Parable, Genesis 37:3-18, Psalms 105:16-21, Matthew 21:33-46, St Suitbert of Kaiserwerth, Dusseldorf-Kaiserwerth Germany, Florence Nightingale Founder of Modern Nursing, Catholic Catechism Part One Section 2 The Creeds Chapter 3:2 The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit
Good Day Bloggers! Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!
Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will,
make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in
Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to Purgatory and/or Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
Heed the Solemnity of Lent! This Lent instead of "Giving Up" something, why not "Give" by volunteering time to a worthy cause, or extending a simple act of kindness! This blog is an act of giving, simply "opening a door" to all to learn about God, the history and cultures of humanity, the geography of our biosphere, the catechism of the Catholic Church and more; its you choice of "free will" to walk through this blog with an open mind, to learn, to evaluate, to contemplate,. Start by familiarizing yourself with the Beatitudes, they are universal to all mankind, of which one is the gift of knowledge, utilize.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’(Matthew 25:34-40)
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Prayers for Today: Friday in Lent
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Prayer For the Holy Election of Our New Pope
May the Lord preserve the sanctity of the enclave as they embark on electing our new Holy Father, give him life, and make him blessed upon earth, and deliver him not to the will of his enemies.
LET US PRAY:
O God, the Shepherd and Ruler of all the faithful, in Thy mercy look down upon Thy servant, (Our New Pope), whom Thou will appoint to preside over Thy Church, and grant we beseech Thee that both by word and example he may edify those who are under his charge; so that, with the flock entrusted to him, he may attain life everlasting. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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February 25, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
“Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. Sin is pulling you towards worldly things and I have come to lead you towards holiness and the things of God, but you are struggling and spending your energies in the battle with the good and the evil that are in you. Therefore, little children, pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and your life will become a simple walk towards God. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
“Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. Sin is pulling you towards worldly things and I have come to lead you towards holiness and the things of God, but you are struggling and spending your energies in the battle with the good and the evil that are in you. Therefore, little children, pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and your life will become a simple walk towards God. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
February 2, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
"Dear children, love is bringing me to you - the love which I desire to
teach you also - real love; the love which my Son showed you when He
died on the Cross out of love for you; the love which is always ready to
forgive and to ask for forgiveness. How great is your love? My motherly
heart is sorrowful as it searches for love in
your hearts. You are not ready to submit your will to God's will out of
love. You cannot help me to have those who have not come to know God's
love to come to know it, because you do not have real love. Consecrate
your hearts to me and I will lead you. I will teach you to forgive, to
love your enemies and to live according to my Son. Do not be afraid for
yourselves. In afflictions my Son does not forget those who love. I will
be beside you. I will implore the Heavenly Father for the light of
eternal truth and love to illuminate you. Pray for your shepherds so
that through your fasting and prayer they can lead you in love. Thank
you."
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Today's Word: parable par·a·ble [par-uh-buh
l]
Origin: 1275–1325; Middle English parabil < Late Latin parabola comparison, parable, word < Greek parabolḗ comparison, equivalent to para- para-1 + bolḗ a throwing
noun
1. a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.
2. a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 105:16-21
16 He called down famine on the land, he took away their food supply;
17 he sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave.
18 So his feet were weighed down with shackles, his neck was put in irons.
19 In due time his prophecy was fulfilled, the word of Yahweh proved him true.
20 The king sent orders to release him, the ruler of nations set him free;
21 he put him in charge of his household, the ruler of all he possessed,
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Today's Epistle - Genesis 37:3-18
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a decorated tunic made for him.
4 But his brothers, seeing how much more
his father loved him than all his other sons, came to hate him so much
that they could not say a civil word to him.
12 His brothers went to pasture their father's flock at Shechem.
13 Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Your
brothers are with the flock at Shechem, aren't they? Come, I am going to
send you to them.' 'I am ready,' he replied.
17 The man answered, 'They have moved on from here; indeed I heard them say, "Let us go to Dothan." ' So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they made a plot to kill him.
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Today's Gospel Reading - Matthew 21:33-46
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: 'Listen to another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third. Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them thinking, "They will respect my son." But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance." So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?' They answered, 'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him at the proper time.' Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this is the Lord's doing and we marvel at it? 'I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.' When they heard his parables, the chief priests and the scribes realised he was speaking about them, but though they would have liked to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet.
