On the website of the Year of Faith 2012–2013, there is a page for “women of faith“. (I enjoyed this section of the website very much.)

I can say that there is no conscious or deliberate decision in this regard, but, to an extent, this blog shows the same thing. A look through some of the most popular tags on this blog finds, for example,

• Saint Catherine of Siena
• Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
• Little Sister Magdeleine
• Raïssa Maritain 
• Saint Teresa of Jesus
• Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

Three of them are Doctors of the Church, and, as regards the teaching of Blessed Elizabeth, I, for one, can’t see how her teaching is not of universal importance; but it is not up to me to say.

I guess I write often about “women of faith”.

I have not deliberately set out to choose women contemplatives for the sake of choosing women. The fact of the matter is, I deliberately choose to speak about contemplation. And it just happens to be part of this genius, to such a degree, that one can, with just as much or greater ease, find more women contemplatives to write about than men. At least, I do.

Is it also not interesting that, among other most-tagged people on this site, Saint John of the Cross is inextricably linked to Teresa of Jesus, Marcel Văn was visited and guided by Thérèse, and Jacques Maritain and Charles Journet are inextricably linked to Jacques’ wife? And in all cases, it was the women who preceded the men down this road, though these men were undoubtedly called to it themselves: interesting, no?

And is it also not interesting that, among the women who are contemplatives, they often tell other women to be “manly” in virtue (Catherine of Siena) and “not womanish” (Teresa)? And some, like Raïssa Maritain, are perceived as gruff or distant? In other words, these contemplative geniuses of women are not as gender-conforming (and world-confirming) as we might expect? While secure in who they are, they have something else in them that drives them to be truly women but also truly looking beyond that identity for something more?*

But of course! Any genius for contemplation is a genius that is not merely human. That goes for men and women both. Our Jesus of the powerful words was meek and humble of heart. Mary, too, stood at two extremes and once: she was both virgin and mother. The tension of extremes is a high law of the spiritual life. And it’s one genius of women of faith.

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* The complement to this rule of non-gender-conforming paths for women contemplatives is Little Brother Marcel Văn’s equal “violations” of purely human and all-too-human gender norms in being a “mother of souls” and “spouse of Jesus”. The non-adherence to purely human gender norms applies to both sexes.