The first in-depth study of Catherine the Great's plays and opera libretti, this book provides analysis and critical interpretation of the dramatic works by this eighteenth-century Russian Empress. These works are shown to be remarkable for their diversity, frank satire, topical subject matter, and stylistic innovations. O'Malley reveals comparisons to and influences from European traditions, including Shakespeare and Molière, and sets Catherine in the larger field of Russian literature in the period, further illuminating her relationship to the aesthetic debates of the period. The study investigates how Catherine expressed her social ideas throughout her drama and exploited the stage's power to promote political ideals and ideology. O'Malley sets close textual analysis within an historical framework, analyzing the major plays according to content, style, themes, characters, and relation to Catherine's life and political aims.
This book examines the origins, development and history of the cult of Saint Catherine of Siena. Gerald Parsons argues that the cult of Catherine of Siena constitutes a remarkable example of the cult of a particular saint which, across more than six centuries, has been the vehicle for an evolving sequence of civil religious rituals and meanings. He shows how the cult of this particular saint developed, firstly, as an expression of Sienese civil religion; secondly, as a focus for Italian civil religion; and finally into an expression of European civil religion. Instead of the predominantly devotional - and frequently essentially hagiographical - approach of much of the literature on Catherine of Siena, Parsons examines the significance of her cult from the perspective of civil religion and the social history of religion.
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) has become a defining figure in the history of medieval religion and one of the main exemplars of the "feminine turn" in late medieval religious culture. Despite a hagiographical tradition and historiography that has placed Catherine at a mystic remove from the politics of her day, Catherine's public authority was shaped by politics, both locally in Siena and broadly within late-fourteenth-century contests between the papacy and the Republic of Florence for hegemony in central Italy. In The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, F. Thomas Luongo combines literary-critical readings of Catherine's letters—she was the author of one of the largest collections of medieval letters—with political and social analysis. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Luongo investigates how Catherine's spiritual authority and sanctity were linked with contemporary political and cultural developments. He shows how the political situation of the church in Italy and a culture that privileged female spirituality and prophetic speech facilitated Catherine's emergence into a public role. The Catherine who emerges from Luongo's well-written pages is a splendid example of what can result when a historian asks fresh questions about a familiar figure's life and brings new materials and methods to bear in formulating answers. The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena offers a woman more complex and interesting than the figure portrayed in most contemporary scholarship.
When the magnificent volume first appeared in 1966, it was celebrated for its extraordinary beauty. Now, more than thirty years since its first publication, it is made available once again. Illustrating one of the great art treasures of the world, The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is a fiteenth century illuminated manuscript containing a series of some of the most beautiful illustrations of the bible ever made. Many of the great scenes form the Old Testament and many more from the New Testament are included, besides the Stations of the Cross and portraits of the saints. The work of an unidentified Dutch master painter, the manuscript was made for Catherine of Cleves on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of Guelders. All the 157 surviving miniatures are reproduced to actual size and in exquisite colour with gold, together with three samples of pages containing the Latin prayers. Page after page reveals the elaborate program and rich illumination of the original. The progression from beginning to end shows an artist increasing in skill, relying in his earlier work on tradition and later emerging as an independent artist of bold, clear colours, dynamic brushwork and lively imagination. He stands as one of the supreme painters of fifteenth century Northern Europe. Each page is accompanied by a descriptive and explanatory commentary by John Plummer. His introduction discusses the development of the Book of Hours as a liturgical form in general, and the history of the Cleves Hours specifically, and describes the place it holds in the history of Northern Painting.
This work offers a selection of passages from Catherine of Siena as a basis for a path of spiritual growth with the theme of growth in capacity to love. There is an introduction and fifteen chapters, no additional front or back matter. Each chapter will include a couple of very short passages from Catherine; a couple of scripture readings about the theme of Catherine’s passages; a meditation and guide to Catherine’s wisdom; and exercises based on Catherine’s wisdom. The book invites engagement with the content of the passages through the suggested prayer exercises that seek to help persons apply Catherine’s wisdom to their own journey. These prayer exercises are suitable for a beginner or someone already on a spiritual journey. They contain methods of prayer that are active and use the imagination, as well as more contemplative ones. Endorsements "St. Catherine of Siena is often known for her challenging the religious authorities of her time. But that understanding of this multifaceted saint is too narrow. This lovely new book helps us all understand the foundation of her spiritual life, which is love. This love, which comes from God, and which is for God, is a beautiful invitation for the reader to enter into a world of God's embrace." —James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray. "In her beautifully scripted guide to the spirituality of Catherine of Sienna, Diana Villegas makes four significant offerings. First, she tells us the story of an important spiritual leader in the context of her time and place. Second, she highlights the essential theology and meaning of this leader for our time and place; namely, the conviction of God as loving presence at work in all people at all times to include and involve us in the unfolding of love. Third, she highlights the vision of Catherine for the feminine divine. Fourth, she scaffolds for the reader a pathway into the spirituality that Catherine represents, namely a journey into the loving and peaceful wisdom of God that is accessible to each human being through attention to the inner life. Diana's writing is intelligent, crystal clear, grounded in extensive scholarship and personal familiarity with the writing and spirit of Catherine, yet remarkably accessible and practically applicable to the everyday person open to learning from one of Christianity's great mystics. This book is a treasure!" —Dr. Phil Daughtry, spiritual director and founder of Fruitful Mind Consultancy, Adelaide, South Australia Diana L. Villegas studied spirituality at the Institute of Spirituality of the Gregorian University, Rome, and obtained a PhD in theology, specializing in the history of spirituality, from Fordham University. Her dissertation compared discernment in Catherine of Siena and Ignatius of Loyola. She is a trained spiritual and retreat director with over thirty of years of experience. After many years in the Boston area, she now lives in her native Colombia. †
