S R . T H E A B O W M A N , FSPA:

F RANCISCAN , T ROUBADOUR , P ROPHET , P OET Victoria Marie, OSC Franciscan Institute, Saint Bonaventure University

I NTRODUCTION

One cannot improve on, “Sr. Thea Bowman, singer, dancer liturgist, educator, evangelist, prophet 1 ,”  as an introduction to the woman who is the subject of this paper. Thea, nee Bertha, Bowman, was a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, an African American who did not allow the obstacles of racism in society or the church to silence her voice. Nor did she permit racism to quell her dedication to her vocation or diminish her love for her God, her people, or her church. In looking at her life and her words it appears that in Thea, Francis’ mandate to “rebuild my church” was born anew and coupled with an aspect of Clare that I found most inspiring, her dedication to her chosen path. One other aspect of Clare, on which I did not elaborate when studying Clare herself, was Sr. Bowman’s ability to joyfully and courageously endure the pain caused by her living with cancer. Thea strove to show that just as segregation and second class citizenship in a secular society diminished that society as a whole by depriving it of the gifts African Americans and others had to offer, so too did the church diminish itself. A segregated church cannot be considered truly catholic.

One of the aims of this paper was to show the reader what led Thea to change her work from teacher or Professor of English to activism on behalf of her people. However, as I progressed in researching this paper, I found that Thea had not so much changed her work, teaching, as expanded the subject she taught. She broadened teaching English Language and Literature to include the existential reality of Black people through sharing the cultural heritage of African Americans. It may appear to some that Thea Bowman changed careers but for Thea is was a logical progression, I decided to become fully functioning. Before, I would say, “Teach me. I want to learn.” But now, I want to learn, I want to keep on learning until I die, but I also want to teach 2 .

Thea wanted to share the gifts that she had by teaching not just the curriculum of mainstream America and the Church, but the heritage and gifts of the African American people.

 Notes to all works cited follow immediately after the bibliography. My aim is to promote understanding and appreciation of the variety of cultures in our land, like that of the Native Americans, black culture, and various national cultures.

I do it through sharing of prayer, poetry, music and storytelling. I also try to help people to be proud of their own culture and to appreciate other groups through sharing and dialogue (p. 8) 3 .

Thea, like many Black Catholics, realized that the dissemination of knowledge was totally Eurocentric, we knew a lot about Euro-Americans but they knew nothing about us. It was time for a change. However, a brief biographical sketch is presented, before delving into Thea’s life work which was one expression of her understanding of the Franciscan charism: (St.) Francis said that all his followers needed were to be minstrels and troubadours going about the countryside, teaching the good news, singing and praising. Somebody like me, a teacher of English language and literature, was made to be a minstrel and troubadour (p. 7) 4 .

This scope of this paper is that of an introduction to the dynamics involved in Sr. Thea Bowman’s life and contributions as a Franciscan and as an American of African heritage. The pervasiveness of racism in the United States makes it impossible to render an account that does not take this into consideration. Racism’s insidious tentacles reach into areas that are not readily apparent, for it is imbedded in all institutions, secular and religious. It affects the way the Franciscan charism is lived and interpreted, yet Thea managed to transcend racism and its affects. However, with the time and space allotted for this project, a comprehensive exploration of the effects these factors in Thea Bowman’s life and work is not possible.

B ACKGROUND AND E ARLY Y EARS There are no birth records for Thea’s grandparents, paternal or maternal. Her maternal grandparents, Lizzie W. and Jerry Coleman, must have settled in Greenville, Mississippi because that is where her mother, Mary Esther was born on November 25, 1902 5 . Lizzie Coleman held the position of public school principal for forty-seven years 6 . Thea’s paternal grandfather, Edward Bowman was a former slave who later worked at the Memphis Power and Light Company. Thea’s grandmother, Sallie Elizabeth Bowman was a seamstress 7 . Thea’s father, Theon Edward Bowman was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi on September 13, 1894. Her grandmothers and paternal grandfather were Methodists 8 . There was no school for Black children in Yazoo City. Hence, her grandfather moved to Tennessee when Theon Bowman was six years old. Her father studied medicine and in 1918, did an internship in New York. At the request of his aunt who had helped him through school and over the objection of his mother, Theon Bowman, set up his practice in Canton, Mississippi. His aunt made him aware that there was no doctor for Black people in Canton 9 . Understandably, his mother wished him to stay up north where his chances of success, free of the constraints of the south, were better. Theon Bowman decided to go where he was most needed.