Reflection
• The text of today’s Gospel forms part of a whole which is more vast or extensive which includes Mathew 21, 23-40. The chief priests and the Elders had asked Jesus with which authority he did those things (Mt 21, 23). They considered themselves the patrons of everything and they did not want anybody to do things without their permission. The answer of Jesus is divided into three parts: 1) He, in turn, asks them a question because he wants to know from them if John the Baptist was from heaven or from earth (Mt 21, 24-27). 2) He then tells them the parable of the two sons (Mt 21, 28-32). 3) He tells them the parable of the vineyard (Mt 21, 33-46) which is today’s Gospel.
• Mathew 21, 33-40: The parable of the vineyard. Jesus begins as follows: “Listen to another parable: There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, he fenced it around, dug a winepress in it and built a tower”. The parable is a beautiful summary of the history of Israel, taken from the prophet Isaiah (Is 5, 1-7). Jesus addresses himself to the chief priests, to the elders (Mt 21, 23) and to the Pharisees (Mt 21, 45) and He gives a response to the question which they addressed to him asking about the origin of his authority (Mt 21, 23). Through this parable, Jesus clarifies several things: (a) He reveals the origin of his authority: He is the Son, the heir. (b) He denounces the abuse of the authority of the tenants, that is of the priests and elders who were not concerned and did not take care of the people of God. (c) He defends the authority of the prophets, sent by God, but who were killed by the priests and the elders. (4) He unmasks the authority by which they manipulate the religion and kill the Son, because they do not want to lose the source of income which they succeed to accumulate for themselves, throughout the centuries.
• Mathew 21, 41: The sentence which they give to themselves. At the end of the parable Jesus asks: “Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They are not aware that the parable was speaking precisely of them. This is why, with the response that they give, they decree their own condemnation: “The chief priests and the elders of the people answered: ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him at the proper time”. Several times Jesus uses this same method. He leads the person to say the truth about himself, without being aware that he condemns himself. For example in the case of the Pharisee who condemns the young woman considering her a sinner (Luke 7, 42-43) and in the case of the parable of the two sons (Mt 21, 28-32).
• Mathew 21, 42-46: The sentence given by themselves was confirmed by their behaviour. From the clarification given by Jesus, the chief priests, the elders and the Pharisees understand that the parable speaks about them, but they do not convert. All the contrary! They keep to their own project to kill Jesus. They will reject “the corner stone”. But they do not have the courage to do it openly, because they fear the reaction of the people.
• The diverse groups which held the power at the time of Jesus. In today’s Gospel two groups appear which, at that time, governed: the priests, the elders and the Pharisees. Then, some brief information on the power which each of these groups and others had is given:
a) The priests: They were the ones in charge of the worship in the Temple. The people took to the Temple the tithe and the other taxes and offerings to pay the promises made. The High Priest occupied a very important place in the life of the nation, especially after the exile. He was chosen and appointed from among the three or four aristocratic families who possessed more power and riches.
b) The elders or the Chief Priests of the People: They were the local leaders in the different villages of the city. Their origin came from the heads of the ancient tribes.
c) The Sadducees: they were the lay aristocratic elite of society. Many of them were rich merchants or landlords. From the religious point of view they were conservative. They did not accept the changes supported by the Pharisees, for example, faith in the resurrection and the existence of the angels.
d) The Pharisees: Pharisee means: separated. They struggled in a way that through the perfect observance of the Law of purity, people would succeed in being pure, separated and saint as the Law and Tradition demanded! Because of the exemplary witness of their life according to the norms of the time, their moral authority was greatly extended in the villages of Galilee.
e) Scribe or doctor of the Law: They were the ones in charge of teaching. They dedicated their life to the study of the Law of God and taught people what to do to observe all the Law of God. Not all the Scribes belonged to the same line. Some were united with the Pharisees, others with the Sadducees.
Personal questions
• Some times have you felt that you were controlled in an undue manner, at home, at work, in the Church? Which was your reaction? Was it the same as that of Jesus?
• If Jesus would return today and would tell us the same parable, how would I react?
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: Saint Suitbert of Kaiserwerth
Feast Day: March 1
Patron Saint: Germany
Attributes: none
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| Saint Suitbert of Kaiserwerth |
They landed near the mouth of the Rhine and journeyed to Utrecht, which became their headquarters. The new missionaries worked with great success under the protection of Pepin of Heristal, who, having recently conquered a portion of Frisia, compelled Rathbod to cease harassing the Christians. Suitbert laboured chiefly in North Brabant, Gelderland, and Cleves.
