Women We Should Know From the New Testament & Early Church

Hello, everyone.

So I think we're going to, we're just going to go ahead and get started.

Hopefully some people will be trickling in.

We are in the midst of a series on women in Christianity,

women we should know and love and honor.

And John Hinkson has been doing a great job.

He's been talking about women in Reformation era, Puritan era, you know, 15, 16, 1700s.

And in this class, we're going to go back farther in time to the early church.

And we're going to begin with the New Testament

and talk about some of the women in the New Testament.

These names, I think, will be pretty familiar to most of us,

but I'm hoping that perhaps we'll uncover some new things.

But even if we don't, I'm hoping that their lives will be encouraging to us.

And then we're going to move from the New Testament to women in the early church.

The first few centuries, a little bit afterwards of when Christianity began.

And these names may be a bit more unfamiliar.

Before I begin, I just want to give you guys kind of a warning about the state of evidence.

Because when we deal with the ancient world, as with everything in the ancient world,

we've lost an enormous amount of material.

And so most of these folks we're going to be talking about,

we just have little snippets of information, sometimes just a paragraph.

But that actually is worth quite a lot in the context of the ancient world.

For some women, we have much more.

But this is the case for most men in the ancient world also.

We know almost nothing or very little about them.

So because of this, in the past classes in this series,

John's focused on just one woman or maybe two.

But we're going to be looking at a bunch.

We're going to do just a series of vignettes of little portraits.

Some are going to be very quick.

Some are going to be a little longer.

And hopefully that will give us kind of understanding of the breadth

and of accomplishments of these women and how they were used by God

to glorify him and to build up his church.

Why don't I begin with prayer?

Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to worship you together,

to gather here safely in your name.

Father, we're going to be reading about women who'd never had that opportunity.

And we pray we'd be encouraged by their faith and how much they loved you

and how much they sacrificed, how faithful they were in honoring you.

I pray, Lord, that their testimonies would echo in our hearts

and would build us up, would encourage us, would rebuke us where we need rebuking,

would give us peace where we need peace.

Father, we pray all this in the name of your son, Jesus.

Amen.

Okay, so like I said, we're going to be starting in the New Testament

before we move on to early Christianity.

We're going to start with the name of a woman that many of us know, Elizabeth.

She, as you know, was the mother of John the Baptist.

And I start with her because she's going to begin a little theme

we'll be addressing in the first section of our talk.

And that's because in the Gospel of Luke, Luke's the only writer who mentions Elizabeth.

And he talks about, in Luke chapter 1,

Luke 1 · chapter mention

how after her husband, Zacharias, had the angel appear to him

and was told that she was going to become pregnant,

which would answer their long-sought-after prayer, despite her age,

she became pregnant, she conceived.

And then in Luke chapter 1, verse 41, Luke describes how Mary,

Luke 1:41

the mother of Jesus, who was pregnant, came to meet Elizabeth,

who was also pregnant with John the Baptist.

And, quote,

When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby, that's John, leaped in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

and she exclaimed with a loud cry,

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears,

the baby in my womb leaped for joy,

and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment

of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

So it's a beautiful passage.

This is almost all of the little we know about Elizabeth.

What I want to highlight here, though,

is how she was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And Luke doesn't use the word,

but she seems to give a prophecy here

about Mary and also about her child, Jesus.

She was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And that's going to be a little theme that Luke is going to emphasize,

because right after this, in Luke chapter 1,

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Mary replies with this beautiful hymn, this beautiful song.

It's often called the Magnificat.

Mary says,

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

Mary also then, in reply, gives this sort of prophetic word about her

and points out, like Elizabeth did,

that everyone from all generations are going to call Mary blessed

because she was blessed with conceiving and bearing and giving birth

and nursing the Son of God.

This little vignette of Elizabeth and Mary,

it reminds us of some of the women in the Old Testament

who also sang songs,

women like Miriam, Moses' sister,

and Deborah, the judge,

who all had these sort of prophetic ministries amongst the people

and who were called prophetesses,

just like these two women.

Luke goes on to tell us that Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes,

and Luke also gives us another little hint about something

that we have to delve below the surface to understand.