- 2 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 Thea was born Bertha Bowman on December 29, 1937 in Yazoo City. She states that her earliest memories of her father are “getting up at a ridiculous time and coming home late 10 ” Dr. Theo[n] Bowman was a hard-working man, and his wife worked with him. Office hours frequently began at dawn, said [Thea]. “People had to come to see the doctor either before they went to work — and they would start work at 5, 5:30 — or after work, 8 or 9 at night,” said Bowman. “And my daddy would sometimes be paid in greens, or someone would work on his car. Once he got half a lamb 11 . Thea states that her mother was “sweet and cultured”. Mary Ester Bowman taught Thea not to return insult for insult or hate for hate but: to pray for people who insult and hate; to refer to them with respect; and, to understand that somehow they need help. Her mother advised her, “You know they crucified my Lord and he never said a mumblin’ word. 12 ” Canton in her childhood, for all the poverty, was a world of song. The women sang as they worked. “We were disciplined by songs, praised by songs, told stories by song. 13 ” Thea referred to herself as “an old folks’ child” because in this world of song she learned the history, traditions, and wisdom of the elders. I was reared as “an old folks’ child” in a black community of faith. The elders tried to teach us everyone has a responsibility to the community. The old folks used to say “Each one teach one.” If you know how to cook, you teach somebody; if you know how to raise a child, you teach somebody; if you know how to get a job, you teach somebody; if you know how to dress yourself, pass that on. To be responsible is to know your best and to give your best. Don’t ask for money in exchange for sharing your gifts. You help me and I help you 14 (p. 20).

From these early seeds, she later allows to blossom priceless gifts shared with her students, friends, the Church, and the wider society. When Bertha (Thea) was nine years old, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) came to teach at Holy Child Jesus School which was opened in an old army barracks 15 . Bertha was curious about these Catholics who had come to town. She wanted to see these people who, the townspeople said, “were praying to statues” and “speaking in foreign tongues.” 16 Bertha’s parents, however, were interested in the new school for other reasons. They were not satisfied with the quality of education given at the public school. Bertha was enrolled in Holy Child Jesus School. She fervently desired to become a Catholic and was baptized in Holy Child Jesus Mission in 1947 and was confirmed in 1948. At the age of twelve, she announced that she wanted to become a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and entered the pre-novitiate at the age of fifteen in 1953. Bertha’s road was not easy. She was the first and only Black member of the community. As one source in her video autobiography suggested, when Thea arrived in La Crosse, Wisconsin where the motherhouse of the FSPA is located, she found it “cold and white 17 .” Bertha states, “I missed the song, I missed the vitality of the people 18 .” She encountered both kinds of racism at

- 3 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 La Crosse, overt racism and the racism displayed in ignorance. Bertha was determined to bear whatever she had suffer to reach her goal. She endured community members discussions of “nigger toes” and “nigger heaven”. Sisters assuring her that they liked her “even though” she was Black. All through this Bertha never lost sight of her dream —answering God’s invitation. She states, I wanted to do whatever I had to do to be a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration. And I wanted to be the best Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration I could be. I felt that God had called me. And that He would be with me every step of the way. And if He didn’t, He would send me home 19 . Her perseverance, prayers, and struggles were not in vain. She entered the novitiate in 1956 and professed her perpetual vows as an FSPA in 1963, taking the name “Thea” in honour of her father. It is interesting to note that on the FSPA registry entry there is nothing filled in the space labelled, “Higher Education”. It is a matter of record, and appears in other FSPA literature, that Thea received an undergraduate degree in English at Viterbo College in La Crosse, as well as a Master’s degree and a doctorate in English Literature and Linguistics from the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC. The matter would not be worth mentioning except for the fact that her date of death is entered, establishing that the record is of late enough date that her scholastic accomplishments should have been recorded.

