan School of Theology*
Oliva M. Espín offers readers of Women, Sainthood and Power a
window into a group of female saints who have impacted her personal
development and spirituality. Their lives are stories of faith,
spirituality, and a belief in the power of being a woman. Espin
poignantly presents their path to a powerful relationship with the
divine.
*Mary Ann Gawelek, Lourdes University*
This volume will interest readers seeking to understand the
interplay of psychology and history, secular as well as religious,
on women's responses to oppression and power.
*Psychology of Women Quarterly*
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