Elizabeth Visits the Abbey, Phyllis Zagano. CLEAR FAITH PUBLISHING, ISBN-10: ?1940414385.
As a child, I attended St Brigid’s Primary School, right next door to St Brigid’s Church, where I continue to worship. The school was led by the Sisters of Mercy but I have no memory of learning anything about St Brigid. Which isn’t to say no lessons were taught . . . Her statue remains in the church: cream habit, black veil, a book in one hand and a crozier in the other.
Elizabeth Visits the Abbey is the book I needed to read decades ago. Better late than never.
Dr Phyllis Zagano has crafted a charming story, deftly creating a scenario in which an Irish abbess quite naturally shares with her visiting niece, Elizabeth, a potted history of the contribution to the Church of key women such as Hildegard of Bingen and Brigid of Kildare.
In terms of the latter, Elizabeth learns that when Brigid was being professed as a nun by Bishop Mel, he prayed the prayers of episcopal ordination, inspired by the Holy Spirit. That explains the crozier. The Irish still make St Brigid crosses from straw on her feast day, 1 February.
Zagano also incorporates the story of the Beguines, European women who dwelt in clusters of cottages, living lives dedicated to God although not as professed sisters.
Followers of Zagano will not be surprised to know that she uses her tale to reinforce the presence and role of female deacons in the history of the church, citing Radegund and Caesaria, among others. Elizabeth’s Auntie Marie explains that the nuns’ custom is to gather around the altar for Mass.
Auntie Marie noticed the look on Elizabeth’s face, and asked, “Have you never seen women at the altar, Elizabeth?” Elizabeth shook her head. Auntie Marie said . . . “In the very early Church . . . there were women called deacons who did what all the other deacons did during the Mass. No matter where they were, the men of the Church complained about them. In the fifth century, Pope Gelasius complained that women were at the altar “doing what men do”. Of course, we do not know exactly what he complained about . . .”’ Indeed!
Zagano’s story is highly accessible – it could be read in one sitting – but it’s not lightweight. It covers effectively a great deal of history that is well documented but not well known, because it provokes uncomfortable questions that those in authority prefer not to answer.
Reflecting on her daughter’s experiences, Elizabeth’s mother asks her, ‘So, what do you think of all this? What do you think about women in the Church?’ That was a very big question. Elizabeth looked at her mother and said, ‘I don’t think we know as much about them as we do about the men’.
This book goes a long way to addressing that regrettable situation.