He says in Luke 2, verse 19,

Luke 2:19

when he's describing some occurrences that happened around the birth of Jesus,

he says that Mary, quote,

treasured all of these things in her heart.

And then, later on in the chapter, in Luke 51,

he says it again.

And scholars have pondered why Luke says this,

why does he repeat it,

and what does it mean?

And there is a theory,

which I think is the right one.

This is the one I favor,

is that Luke is indicating

where he is getting his information from.

He's kind of revealing his source for this,

that Mary remembered this.

And so he either interviewed Mary,

or he knew someone who knew Mary very well,

who relayed these stories about Jesus' birth.

And Luke is sort of giving this sort of subtly

as a clue to where he's getting his information from.

There's another,

there's a reason why we think this also,

because if we keep reading the Gospel of Luke,

we quickly, in chapter 2,

come across another prophetess,

another female prophet,

named Anna.

And we know very little about Anna.

This is a beautiful,

but highly unrealistic picture of Anna.

The codex had not been invented yet

when Anna was reading.

So everything was in a scroll.

So she,

and presumably at 84 years old,

she would not have been able to afford something like this.

But Luke tells us that when they brought,

Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple,

that there was a prophetess,

and in his words named Anna,

the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years,

having lived with her husband seven years

from when she was a virgin,

and then as a widow until she was 84.

And she did not depart from the temple,

worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

And coming up at that very hour,

she began to give thanks to God

and to speak of him to all

who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

That's all we know about Anna.

But what's remarkable is

if we start piecing these things together,

we see that in the first three chapters,

first two chapters of Luke,

we have three women

who are filled with the Holy Spirit

and who are speaking words of encouragement

about this coming Savior,

about Jesus.

And we have,

I've already mentioned them,

like Miriam and Deborah,

we have examples in the Old Testament,

but we see this clustering

of Luke emphasizing the role of women

in the early life of Jesus.

And that continues in the Gospel of Luke.

If we go to Luke chapter eight,

there's this fascinating little passage

that we're aching to know more about,

but Luke doesn't really let us know more.

But he's talking about Jesus.

He says,

soon afterwards,

this is chapter eight,

one through three.

He says,

soon afterwards,

Jesus went through cities and villages

proclaiming and bringing the good news

of the kingdom of God

and the 12,

the apostles,

the 12 apostles were with him.

But then Luke gives this wonderful detail.

He says,

and also some women were with Jesus

who had been healed of evil spirits

and infirmities.

Mary called Magdalene

from whom seven demons had gone out

and Joanna,

the wife of Chusa,

Herod's household manager

and Susanna

and many others.

Who provided for them

out of their means.

So,

we have this image of Jesus

when he's doing his itinerant preaching

and going from village to village.

His disciples,

his apostles are with him

and that's all true.

But Luke lets us know

that it was more than just the 12 apostles.

That there were also women with Jesus

who were following him

in his itinerant ministry

going from village to village,

city to city.

And not only that,

that they are providing

for him out of their means.

That they apparently fairly well off.

They're providing for his ministry.

They're supporting it.

And one of them,

at least,

Joanna,

she is called the wife of Chusa

who is King Herod's household manager.

So,

the steward would be kind of

the most senior

of the household staff

or the palace staff.

And she is the wife of this guy.

So,

she would have been fairly well to do

even if Chusa was,

it's possible that he was a slave.

But back in the ancient world,

slaves in this position

could be fairly wealthy

or have a lot of means

behind their jobs.

So,

this is also interesting

because Jesus' disciples,

you know,

they tended to be fishermen

and carpenters.

He was a carpenter.

But here we have

a woman of some wealth,

at least,

following him as well.

In total,

there are 14 women

mentioned by Luke

but are not mentioned

by any other gospel writer.

And

this is one reason

why scholars

think

that

many of the unique

stories that Luke has

are because

he knew some of these women

and they shared with him

these stories

and that they were

the sources

that he mentioned

when he says

in the very beginning

of Luke chapter 1

Luke 1 · chapter mention

that I wanted to go

to the eyewitnesses themselves.

That he's not just

talking about the apostles,

he's also

speaking about

some of these women

like Mary,

the mother of Jesus,

and perhaps

these other women

like Joanna

or Susanna.

