St. Barbara, Master of Frankfurt (1460-ca. 1533)

“GOD seems to have set women apart to pay the debt of sin. Men saints have a wider sphere of action and one that attracts attention. They travel all over the world, found or reform Religious Orders, convert the heathen, exercise their ministry in the pulpit by their eloquence. Woman has a more passive role to fulfill: she has not the sacerdotal character and may pass her life in silent suffering on a bed of sickness. The temperament of a woman is more affectionate and devoted, as well as less selfish than a man’s. She is likewise more impressionable and susceptible of emotion. Our Lord Himself met with a readier welcome from women; they excel in little and refined attentions, little acts of thoughtful charity such indeed as a man, unless he is a St. Francis of Assisi, overlooks.”

— Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907)

Please follow and like us: