This blog is a crazy idea I have had for some time now that I finally decided to put into action. I am new to blogging and I have an extreme dislike for technology so I do apologize ahead of time and hope that you stick by me on my crazy journey.
HerStory: Bringing Woman's Past to the Present is my attempt to highlight and bring forth a voice from the past that is still greatly overlooked and often misunderstood or misrepresented. There were efforts in the 1960's and '70's to begin emphasizing women as strong role models. While I applaud those efforts as a starting point I feel we still have a long way to go. The few women that have become known as historically significant figures have been over-hyped while other women who have made more of an impact have gone unnoticed.
Me- A Short Bio: I have a BA in History from the University of Tennessee Knoxville with a focus on women's history. In my spare time I package coffee in order to pay for my real job of educating the public through Revolutionary War historical interpretation/demonstrations. I love the "Ah Ha!" moments that come with educating the public and I especially love seeing interest spark in the eyes of a child. It is so important to get the younger people involved in history before we lose everything we have discovered thus far.
Notice:
I will NEVER quote or use anything posted on Wikipedia. (The only good use for Wikipedia is to look up information on Japanimation.) My information will come from primary source documents or from other reputable people's research from primary sources and occasionally a few other websites.
Wikipedia is not an historian's friend but the Internet History Sourcebooks Project (IHSP) should be an historian's BFF.
Soooo....
I wanted to tie in my good girls are crazy too line from the top to an historical woman whom everyone thinks of as being a goody goody so right off I thought "Mother Teresa"! Turns out she REALLY WAS A GOODY GOODY. Ya know, some times even saints start out bad, but man, I have been able to find nothing on her. If anyone can dig up anything scandalous please email me and let me know.
I haven't done much research on Mother Teresa as she is a recent historical figure but I haven't read of her being crazy (expect maybe for claiming to hear God a few times) or behaving badly. It's all positive for the most part. I did find a book titled "‘The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice" by Christopher Hitchens in which Hitchens sites interviews with people who worked in Mother Teresa's organizations and in which there are allegations of monetary donations not being spent on the poor she was supposed to be helping. Another interviewee, a doctor; says that even though there was adequate money Mother Teresa's many hospices and orphanages were inadequately funded and medical treatment left much to be desired. The book goes on to argue that Mother Teresa did not use money donated for the poor because she felt poverty to be a virtue. (Well, it wasn't like she was off living at the Vatican or anything herself.) My own personal opinion of this is that she most likely didn't know how much money she had coming into her organization since the money was handled by the Vatican bank.
ANYWHO....all that being said:
Mother Teresa was born August 26 1910 in the city of Skopje in the Balkans. Her baptized name was Gonxha Agnes. When Agnes was 18 she left her home to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland where she became Sister Mary Teresa. A year or so later she left to teach at a school in India. In 1946 she received a special message from Jesus and continued to receive visits/visions for a few months. This call from Jesus led her to start her work with the "poorest of the poor" in the slums of Calcutta, India. She established many orphanages, hospices for the dying and clinics for the many people suffering from leprosy all across India. Mother Teresa died Sept. 5th 1997 and in 2003 she was beautified (half-way to becoming canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church) by Pope John Paul II. If you want to know more about her click here.
I look forward to following your blogging endeavors! I,too would like to know if anybody has any good Mother Teresa gossip. No doubt that would be some salacious material!
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