There's another

beautiful story

in Luke

which is very famous

about Mary and Martha

and how Jesus

was at their house.

They were hosting him

and how Martha,

Luke says,

was distracted

with much serving

and preparation

and hosting Jesus

and all the other people

who were presumably there

and Mary was

sitting at Jesus' feet

and listening

and learning

and there's that

Martha gets kind of

annoyed at this

and Jesus

says

that,

Martha,

Martha,

you are anxious

and troubled

about many things

but one thing

is necessary.

Mary has chosen

the good portion

which will not

be taken away

from her.

So this is another

little window

in the ministry

and life of Jesus.

What's remarkable

here is that

Jesus wanted

women to learn

from him

just like the other

disciples were

and this was not

a normal thing

in the ancient world

to do

but for Jesus

that's exactly

what he wants

in his female

disciples.

As we go through

many of us

are aware

of the women

in the last hours

of Jesus' life

when he was

carrying

his cross.

Luke describes

how there was

a crowd of people

but he signals out

the women in particular

who were following.

He describes

how Jesus

addresses them.

He says,

daughters of Jerusalem

do not weep for me

but weep for yourselves

and for your children

and he gives

sort of a prophecy

about the terrible

things that are coming

and of course

the women were there

when they saw

Jesus die

on the cross

and when they

laid him

in the tomb

and wrapped him

in clothes

and then Luke

and the other

gospel writers

describe how

they were the first

ones to go

to the tomb

and other gospel

writers indicate

that Jesus

appeared to them

first.

Now this is

another

remarkable aspect

of Jesus' ministry.

It's often said

you may have heard

it before

that in the ancient

world

the testimony

of women

was not valued

or not believed.

We see this

in the gospel

accounts themselves.

Luke says

that when the women

returned

to report

to the apostles

Luke 24 11

that their words

seemed like

an idle tale

and they did not

believe it

and remember

they didn't

believe it

even though

Jesus had said

this was going

to happen

and then they

reported and

they still

are refusing

to believe it

and I actually

wanted to make

sure sometimes

we hear these

assertions that

the ancient world

was a certain

way like they

didn't accept

the testimony

of women

and I've tried

to track this

down and nail

it down

and I discovered

that if you

look in

Greco-Roman law

books if you

look also in

Jewish customs

they do

specifically say

that the

testimony of

women is

outlawed in

court and

you have that

in Greek law

you have it

in Jewish law

and you have

it in Roman

law Latin

law as well

by the by the

third century

that had

changed but

there was still

a stigma we

have jurists

you know lawyers

in Rome saying

yes you know

women are allowed

to do this but

they will even

say there's a

great prejudice

against them

and I point

this out because

it's it makes

it all the more

remarkable

that Jesus

chose to reveal

himself in this

way and the

early church

acknowledged this

there's a writer

named Hippolytus

he has a

commentary on the

Song of Songs

and Tyler

you'll appreciate

this he

interprets the

Song of Songs

as this sort

of love song

between the

soul and

God but

he also

interprets it

allegorically as

representing all

of like the

myrrh and the

ointments that

are mentioned in

the Song of Songs

he keeps giving

these allusions

to the women

who helped

bury Jesus

and he laid

him in the

tomb with

all these

with all

these perfumes

and ointments

and Hippolytus

famously calls

the women

apostles to

the apostles

because he

says that they

were the ones

who preached

the good news

to the apostles

so that the

apostles could

preach it to

the world

if we keep

going with Luke

there's that

scene on the

way to Emmaus

where Jesus

appears to

Cleopas and

another person

and Luke

doesn't tell us

who it is

it's an

anonymous person

and there's a

scholar Richard

Bauckham who

makes an argument

that this is

probably Cleopas'

wife and we

he says it for a

couple reasons

but one reason

is that we know

Cleopas had a

wife because she

was at the tomb

or helped bury

Jesus she was one

of the women who

was around and

so there's good

reason for thinking

that we don't

know that for

sure but it's

I think very

possible perhaps

even probable

if we keep

reading Luke is

not done with

his discussions

of women if

we read the

book of Acts

he mentions that

in chapter 1

when all the

disciples are

together with

one accord

devoting themselves

to prayer he

points out

specifically that

it wasn't just

the male disciples

he says together

with the women

and Mary the

mother of Jesus

he also mentions

at this point

his brothers

they apparently

hadn't always

believed but

already in chapter

1 in Acts

they're there

they've been

convinced

if we

so to sum

up

we find that

in Luke's

gospel he

tells us that

not only did

women have a

very important

place in Jesus'

ministry

they also had

an important

place as sources

for the gospel

of Luke

I think it's

very fair to

say that

the apostles

seem to have

taken up

Jesus'

examples

of how he

interacted with

women

which was

fairly contrary

to the custom

of the ancient

world

and this is

I'm just going

to give some

scatter shots

here of other

women in the

New Testament

before we get

on to women

in early

Christianity

but there was

Phoebe a deacon

in the church

of Corinth

who Paul

mentions to

the Romans

there's

Judea

and Syntyche

Paul calls

them fellow

workers

there's of

course Priscilla

and Aquila

the husband

wife missionary

team

they were the

ones who

sat Barnabas

down and

explained the

word of God

more accurately

to him

and that

proved to be

enormously

influential in

the church

Barnabas was

one of the

great missionaries

and apostles

of the early

church

and Priscilla

and Aquila

are mentioned

many times

in Paul's

letters and

in the book

of Acts

also

there's

a woman

Junia

who's mentioned

in Romans

and Paul

says that

she is

quote well

known among

the apostles

and this

has proved

controversial

this passage

is controversial

for a few

reasons

one is that

the name

is feminine

it's not

a hundred

percent sure

but it's

likely

all the

evidence

is in

favor of

it

but the

evidence

is not

you know

completely

rock solid

and then

the question

of what

that phrase

means

among the

apostles

people have

debated

if Paul

is here

saying that

this woman

is famous

to the

apostles

that the

apostles

all know

her

and she's

beloved

by them

or if

he's saying

he is

classing her

among the

apostles

as like

an apostle

herself

and this

is controversial

for several

reasons

there are

some early

Christian

writers

John

Chrysostom

Theodorette

they're

writing in

Greek

and they

interpret

this passage

as referring

to a

woman

and calling

her

an apostle

what seems

to be going

on

is that

that term

apostle

is what

we would

probably call

missionary

in the

New Testament

whenever we

translate apostle

we usually

translate it

as like a

special term

for the

twelve

or maybe

Paul the

apostle

but it's

actually

used more

broadly in

the New

Testament

to refer

to

missionaries

and general

missionaries

from churches

so that's

probably what's

going on

here

but again

she was

very prominent

and then

there were

also several

churches

that

met in

the houses

of women

and we know

some of them

like Chloe

in Corinth

Lydia

who's mentioned

in Acts

Nympha

who's mentioned

into the

Colossians

and so

these are

all some

of the

roles

that women

played in

the early

church

we don't

know nearly

as much

as we

would like

to know

about them

but these

are little

kind of

fragments

that remain

that we

can pick

up

okay

before we

I think

as a

fitting

transition

from the

New Testament

to women

in the early

church

I thought

that we

would talk

about

Peter's

mother-in-law

in the

Gospels

we find

that Peter

has a

mother-in-law

because she's

sick

and Jesus

heals her

and that also

tells us

that Peter

had a wife

because he

had a mother-in-law

and she's

never really

mentioned

in the Bible

but she is

mentioned

in early

Christian sources

there's this

one little

paragraph

about her

it's from a

writer named

Clement of

Alexandria

he's writing

around the

year 190

and he

says that

all he

says is

that he

has received

a tradition

that Peter

that Peter's

wife was

executed for

her faith

that she

was martyred

and he

says that

Peter saw

his wife

being led

away

for martyrdom

and that he

called out to

her and

encouraged her

and comforted

her and

addressed her

by name

saying

remember

the Lord

and Clement

says such

was the

marriage

of Peter

and his

wife

that they

would encourage

each other

like that

in their

moment of

most dire

need

Peter of

course after

this also

went on

to be

executed

we don't

know how

many years

afterwards

or how

soon

afterwards

but we

know that

he did

now what

I want to

do is

move ahead

about a

hundred years

from Peter's

own execution

and his

wife

to

France

to Lyon's

France

to a

woman

called

Blandina

and I

should probably

warn you

guys that

this account

of Blandina

and then the

next account

that I'll be

talking about

is a bit

gruesome

and terrible

I also want

to encourage

you though

that the

early church

considered

these accounts

to be

immensely

encouraging

for their