S ELF -R ECOVERY , O RTHODOXY , AND O RTHOPRAXY While the chronology in the sources available is not quite clear, it appears that Sr. Thea taught English at Viterbo College before obtaining her doctorate and returned again after. It appears that she taught all levels of primary, secondary, and post secondary school. Further research needs to be done to obtain an exact chronology. However, while at Viterbo she taught English in a unique way. For example, she felt Shakespeare should be experienced not just read. Hence, “she took her students to Stratford, England, to Stratford, Ontario, to colleges and high schools, to anywhere Shakespeare was being performed 20 .” Her community writes, During these years, Sister Thea also reached out to the city of La Crosse and the surrounding area by conducting inter-cultural workshops for elementary school children introducing them not only to the customs and values of different races and cultures, but also to persons for whom these values and cultures had special meaning 21 . Seeing her fellow Black Catholic students at CUA, where there was a lively expression of spirituality that is Black and is Catholic, re-awakened in Thea the rich cultural heritage that she had learned earlier in Canton, Mississippi from those very prayerful and spiritual “old folks”. These were people who went to their God in song, with the woes, joys, and kept a conversation going with the Lord on their everyday lives. Thea began to overcome some of the effects of the systemic racism that pervades all our institutions, including religious orders and the church. The educational institutions ensure that values and social attitudes are internalized and thus ethnic minorities as well as dominant groups are socialized into accepting concepts of the “common destiny”, “melting pot”, “equal opportunity for all”, and that “all [persons] are created equal”. Along with these concepts, that

- 4 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 are not existential realities, coexists the projection of negative images of African Americans and their perceived “culture”. The proliferation of negative media images, reinforced by the lack of material disseminated on African American achievements and contributions to society, and the publication of stereotype maintaining topics such as Labov’s (1969) monograph, “The Logic of Non- Standard English”, which continues the debate on whether African American school children can “form concepts or convey logical thought”, contribute to the acceptance of the perception of African Americans as lacking in positive qualities (p. 113) 22 . The previous experiences with institutional racism did not embitter Thea. She states, “Love sustains me 23 .” ..Chronology notwithstanding, it is clear that at CUA, Sr. Thea met other Black religious and priests. It was a turning point that re-introduced her to celebration of black expression. If one expands “university” to include any institutional group in the United States in the following citation, perhaps one can gain an insight into what may have blossomed forth at CUA. While socializing the non-European student into the dominant values, concepts, and categories of thought, it also awakens her or him to the realization that these are surreal (for example, “white middle class values”, “world history’). The latter term is in reality European history, and the former insinuates that morality, ethics, and being a decent person is an exclusively white middle class characteristic. . . . The positive outcome of seeing these constructs as surreal is a search for intellectual fulfillment beyond what is available at the university. So, accepting the limitations of the institution and invoking the generative words, “there are no pyramids in Europe,” one can acquire the tools for one’s personal praxis. Although all students who are pursuing growth—intellectual, spiritual, and emotional should—go beyond the limits of the university, for the African American it is not optional, it is imperative (p. 117) 24 . During work on her doctorate, Thea read how the oral-literary tradition had died out in Europe in the Middle Ages. Recalling her childhood in Canton, she realized that oral-literary tradition was still quite alive for Black people. Jones writes, Bowman did a paper on the topic [oral-literary tradition], a paper that led her, in the 1960s, in two directions at once. To explain the black oral-literary tradition, this trained vocalist used song as she taught the first black studies courses at CUA. And to illustrate the topoi of the oral tradition—the common lines, the common rhythm, the dependence on the background knowledge of the audience, the telescoping of time— Bowman also presented and sang a paper on the Negro spiritual. She was asked to give the same paper at Howard University, then elsewhere. Soon she was storming the college circuit— which is where many Americans first heard her 25 (p. 4).

- 5 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 So one sees that it was not so much that Thea, changed her work. She began to realize the wealth of Black people and to share it. Since, her first love is God, through his people, Thea sees that the treasures of not only Black people but all people must be shared with each other. My favorite approach toward promoting racial understanding is to bring people into situations where they can share their treasures. I mean treasures such as art, food, prayers, history, and traditions. I think as people share those treasures we get to know one another. Then we reach a point where we can begin to talk about our concerns and issues and needs. As I grow to understand your needs and you grow to understand mine, we can see our common needs and begin to work together (p. 25). At CUA Sr. Thea rediscovered her self. “I like being black. I like being myself and I thank God for making me my black self 26 .” She believed in the teachings of the church (orthodoxy) and felt that her Franciscan calling demanded that she call her beloved church as represented by the American Bishops to orthopraxy, to put into practice what they preach and teach. Surviving our history, physically, mentally, emotionally, morally, spiritually, faithfully, and joyfully, our people developed a culture that was African and American, that was formed and enriched by all that we experienced. And despite all this, despite the civil rights movement of the ‘60s and the socio- educational gains of the ‘70s, blacks in the ‘80s are still struggling, still scratching and clawing as the old folks said, still trying to find home in the homeland and home in the church, still struggling to gain access to equal opportunity (p. 115) 27 . For so many of us, being black and Catholic means having come into the church because education opened the door to evangelization. It means, in an age when black men and black women were systematically kept out of the priesthood and out of most religious communities, there were those who cared and who came and who worked with and for us and among us and helped us to help ourselves. And now our black American bishops, in the name of the church universal, have publicly declared that we as a people of faith, as a Catholic people of God, have come of age. And it is time for us to be evangelizers of ourselves. What does it mean to be black and Catholic? It means that I come to my church fully functioning. I bring my self, my black self. That doesn't frighten you, does it? I bring my whole history, traditions, experience, culture, my African-American song and dance and gesture and movement and teaching and preaching and healing and responsibility as a gift to the church (p. 116) 28 . The revival of interest in Celtic spirituality or in the Rhine mystics or even religious communities going back to their roots is seen as following the mandates of the Second Vatican Council. The presentation of the spirituality and spiritual heritage and gifts of Black people in the United States is seen as activism. I suggest that in presenting the story of the African American people, Thea was simply showing that she believed what was written in the Council document, Gaudium et Spes, and carrying out that belief in concrete form.

- 6 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 . . . The Church has been sent to all ages and nations and, therefore, is not tied to any race or nation, to any one particular way of life, or to any customary practices, ancient or modern. The Church is faithful to its traditions and is at the same time conscious of its universal mission; it can, then, enter into communion with different forms of culture, thereby enriching itself and the cultures themselves (p. 962-3) 29 .

Although Black people have been a part of the United States and the Catholic Church in the United States, yet Americans have been extremely tardy in recognizing this in law, economics, morality, education, religious communities, and the Church. Until the Second Vatican Council, European cultural expression was treated as the universal and only expression of Catholic Christian liturgy in the west. However, unlike Rev. Stallins, Thea did not wish to break with the Church. She chose to work from within through education, formal and otherwise. She sought to share the gifts of Black people, to learn and appreciate the gifts of other peoples for the benefit of all in reciprocal learning, teaching, appreciation and sharing. Sr. Thea was the recipient of the first La Crosse Diocese Justice and Peace Award in 1982, the first recipient of the Sister Thea Bowman Justice Award from Bishop Topel Ministries in Spokane in 1989 and, the Laetare Award from Notre Dame University. In a surprise presentation on March 26, 1989, she received four awards 30 : one from former President Ronald Reagan, one from Secretary of Education William Bennett, another from Wisconsin Congressman Steve Gunderson, and one from Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson. They said in part: “You are, in a single word, an inspiration. You draw potential from our inner beings… make us aware of gifts we never knew we possessed…and, most importantly through your ministry of joy, enable us to improve the quality of our lives and those we touch every day” (pp. 156-7) 31 .

I will not speculate on what these awards meant to Thea Bowman, but to me they signify the far reaching effects of her efforts. Her life and work were not just significant to Catholic Americans of African descent but to both the wider Church and society. Like Francis, she is loved and admired by a myriad of peoples of a myriad religious affiliations.

T HEA : F RANCISCAN In Thea Bowman, two aspects of Clare’s are apparent as their words make evident. Clare wrote to Agnes of Prague, What you hold, may you always hold, What you do, may you always do and never abandon. But with swift pace, light step, unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir up no dust, may you go forward

- 7 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness, not believing anything, not agreeing with anything that would dissuade you from this resolution or that would place a stumbling block for you on the way, so that you may offer your vows to the Most High in the pursuit of that perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you 32 (p. 41).

