When I was a young Sister of St. Joseph, I had a great desire to learn about our foremothers in the faith. While I dearly love the biblical texts, it is sometimes difficult to see myself in them because our lectionary texts nearly always feature our forefathers. Jesus’ dedicated women disciples—with the exception of Mary of Nazareth—are pretty much invisible. As I began studying for a master’s in theology at our local seminary, I devoured information about early Christian women. In this series of four essays, I hope to trace historical roots of women’s religious communities and perhaps help readers begin to recognize themselves in our early Christian history.

Expansion of Christianity

The Jesus movement spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire due in part to the initiative of female apostles, prophets, evangelists, missionaries, heads of house churches and widows. Its growth can also be attributed to the financial support from Christian businesswomen such as Mary of Magdala and Joanna (cf. Lk 8:1-3), Lydia (cf. Acts 16:11-40), Phoebe (cf. Rom 16:1-2), Olympias, a fourth-century deacon, and others. Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged as much on February 14, 2007, when he said, “without the generous contribution of many women, the history of Christianity would have developed very differently.” The “female presence in the sphere of the primitive Church,” he also noted, was in no way “secondary”.

Read more at: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-02/sisters-project-story-consecrated-life-early-christian-church.html