faith

they did

not write

these things

just to be

gory

or to

shock

people

but to

encourage

people

in following

Jesus

and it

seems

what happened

in Lyon's

France

around 170

was that

some rumors

started going

around about

horrible horrible

things that

Christians were

doing

and these

were slanders

they were

false

but it

stirred up

the populace

the pagans

were eager

to accuse

the Christians

of doing

wrong

and we

have a

lengthy

letter

we have

excerpts

from what

was a

lengthy

letter

describing

what

happened

and the

letter

begins

like this

it says

when these

accusations

were reported

all the

people

raged like

wild beasts

against us

so that

even if

some of

them

had been

moderate

towards us

because of

friendship

they were

now exceedingly

furious

and they

gnashed

their teeth

against us

and that

which was

spoken by

our Lord

was fulfilled

the time

will come

when whoever

kills you

will think

that they

do a

service

to God

and what

ended up

happening

the letter

is an

eyewitness

account of

what occurred

is that

they selected

some Christians

they tracked

some Christians

down

and this

happens again

and again

in early

church history

there's these

slanders

that come

against the

Christians

they tracked

down some

Christians

and then the

Romans

will try

their very

best to

make those

Christians

admit

that those

slanders

are true

and these

were things

like Christians

practiced

incest

that they

practiced

cannibalism

they did

all these

horrible

horrible

things

that they

would kill

little children

and things

like that

and so

these were

really awful

awful slanders

against Christians

and being

in Rome

which was a

very brutal

state where

torture was

legal and

even necessary

that they

would torture

them

and what

they did

is they

grabbed some

people

they have

some names

recorded

people like

Sanctus

who is a

deacon

from a

nearby city

and some

others

but the

letter goes

on to say

and Blandina

through whom

Christ showed

that things

which appear

mean and

obscure and

despicable to

men are

with God

of great

glory

and the

letter goes

on to say

that we

all trembled

in fear of

the sufferings

that their

companions were

going to

undergo

but Blandina

was afraid

for another

reason

she feared

that on

account of

the weakness

of her

body

she would

be unable

to make

a bold

confession

you start

piecing things

together

and what you

start realizing

is that

Blandina was

probably a

small frail

woman who

was probably

poor and

insignificant

and she

was caught

up in this

and was

arrested

and was set

to be

tortured

and her

one fear

was that

she would

not have the

strength to

loudly refute

these slanders

that were

being lodged

against them

the letter

writers say

that Blandina

was filled

with such

power

as to be

raised above

those who

were torturing

her by turns

morning till

evening

so that they

acknowledged

that they

were conquered

and could do

nothing more

to her

and they

were astonished

at her

endurance

the blessed

woman

like a

noble

athlete

renewed

her

strength

in her

confession

and she

kept

exclaiming

I am

a Christian

and there

is nothing

vile

done by

us

remember

that all

she had

to do

was deny

Christ

or admit

to these

slanders

to be released

from these

sufferings

and she

refused

to

so

after

her

entire

body

was mangled

from torture

they

stopped

for a

time

and

this is

very typical

in early

Christianity

that the

Romans would

then try

to make a

spectacle

out of

everything

so they

would set

up a

day

like a

big

it's very

perverse

but a

big

celebratory

day

where

everybody

would come

to the

local

stadium

and they

bring out

these

folks

and set

them

through

tortures

one more

time

before

executing

them

hoping

that

they

would

recant

their

faith

and

so

the

day

was

set

and

it

says

that

Blandina

was

suspended

on a

stake

and

exposed

to be

devoured

by wild

beasts

that they

were going

to let

in

and

the

letter

says

this

because

she

appeared

to be

hanging

on a

cross

and

because

of her

earnest

prayers

she

inspired

her

fellow

martyrs

with

great

zeal

for

they

looked

on

her

in

her

conflict

and

they

beheld

with

their

outward

eyes

in

the

form

of

their

sister

the

one

who

was

crucified

for

them

that

she

might

persuade

those

who

believe

in

him

that

everyone

who

suffers

for