Catherine McAuley (1778-1841) founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin in 1831. Her letters are essential primary sources for readers interested in the life and works of this remarkable Irish churchwoman and in women's history and Irish church history more broadly. Whether McAuley is writing to family members, bishops, her solicitor, priests, lay coworkers, or Sisters of Mercy in Ireland and England, her letters reveal striking details about the church and society of her day as well as about her own spiritual convictions and unstinting personal service to poor, sick, homeless, or uneducated adults and children.The Correspondence of Catherine McAuley, 1818-1841, is a new, fully documented edition of more than 320 surviving letters written by, to, or about McAuley during her lifetime. Drawn from archives worldwide and arranged chronologically, the letters are carefully transcribed and generously annotated, with brief narratives introducing each group. In her letters as well as in those of the other correspondents, one sees a delightfully human, affectionate woman; a compassionate, persistent servant of the poor and neglected; an astute businesswoman; and an unpretentious, humorous friend.This edition of McAuley's correspondence is readily accessible to general readers and demonstrates not only her important role in the founding and amazing spread of the Mercy congregation in her lifetime (now numbering more than 10,000 members globally), but also her personal contributions to the pastoral development of the church in Ireland and England. Scholars and other readers will gain fresh insights into many prominent ecclesial leaders in the years 1828-1841, including Daniel Murray, archbishop of Dublin, and Thomas Griffiths, vicar apostolic of the London District. They will also find in these engaging letters one woman's grass-roots experience of certain social, economic, and ecclesiastical arrangements of her time and place.ABOUT THE EDITOR:Mary C. Sullivan, R.S.M., is Professor Emeritus of Language and Literature, and Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is the author of numerous works, including Catherine McAuley and the Tradition of Mercy.PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: ""All those letters whose whereabouts are known have recently been tracked down, examined, verified and scrupulously edited. The Correspondence of Catherine McAuley, 1818-1841 is a work of impeccable and exhaustive scholarship. . . . This book is a very model of what such collections should be, and it could hardly have had a better editor than Mary C. Sullivan, herself a Sister of Mercy since 1950 and a distinguished academic for decades. . . . This is not the first collection of Mother McAuley's letters, but it is surely the most complete and meticulously edited.""--John W. Donohue, America""This monograph is a magnum opus. Edited by an indefatigable scholar, it is the most complete, accurate compendium of the correspondence of Catherine McAuley. . . . This expanded treasure is, however, dwarfed by another uniquely Sullivan contribution. Not only does each of the more than three hundred entries reflect a precise rendition of documents, but Sullivan has also supplemented each with meticulously researched clarifications of the texts. This bonus provides new historical information and identifies linguistic nuances that help the reader comprehend the content and the context of Catherine's life and accomplishments. . . . For its scholarly approach as well as for what it reveals about the impact of one great Irish woman, and religious women in general, Sullivan's latest monograph deserves our careful study.""--Dolores Liptak, RSM, American Catholic Studies""Mary C. Sullivan RSM has carefully edited and thoroughly annotated these letters. . . . Others besides Mercy sisters can be
When William Booth met Catherine Mumford in 1852, it was the start of a story that would change the lives of millions of people across the world. Out of their love sprang a new and radical international Christian movement ' The Salvation Army. Throughout their life William and Catherine, when apart, exchanged letters and notes expressing not only their deep love but also a lasting friendship and mutual respect which would survive the challenges of separation, ill health, the struggle of raising a large family, opposition, disappointment and professional uncertainty. The letters, spanning nearly 40 years, reveal both the everyday minutiae of life in Victorian times, and the challenges of being revolutionary Christian thinkers in the second half of the 19th century.
Daily readings with Scripture verses and prayers, based on the life and ministry of Catherine Booth, wife of General Booth and co-founder of The Salvation Army, often called 'The mother of The Salvation Army'. An ardent temperance campaigner, she and William developed together the firm convictions about salvation and poverty that led to the formation of the Army. Catherine Booth was eloquent and compelling in speech, and articulate and devastatingly logical in writing. At first, Catherine and her husband had shared a ministry as traveling evangelists, but then she came into great demand as a preacher in her own right, especially among the well-to-do. Although it was virtually unknown at that point for women to speak in public, and despite her nervousness, she developed a considerable preaching ministry. Catherine was both a woman and a fine preacher, a magnetic combination that attracted large numbers to hear her. This book of daily readings introduces us to Catherine's heart and convictions. Here we find the passion, urgency, thought and humanity which drove her on. Each devotional will take one page of the format above. Catherine's succinct, direct style is ideally suited to this form.
Like Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, this remarkable little book of wisdom and advice refreshes the mind and renews the spirit. Written in 1930 and published in Paris by the Hours Press in a limited edition of only two hundred, these letters were addressed to an eight-year-old girl, the "thoughtful and sensible" child of Nancy Nicholson and Robert Graves. But they were also meant for adults who might have such a child in their spirit. In simple, luminous language, Laura Riding explains the difference between learning and knowing; the value of thinking, of doing, and of not-showing-off; and how it is good to live straight, avoiding the hypocrisies and pretensions of "the muddle." Here is a literary treasure to be shared between generations. For many readers, it will also serve as an invaluable key to the thought of this astonishingly original writer.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