Clare was not giving advice she had not followed herself. She had overcome family and societal barriers to follow her vocation. She had faced alone the anger and ire of her male relatives. Clare stayed true to her calling. It was if Thea Bowman had read the letter to Agnes and decided that it spoke directly to her. Sr. Bowman stated, I wanted to do whatever I had to do to be a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration. And I wanted to be the best Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration I could be. I felt that God had called me. And that He would be with me every step of the way. And if He didn’t, He would send me home 33 .

The Legend [of St. Clare] while not specifying the nature of illness, speaks of her continual illness during a span of twenty-eight years. In spite of this, Clare appears as an inwardly strong, determined woman, convinced of the form of life and the charism of poverty that Francis gave to her and insistent on obtaining papal approval in order to protect it 34 . Thea, like Clare, was no stranger to illness. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 which metastasized in her lymph nodes and later spread to the bone of the lumbar and thoracic spine, ribs and shoulder blades 35 . Through all this, Thea, continued to pray, sing, preach and teach. Thea states, I grew up with people who believed you could serve the Lord from a sickbed or a deathbed. The great commandment is to love the Lord with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and all your strength. As long as I have any mental facility, I want to keep on loving. I want to keep on serving. That’s what I hope to be about 36 (p. 21). Like both Francis and Clare, Thea wished to know the pain that Jesus felt. While it is not evident from the sources, it appears, she felt this pull to experience Jesus pain from her Franciscan charism as well as from the more evident expression of Black spiritual tradition: Our prayer tradition attempts to go to God with feeling and passion and emotion and intensity. I want to be a part of what Jesus felt as he hung on the cross. I want to feel the anguish. I also want to feel the love that motivated him to save us. . . . [H]e accepted the sufferings of a lifetime as a human being to give us life. I want to feel that love, that compassion 37 (p. 20)

- 8 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 While it may not be a readily acceptable hypothesis, I strongly believe that in presenting the story of Black and other non-European Catholics to the members of the dominant group in the American Church, Thea Bowman, was rebuilding the Church. By showing the marginal members of the Church their various cultural and spiritual treasures, she challenged them to become “fully functioning” to the benefit of themselves and the Church. Through Thea, minority group Catholics were empowered to become living stones equipped with the knowledge that they were not “less than”. The unity of the Church was as important to Thea as it was for Francis, as he stated in The Earlier Rule : And all of us lesser brothers, useless servants, humbly ask and beg all those who wish to serve the Lord God within the holy, catholic, and apostolic church, and all the following orders: priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, lectors, porters, and all clerics, all religious men and all religious women, all lay brothers and youths, the poor and the needy, kings and princes, workers and farmers, servants and masters, all virgins and continent and married women, all lay people, men and women, all children, adolescents, the young and the old, the healthy and the sick, all the small and the great, all peoples, races, tribes, and tongues, all nations and all peoples everywhere on earth who are and who will be— that all of us may persevere in the true faith and in penance, for otherwise no one will be saved 38 (p. 132). Thea expressed the same more succinctly, stating, “I see my role as an Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration as the role of every Christian, really, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, to be Church 39 ” and further, “to pray together when our hearts are not one. . . is sacrilege 40 ”. Again, just like Francis, Thea states, “I want to live joyfully, I want to be Good News to other people 41 .” Thea exemplifies the good religious of whom Francis spoke in his Admonitions: . . . Blessed is that religious who takes no pleasure and joy except in the most holy words and deeds of the Lord and with these leads people to the love of God in joy and gladness 42 (p. 33).

I MPLICATIONS Working on this paper has made me realize that in depth research needs to be done on Thea Bowman. There are chronological questions that could be easily resolved if one had the resources to physically go over the archives at La Crosse and the Catholic University of America. A thorough treatment of Bowman’s life would necessarily include documentary research, as has already been stated, and interviews with people who knew her. Although, I have tried to present a description of her life and achievements, as well as, present specific Franciscan values found in Francis and Clare exhibited in and by Thea’s life, the work presented here only touches the surface and leaves me with a feeling that the project is incomplete. However, as previously

- 9 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 stated, the restraints of space, time and resources hinder a more comprehensive treatment of the subject.

C ONCLUSION This paper prompted reflections on what it means, personally, to be African, American, Catholic, and Franciscan. Of these identities, I believe the first one I was aware of as a child is that I was Catholic. The second was that I was different (African) . . . I wondered how sister knew anything about us people because there weren't any others in the school or among the parishioners. They told us we were always late but how many of us did they know 43 (p. 7)?

