March 10 - Harriet Tubman, Escaped Slave, Abolitionist, Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman's grandmother had been brought over from Ghana to the United States of America as a slave. She had her freedom stripped from her and her children and children's children were condemned to a life of degradation and inhumanity. Harriet was born Araminta Ross and both of her parents were slaves. By virtue of her birth, she too was a slave. Her earliest job was that of a nursemaid for her owner's baby. At the age of five, Harriet was tasked with taking care of the child and insuring that it did not cry. When the baby cried--as all babies do--young Harriet was beaten and whipped. She carried these scars all her life as a silent reminder of humanity's brokenness and sinful ways. When she was only a child, her mother's owner came to take Harriet's brother--Moses--away and sell him to a slaveholder in Georgia. At first Harriet's mother hid Moses so that he might not be sold and taken away. When it was found out, though, that Moses was at home the men came with their whips and clubs to take him by force. Harriet's mother called out from her quarters, "You can surely come and take the boy--I don't doubt that--but the first one of you through the door will get his skull split in two." The men backed down and decided not to tempt Harriet's mother to follow through with her threat. In this moment, Harriet learned a lesson: even those who had been labeled things and not people could resist evil. This lesson served her well for years to come.

As Harriet grew in years and wisdom she became more and more connected to the Faith she had learned at her mother's knee. Harriet couldn't read and neither could her mother but the Biblical stories were told with regularity when the family would gather together. These stories informed her faith and she found great comfort in the stories of deliverance and liberation. She knew that her deliverer was with her even in the midst of slavery. As she grew yet more she began experiencing visions--perhaps partially linked to a traumatic head injury--that she insisted were a way that God communicated with her (even if they were a form of epilepsy, she was certain that God was speaking through them anyway). The stories she had heard as a child and adolescent continued to brew within her and began to form the way she thought about herself and the plight of her fellow slaves. When her owner began trying to sell her she started praying that God would convert the man and lead him to understand the error of his ways. She prayed with confidence that God could change the man but soon her confidence turned to frustration and she began praying that if God would not change the man then God should remove him as an obstacle. Shortly thereafter her owner died and Harriet felt great regret fearing that she had prayed for the man's death. Soon, Harriet escaped slavery under the cover of night (after one failed attempt) by following the north star and alluding men hired to catch escaped slaves by any means necessary. Eventually, she arrived in Pennsylvania and was free.

Escaping wasn't enough for Harriet because she was convinced that God was calling her to more than simple liberation. Rather, she felt God's will leading her back into slave holding territory to bring others out of slavery. She utilized the extensive Underground Railroad network that Christians abolitionists had developed and became a "conductor" along the railroad. Enveloped in the stories of the Faith that gave meaning to her life and work, she was known as "Moses" because she returned to "Egypt" to lead her people out of slavery and death. She liberated her family and extended family first but then kept returning to free yet more slaves. She was continually risking her own life and freedom because she knew that God was directing her to do so. At one point, there was a sizable bounty on her head but she continued to risk her life for others. She was hated by those who loved slavery but loved by those who sought freedom and peace. She would later describe her astonishing success by writing, "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." For the rest of her life she fought against slavery and oppression of a variety of types. She campaigned for women's suffrage and took an active role as a spy in the American Civil War. She died on March 10, 1913, after uttering her final words to those around her death bed: "I go to prepare a place for you."

March 9 - Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

The Twelfth Legion (historically identified as Legio XII Fulminata) was a historic and legendary group of soldiers that commanded both fear and respect within the Roman Empire. Their thunderbolt emblem immediately identified them to the populace as the soldiers that had been conscripted, trained, and implemented first by Julius Caesar in 58 BCE. They had fought battles that were immortalized in stories told to young men to inspire them to courage and valor. To serve in the Twelfth Legion was to be an integral part of the Roman power system as they served under not only Julius Caesar but, also, Mark Anthony. Thus it was considered unacceptable in 320 when the Twelfth Legion, which was guarding the Euphrates River at the time by order of the emperor Licinius, was found to be harboring forty Christians shortly after persecution of Christians was renewed. These forty were given the opportunity to renounce their faith and when they refused they were condemned to die.

So, they were led to a frozen pond by members of their legion and informed that they would die in the most painful way the emperor could imagine at the time. At the point of their colleagues' swords they were stripped of their clothing and forced to march to the center of the frozen pond so that they might die of exposure. As the forty men huddled together they began rotating who would stand on the outside of the group and who would experience the relative warmth of the interior. They knew that the biting winds would eventually kill them but they comforted each other with prayers and songs. In a moment of diabolical creativity, the guards began building hot baths on the shore of the frozen pond as Licinius had ordered them to do. They called to the huddled Christians that any of them might leave the pond at any time and warm themselves in a bath and by the fire if they would renounce their faith. Finally, one of the Christians broke and ran whimpering to the warm bath. He was willing to sell his faith for relief and though we cannot know his suffering we can look back through history and offer him our pity mixed with knowing compassion.

The remaining thirty-nine were surely shaken by their brother's renunciation but they had little time to reflect upon it as the derisive cheers of their guards soon turned to astonishment when one of the guards dropped his weapon, stripped himself of his clothing, and joined the thirty-nine Christians on the pond. He came screaming his confession of faith and was welcomed with shouts of joy and happy songs. As the once-again-forty martyrs slowly died of exposure they shared their faith with the one who had recently converted at the testimony of thirty-nine men willing to die instead of renounce the Faith that sustained them. That guard received his first instruction in the Faith barefoot on a frozen pond only hours before dying. As the cold began to claim its first victims, the guards became tired of the affair and gathered up the lethargic and unconscious Christians. They burned them alive and scattered the ashes. After they had left, Chrisitans came and collected what remains they could so that they might bury the men who had chosen faith over life and honor.

