1. WOMEN IN CHRISTIANITY Part II: Medieval and Modern Period

2. HILDEGARD OF BINGIN Medieval saint; 1200s, Germany. Wrote music, poetry, plays, books on healing and medicine. Founded an independent women's community of nuns. Visionary and mystic Recent movie Vision on her life available on Netflix :

3. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, on May 12, 1820. During the Crimean War, she and a team of nurses improved the unsanitary conditions at a British base hospital, reducing the death count by two-thirds. Her writings sparked worldwide health care reform. In 1860 she established St. Thomas Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. She died August 13, 1910, in London. Though she did not think herself deeply religious and never thought she became so, on February 7, 1837, when she was scarcely 17 years old, she felt that God spoke to her, calling her to future “service.” From that time on her life was changed. At first the call disturbed her. Not knowing the nature of the “service,” she feared making herself unworthy of whatever it was by leading the frivolous life that her mother and her social set demanded of her. Now she was given to periods of preoccupation, or to what she called “dreams” of how to fulfill her mission. Meanwhile she spent all her spare time visiting the cottages on her family estate and bringing neighboring poor people food and medicine.

4. TERESA OF AVILA Spanish Saint and mystic, 1515-1582 A.D. Wrote books on living the Christian life, especially her autobiography and her most famous work “The Interior Castle” One of the few women given the title “Doctor of the Church”

5. DOROTHY DAY American, New Yorker, 20 th century, 1897-1980. Pacifist; worked to try to stop American involvement in wars. Founded the Catholic Worker; a collection of communities of Christian laypeople focused on helping the poor and simple living. Autobiography: The Long Loneliness