Unlike Thea, I’m from the north, Brooklyn, New York. Also, unlike Thea, I grew up in a mixed neighbourhood consisting of Eastern Rite (Lebanese) Catholics, Irish and Italian Catholics, Puerto Rican Catholics and Pentecostals, Black Baptists, Middle Eastern and other Moslems and me: Black and Catholic. I was raised by my paternal grandparents, an Indonesian Moslem grandfather and Baptist grandmother. My mother’s side of the family were Catholic. I grew up in a ghetto of one and my questions of identity were enormous. The feeling of being a perennial outsider compelled an exit from Church, home and country as soon as I could after graduating from the diocesan high school. It took years to realize that one cannot easily flee God or the teaching of the Catholic parochial school system. I returned to the Church, equipped with a clearer idea of who I was. As Thea said, When we know who we are and claim the history, we claim the struggle, the pain, the challenge, the purpose, the journey, and the dream. We are who we are and Whose we are because of all our journeys, and the children that belong to our communities are enriched because of a pluralism that reflects life in a world that is pluralistic. Do we know all we can know, of ourselves, of our history, of our arts, and of our experience, of our goals and of our values, the full range of what has made us a people. When we know and understand, then we can do what we need to do to help ourselves 44 (p. 309). In an earlier paper, I had questions about humility in light of the prevalence of racism, sexism, and classism in North America. How does one reconcile the Franciscan call to humility in light of these factors? I was shown that humility is simply accepting the truth about God, others, and oneself and after exploring the life of Thea Bowman, I realized that I was not far off track in interpreting the Franciscan charism for those of us who are not members of the “white middle class”. It has been my contention that for marginalized people, poverty and humility entail realizing that all the gifts one has come from God. In addition, these virtues entail becoming who God has called one to be and helping others do so the same. One can do this by helping the ‘lepers’ of our time realize that they are beloved children of God and also have gifts to offer. Thea said,

- 10 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 Some people are taught that they are superior, some that they are inferior. Many of us have internalized racist, materialistic and elitist values and assumptions. But I think we have within ourselves the power to reevaluate those assumptions.. . . .It is important to say to your child every day "You're somebody special because you're God's child." And say to your wife or husband, "You're God's gift to me and I really, really, really love you." . . . [Thea] encourages teachers to have their students display their baby pictures on the bulletin board as "heroes and she-roes of the future." Whatever will boost the children’s self-image will go a long way toward equipping them to be leaders in the community 45 . (pp. 25-7).

When I think of my Franciscan calling two stories involving lepers come to mind. Regarding the first, I want to love with a love that impelled Francis to kiss the leper. With regard to the second, I would like to be the one leper of the ten who returned to say, “thank you” to Jesus by the way I live my life. The words of Thea Bowman best express my dream as an Catholic African American (Canadian) Franciscan woman, May the Spirit within us and among us inspire us to keep on keeping on, in our homes and families, in our communities and in our Church. May the Spirit inspire us and may we share our spiritual and cultural gifts with the Church and with the world. We’ve come this far by faith. Can’t turn around 46 (p. 310).

N OTE : A shorter version of the paper was presented at the African-American Pre-Conference of the Adult Education Research Conference in May 2000 at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia and published in the proceedings of that conference and at the Exploring the Social World 2 Conference at the University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK in September 2000. You may use the contents of this paper provided acknowledgment by way of bibliographic citation is given to the author.

- 11 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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“A Final Farewell to Sister Thea Bowman” Viterbo Strides Fall 1990: 6-7

Rathburn, FSPA, Rita. “I am a Part of All That I Have Met: An Interview with Thea Bowman, FSPA”, FSPA Perspectives , 1988, Spring, pp. 3-4,

Taylor, Fabvienen. “Lord, Let Me Live Till I Die” in Praying (National Catholic Reporter) Vol. 33 November/December 1989, pp.19-22

Secretariat for the Liturgy and Secretariat for Black Catholics.. Plenty Good Room The Spirit and Truth of African American Catholic Worship. Washington (DC): National Conference of Catholic Bishops / United States Catholic Conference 1991, p. 56

