Their eyes were watching God, but their hands and minds showed a keen instinct for survival in the material world. This, says author Laura Swan, was the wisdom of the beguines: women who defied the ...

The historian Barbara Tuchman called the “calamitous” 14th century a “distant mirror” of our own times. Its predecessor, the 13th century, seems not to offer the same possibility for contemporary ...

I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World Pulitzer-winning economist Ahamed (Lords of Finance) offers an eye-opening investigation of the “first truly significant global ...

I recently spent ten days in Belgium and the Netherlands, visiting Amsterdam, Antwerp, Louvain (Leuven) and Bruges. My purpose for being there was an academic conference in Louvain. Each of the cities ...

Women's ministerial vocations have differed throughout the centuries, but they have existed in every era and in every locale. Benedictine Sr. Laura Swan, former prioress of St. Placid Priory in the ...

In a frame on my desk is a small rectangle of lace patterned with flowers and swans in fine white filigree. It is a cherished souvenir, made by one of the Benedictine sisters who live in a walled ...

Les béguines, ces femmes qui consacraient leur vie à Dieu sans pour autant se retirer du monde, fondèrent au XIIIe siècle des béguinages, ensembles clos répondant à leurs besoins spirituels et ...

The cobblestone path dips below street level to a small haven of mottled red brick buildings and arched doorways. The occasional bicycle is propped up against a wall. A trilingual sign forbids ...

A historic courtyard in the city centre was once home to a pious order of women. It is still a wonderfully peaceful spot, though these days anyone is free to enjoy its serenity In Amsterdam’s busy ...