the

glory

of

Christ

always

has

fellowship

with

the

living

God

they

go on

to say

that

Blandina

though

small

and weak

and despised

yet

the mighty

and conquering

athlete

she arose

with zeal

and overcame

the adversary

many times

and as a

noble mother

she encouraged

her children

and sent them

before her

victorious

to the king

and then

she was

executed

after that

and the letter

ends by saying

that the

heathen

the pagans

quote

confessed

that never

among them

had a woman

endured

so many

and such

terrible

tortures

Blandina

is

remarkable

for many

reasons

but

the one

I want

to highlight

when I

conclude

this

session

with her

is

that

this

happened

in France

and that

what her

actions did

planted

the seeds

of the gospel

in France

which

is still

a Christian

country

to this

day

with Christian

believers

there

but this

happened

with much

suffering

that she

bore joyfully

we have

one more

similar story

before we

go on

to less

weightier

topics

this one

is of

Perpetua

and Felicity

these were

two women

from Africa

we don't

know what

race they

were

this picture

here

has portrayed

them as

sub-Saharan

African

they may

have been

there's some

evidence

that Perpetua

at least

was a Berber

and that's

because her

name implies

a descent

from a Berber

so that means

she was not

Greek

she was not

Roman

of descent

those are

the two

privileged

ethnic groups

in antiquity

she was not

from them

she was from

North Africa

she was

well educated

she was

married

she had a

father and

mother

two brothers

one of whom

like herself

was a

catechumen

meaning just

an early

Christian

just had

recently made

the confession

to follow

Jesus

she was

22 years

old

we don't

know the

context

behind why

she and

Felicity and

some others

were arrested

but presumably

it was similar

to what happened

in Lyons

that some

rumor goes

out or

some governor

gets upset

and decides

he's gonna

do something

about the

Christians

what is

remarkable

about Perpetua

is that we

know about

her from

her own

words

she left

a journal

a diary

and we still

have excerpts

from this

a later

editor who

seems to

have known

her

took her

journal

and kind

of prefaced

it with some

comments

and then

gives excerpts

of her

writing

and then

wraps it up

at the end

and this is

remarkable

because she

that makes

her the

first

female

Christian

writer that

we have

is Perpetua

it also

makes her

one of the

earliest

Christian

Latin

writers that

we have

she's writing

around the

year 200

AD

this is

extremely

early for

Latin

Christian

literature

there

really

is only

maybe

two

documents

that

predate

this

that we

have in

Latin

but

they're

both

anonymous

they're

very

very

short

and

so

she's

in some

ways

the first

named

Latin

author

that we

know

about

she

was

22

years

old

which

also

makes

her

the

youngest

Latin

author

that we

know

about

at least

that I'm

aware

of

well

her

journal

begins

and she

says

she describes

her father

coming to

her begging

her to

recant

Christ

and he's

weeping

and she

refuses

and she's

she's taken

into a

dungeon

and she

says

quote

after a

few days

we were

taken

into the

dungeon

and I

was very

much

afraid

because I

had never

felt such

darkness

oh

terrible

day

oh

the fierce

heat

oh

the crowds

and the

soldiery

the prisoners

are just

packed

into this

hot cell

I was

very

unusually

distressed

she says

and then she

gives us

a frightful

detail

she says

I was

very

unusually

distressed

over anxiety

for my

infant

she also

had an

infant

baby

that she

was caring

for

she says

there were

present there

certain

deacons of

the church

who

by means

of a

gratuity

this may

have been

a bribe

it may

have been

a payment

that was

required

they managed

to allow

the prisoners

to get

permission

for the

prisoners

to go

to a

different

part

of the

dungeon

that was

better

and

so

she

says

we

were

allowed

to be

refreshed

there

for a

few

hours

in a

pleasanter

part

of the

prison

she says

there

I nursed

my child

who was

enfeebled

with hunger

and I

obtained

permission

for my

infant

to remain

with me

in the

dungeon

and immediately

I grew

strong

and was

relieved

from distress

and anxiety

about my

infant

and the dungeon

became to me

as it were

a palace

and I

preferred to be

there to be

anywhere else

she describes

how providentially