- 13 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 N OTES

- 14 - Victoria Marie, OSC January 1999 1 Hine, Darlene Clark (ed.). “Bowman, Sister Thea (1937-1990)” in Black Women In America: An Historical Encyclopedia , 1993, edition, pp. 155-157

2 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

3 “Sister Thea: Ambassador of Good News”, FSPA Perspectives , 1988, Spring, pp. 8-9

4 “A Final Farewell to Sister Thea Bowman” Viterbo Strides Fall 1990: 6-7

5 Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, La Crosse, Wisconsin Register No. 1725 , [registry entry or pages of Sister M. Thea Bowman (Bertha)]

6 ibid.

7 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

8 Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, La Crosse, Wisconsin Register No. 1725 , [registry entry or pages of Sister M. Thea Bowman (Bertha)]

9 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

10 ibid.

11 Jones, Arthur. “She Sings a Ululu Story That Began in Africa” in National Catholic Reporter , 24.40, 9 September 1988, p. 4

12 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

13 Jones, Arthur. “She Sings a Ululu Story That Began in Africa” in National Catholic Reporter , 24.40, 9 September 1988, p. 4

14 Browining, Catherine. “Trusting the prophetic all: Thea Bowman, FSPA” in Creation . Vol 5:4 November/December 1989, pp. 19-21

15 Jones, Arthur. “She Sings a Ululu Story That Began in Africa” in National Catholic Reporter , 24.40, 9 September 1988, p. 4

16 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

17 ibid.

18 ibid.

19 ibid.

20 Jones, Arthur. “She Sings a Ululu Story That Began in Africa” in National Catholic Reporter , 24.40, 9 September 1988, p. 4

21 Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Press Release: March 30, 1990 22 ibid.

23 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

24 (Davies) Marie, Victoria. “Wholism in the Study of American Society” in Changing the Climate: Graduate Studies in Western Canada . Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan 1994, pp. 110-117

25 Jones, Arthur. “She Sings a Ululu Story That Began in Africa” in National Catholic Reporter , 24.40, 9 September 1988, p. 4

26 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

27 Bowman, Thea, FSPA, Ph.D. “To Be Black and Catholic” in Origins , July 6, 1989, Vol. 19: No. 8 pp. 113-118

28 ibid.

29 Flannery, O.P., Austin (general Editor). “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes ” No. 58 in Vatican Council II The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press 1979, pp. 962-963

30 .. Hine, Darlene Clark (ed.). “Bowman, Sister Thea (1937-1990)” in Black Women In America: An Historical Encyclopedia , 1993, edition, pp. 155-157

31 ibid.

32 Armstrong OFM Cap, Regis J. C lare of Assisi: Early Documents . St. Bonaventure: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1988

33 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media

34 Armstrong OFM Cap, Regis J. C lare of Assisi: Early Documents . St. Bonaventure: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1988

35 Taylor, Fabvienen. “Lord, Let Me Live Till I Die” in Praying (National Catholic Reporter) Vol. 33 November/December 1989, pp.19-22

36 ibid.

37 ibid.

38 Armstrong OFM Cap, Regis J. and Brady OFM, Ignacius C. “The Earlier Rule” , Chapter XXIII:7, in F RANCIS AND C LARE : The Complete Works . New York: Paulist Press, 1982, p. 132

39 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story - A Video Autobiography . Oblate Media 40 ibid.

41 ibid.

42 Armstrong OFM Cap, Regis J. and Brady OFM, Ignacius C. “The Admonitions Rule” , XX:1-2, in F RANCIS AND C LARE : The Complete Works . New York: Paulist Press, 1982, p. 33

43 Marie, OSF, Victoria. “They told me things, but God invited me to dance” Catholic New Times . Vol 22., No. 19, Dec. 6, 1998, p. 7

44 Bowman, F.S.P.A., Sr. Thea“Black History and Culture, 1880-1987” in U.S. Catholic Historian , 7:2 & 3, 1988 pp. 307-310

45 Bookser-Feister, John “We are all children of God” in Extension , Apr/May, 1989, pp. 24-27

46 Bowman, F.S.P.A., Sr. Thea“Black History and Culture, 1880-1987” in U.S. Catholic Historian , 7:2 & 3, 1988 pp. 307-310