BiblioVault - Books about Saint Joseph

Daring to Be Different

Missouri's Remarkable Owen Sisters

Doris Land Mueller

University of Missouri Press, 2010

In the 1800s, American women were largely restricted to the private sphere. Most had no choice but to spend their lives in the home, marrying in their teens and living only as wives, mothers, and pillars of domesticity. Even as the women’s movement came along midcentury, it focused more on gaining legal and political rights for women than on expanding their career opportunities. So in that time period, in which the options and expectations for women’s professional lives were so limited, it is remarkable that three sisters born in the 1850s, the Owen daughters of Missouri, all achieved success and appreciation in their careers.

Doris Land Mueller’s Daring to Be Different tells the story of these exceptional sisters, whose contributions to their chosen fields are still noteworthy today. Mary, the oldest, followed a childhood interest in storytelling to become an internationally recognized folklorist, writing about the customs of Missouri’s Native Americans, the traditions of its African American communities, and the history of St. Joseph’s earliest settlers. The middle daughter, Luella, became a geologist, breaking into the “old boys club” of the nineteenth-century scientific community; her book, Cave Regions of the Ozarks and the Black Hills, was for over fifty years the only reference to include Missouri caves and is still a valuable resource on the subject. And the youngest Owen girl, Juliette, was a talented artist who painted images of birds and studied and wrote about ornithology. An ardent conservationist, Juliette was an animal advocate during the early days of the humane movement.

Through a compelling narrative driven by thorough research, Mueller showcases the different personalities of the three sisters who all eschewed marriage to pursue their callings, putting their accomplishments in context with the place and times in which they lived. With family stories, illustrations of early St. Joseph, and images of the Owen family to enrich the story, this book pays tribute to the Owen sisters’ contributions to the Show-Me State. The latest addition to the Missouri Heritage Reader Series, Daring to Be Different will appeal to anyone interested in Missouri history and the early years of the women’s movement.

[more]

Saint Joseph and the Carmelite Reform of Saint Teresa of Avila

Father, Teacher of Prayer, Intercessor in Every Need

Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS

Catholic University of America Press, 2024

It is a commonplace in devotional literature, historical scholarship, and papal writings that Saint Teresa of Ávila played a key role in the development of veneration of Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph and the Carmelite Reform of Saint Teresa of Ávila unpacks this commonplace by recovering the often-overlooked back story to Teresa’s story, namely, the extraordinarily rich liturgical cult of Saint Joseph in the Ancient Order of Carmel which fully flowered in the Teresian Carmel and beyond, to the universal Church. This volume charts a narrative arc from the liturgical cult of Saint Joseph in the Carmelite Order of Ancient Observance; to Saint Joseph’s vital formative presence in Saint Teresa’s life and reformed Carmel as father, teacher of prayer, and intercessor in every need; to the Carmelite family as a whole giving liturgical expression to its privileged relationship with Saint Joseph by the establishment of the Feast of the Patronage of Saint Joseph; to this feast becoming widespread outside Carmel and ultimately extended to the Universal Church (1847); and, finally, to Saint Joseph’s proclamation as Patron of the Universal Church (1870). An epilogue considers the absence of Joseph’s title “Patron of the Universal Church” in the post-Vatican II liturgical calendar and books, while the papal magisterium has consistently insisted that this patronage is ever necessary for the Church as not only a protection against all dangers, but also an impetus for its mission of evangelization and re-evangelization. An appendix reprints the letter, “Saint Joseph, Patron of Carmel,” jointly issued by the Prior General of the Order of Carmelites of the Ancient Observance and the Superior General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, to mark the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.

[more]

Voodoo Priests, Noble Savages, and Ozark Gypsies

The Life of Folklorist Mary Alicia Owen

Greg Olson

University of Missouri Press, 2012

Folklorist Wayland Hand once called Mary Alicia Owen “the most famous American Woman Folklorist of her time.” Drawing on primary sources, such as maps, census records, court documents, personal letters and periodicals, and the scholarship of others who have analyzed various components of Owen’s multifaceted career, historian Greg Olson offers the most complete account of her life and work to date. He also offers a critical look at some of the short stories Owen penned, sometimes under the name Julia Scott, and discusses how the experience she gained as a fiction writer helped lead her to a successful career in folklore.

Olson begins with an in-depth look at St. Joseph, Missouri, the place where Owen lived most of her life. He explores the role that her grandparents and parents had in transforming the small trading village into one of the American West’s most exciting boomtowns. He also examines the family’s position of affluence and the effect that the devastation of the Civil War had on their family life and their standing within the community. He describes the interaction of Owen with her two younger sisters, both of whom had interesting and, for women of the time, unconventional careers.

Olson analyzes many of the nineteenth-century theories, stereotypes, and popular beliefs that influenced the work of Owen and many of her peers. By taking a cross-disciplinary look at her works of fiction, poetry, folklore, history, and anthropology, this volume sheds new light on elements of Owen’s career that have not previously been discussed in print. Examples of the romance stories that Owen wrote for popular magazines in the 1880’s are identified and examined in the context of the time in which Owen wrote them.

This groundbreaking biography shows that Owen was more than just a folklorist—she was a nineteenth-century woman of many contradictions. She was an independent woman of many interests who possessed a keen intellect and a genuine interest in people and their stories. Specialists in folklore, anthropology, women’s studies, local and regional history, and Missouriana will find much to like in this thoroughly researched study.

[more]