March 8 - John of God, Monastic, Friend of the Poor, Caretaker

John's family still heard the echos of great affluence in their heritage and way of life but they were by no means wealthy or influential in the world they knew. In fact, their family had been reduced to poverty. Further, John's mother died when he was only a very young child. John and his father were left alone in a world that had become increasingly unwelcoming to the two of them. John's father--now a widower--took up a life of spiritual devotion and became a monk. He was taken care of by a priest for some time before being hired by a farmer to tend his flocks. As far as shepherding went, John was very talented and gained the esteem of his employer. As John grew older and his faith became more his own and more apparent in the eyes of his employer he connected the task of shepherding with the task of ministry. John's employer wanted John to marry his daughter--as a way of rewarding John but, also, as a way of keeping a man of his talent and faith around--but John had already become convinced that his calling was to enter a spiritual order like his father had. He left his job as a shepherd and sought out another kind of flock to care for.

After moving to Spain and serving as a soldier in the military of the Holy Roman Empire, he became involved in a group of Christians who were printing religious books on their new printing press and distributing them to anyone who was able and willing to read them. This was a task that he enjoyed and felt was a part of his calling but it wasn't until one day in January--the day of the feast of Saint Sebastian--that he experienced the next step in his conversion. He heard the preaching of John of Avila and was struck by the truth of it in ways that he could not easily dismiss or deny. He felt convicted by John's insistence that the Church of God must care for the poor and the disenfranchised. Following the service he went into the streets to consider what he had heard when he was gripped by a holy madness. Though he tried to remain rational and sensible, he was soon seized by the people and committed to a local asylum having been judged mad. He struggled with this holy madness for some time until John of Avila visited him. When he laid eyes on John of Avila the madness was lifted and he was left with the memory of how he had been treated while on the streets, while poor, and while he had been considered the refuse of society. With John of Avila's encouragement, he devoted himself to taking care of the poor and the sick--those whom the world would prefer to forget about.

At first, John had more than enough work to do simply spending time with and loving the poor. Yet, as he continued to receive support and feel the confirmation of his calling deep within him he began providing medical help to those who could not afford any assistance from the world's doctors for hire. As he poured himself out for the people of Spain (particularly in Granada), he began to be joined by other men who were interested in giving their lives away for the poor and the sick. These men became John's disciples and learned to love others first as this was everyone's most fundamental need. The group eventually became known as the Order of Hospitallers, now better known as the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God. John served God by serving others until the day he died--his fifty-fifth birthday. Those whom he directed continued to serve in John's stead in a ministry that should not ever be forsaken by the People of God.

March 7 - Perpetua and Felicitas, Martyrs, Mothers, Brave to the End

The emperor Septimus Severus decided that the Jewish and Christian religions must be curtailed if Rome was truly to rule and command the masses it lorded over. There was no room for any other lord within the iron grip of the Roman empire and Septimus Severus had finally decided on one very specific way to put an end to non-Roman allegiance: outlaw conversion upon penalty of death. To further strengthen the decree he made it retroactive a number of months. Perpetua and her servant Felicitas were recent converts and they were caught up in the chaos of legalized death and persecution. Before the authorities could seize them, they were baptized by the priests of their congregation even as they knew this was signing their own arrest warrant. They along with a few others were arrested and imprisoned for the crime of their faith. Perpetua had just given birth to a baby boy and Felicitas was nearly eight months pregnant when they were imprisoned.

As a new mother, Perpetua was in pain and desperate to nurse her baby who had not yet been weaned. She suffered in her cell and struggled to maintain her faith even with the aid and comfort of her new sister Felicitas. Two deacons from her congregation bribed the jailer and secreted Perpetua's son into the jail. Perpetua nursed her baby boy and would remark that this single act of mercy by the deacons confirmed her faith in her in a powerful way. Further, it gave her renewed resolve to withstand the tortures that most surely awaited her and Felicitas. She wrote that after that blissful moment she felt as if her prison cell had become a palace. They were given something resembling a trial and given an opportunity to renounce their faith and save their lives. They refused and were taken back to prison with the words of their punishments ringing in their ears--"Cast them to the wild beasts and let them be torn to pieces."

That night Perpetua was visited by three significant events. Her father came to her carrying his grandson--Perpetua's baby boy--and begged her to reconsider her faith. He first pleaded and then commanded her to renounce her faith so that she might be a mother to her baby. Perpetua held fast and insisted that if she renounced her faith then she would not be a boon to her son but only a disgrace. After her father left she had a vision wherein she stepped on the head of a dragon and climbed a rickety ladder to a meadow of great pastoral peace. From the vision she found great peace and it further renewed her resolve to be martyred. Finally, she went to Felicitas who feared that she might not be allowed to be martyred with the others because of her pregnancy. As she was telling this fear to Perpetua and they were praying over it, she went into labor and delivered her own healthy child. In the morning, they were marched to the amphitheatre where they would be martyred and Felicitas carried her newborn baby with her. Christians accompanied them on the march and Felicitas gave over her daughter to a Christian woman so that the child might be raised in the Faith for which her mother was willing to die.

Once they were in the amphitheatre, they were whipped and beaten before the bloodthirsty crowd. Wild animals were released into the arena to kill the Christians and all but Perpetua and Felicitas were soon dead. Perpetua and Felicitas were mortally wounded but this was not enough for the fierce crowd. They gave each other the Christian "kiss of peace" as their executioner approached with his sword. He killed Felicitas and then turned to Perpetua. He was shaking at the thought of yet more murder and so Perpetua guided the blade of his sword to her neck and gave him silent permission to perpetrate the Empire's atrocities.