After some years he went back to England, and in 693 was consecrated in Mercia as a missionary bishop by St. Wilfrid of York. He returned to Frisia and fixed his see at Wijk bij Duurstede on a branch of the Rhine. A little later, entrusting his flock of converts to St. Willibrord, he proceeded north of the Rhine and the Lippe, among the Bructeri, or Boructuari, in the district of Berg, Westphalia. This mission bore great fruit at first, but was eventually a failure owing to the inroads of the pagan Saxons; when the latter had conquered the territory, Suitbert withdrew to a small island in the Rhine, six miles from Düsseldorf, granted to him by Pepin of Heristal, where he built a monastery and ended his days in peace.
He died at Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth, near Düsseldorf, 1 March, 713.
His relics were rediscovered in 1626 at Kaiserwerth and are still venerated there. He is considered a patron saint of Germany. His feast day falls on March 1.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Suitbert". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.
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Today's Snippet I: Dusseldorf-Kaiserwerth, Germany
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| Town Hall in Dusseldorf |
About the year 700 the monk Saint Suitbert founded a Benedictine abbey at Werth, a river island that formed an important crossing point of the Rhine. The abbey was destroyed 88 years later. On that area there is now the "Erzbischöfliches Suitbertus-Gymnasium", an archiepiscopal secondary school with the old chapel and parts of the abbey. The former monastery garden is a meeting point for the upper school between lesson times.
The Kaiserpfalz (temporary seat of the Holy Roman Emperor) was built in 1045. In 1062, the archbishop of Cologne, Anno II, kidnapped the underage German King Heinrich IV from here and in this way obtained the unofficial regency of the Holy Roman Empire. At this time the island's name changed from Werth to Kaiserswerth.
In 1174, Friederick I Barbarossa moved the Rhine customs collection to Kaiserswerth. The eastern branch of the Rhine around the island silted up connecting Kaiserswerth to the east bank of the river. In 1273, the emperor pledged Kaiserswerth to the Archbishop of Cologne forming a de facto enclave within the Duchy of Jülich-Berg. In 1591, Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld was born in Kaiserswerth.
In the 19th century Kaiserswerth was chiefly noted for its deaconess clinic, founded by local pastor Theodor Fliedner.[3] Florence Nightingale worked there for some months meeting Paulina Irby.[4]
In both World Wars there was a great military hospital in Kaiserswerth. Kaiserswerth became a part of Düsseldorf in 1929.
References
- ^ Florence Nightingale and Lynn McDonald (Editor) (2010). "An introduction to Vol 14". Florence Nightingale: The Crimean War. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0889204691.
- ^ http://www.fortified-places.com/kaiserswerth
- ^ "Kaiserswerth". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- ^ Cook, Edward Tyas (1913). The Life of Florence Nightingale. Macmillan.
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Today's Snippet II: Florence Nightingale, Founder of Modern Nursing
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| Florence Nightingale |
Early 21st century commentators have asserted Nightingale's achievements in the Crimean War had been exaggerated by the media at the time, to satisfy the public's need for a hero. But her later achievements remain widely accepted. In 1860, Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King's College London. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday. Her social reforms include improving healthcare for all sections of British society; improving healthcare and advocating for better hunger relief in India; helping to abolish laws regulating prostitution that were overly harsh to women; and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce. Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She helped popularize the graphical presentation of statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism, has only been published posthumously.
Nightingale was born to a wealthy upper-class family, at a time when women of her class were expected to focus on marriage and child bearing. Unitarian religious inspiration led her to devote her life to serving others, both directly and as a reformer. Nightingale rejected proposals of marriage so as to be free to pursue her calling. Her father had progressive social views, providing his daughter with a well-rounded education that included mathematics and supported her desire to lead an active life. Nightingale's ability to effect reform rested on her exceptional analytic skills, her high reputation, and her network of influential friends. Starting in her mid thirties, she suffered from chronic poor health, but continued working almost until her death at the age of ninety.
Early life
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| Embley Park School, Former Nightingale Home |
Her parents were William Edward Nightingale, born William Edward Shore (1794–1874) and Frances ("Fanny") Nightingale née Smith (1789–1880). William's mother Mary née Evans was the niece of one Peter Nightingale, under the terms of whose will William inherited his estate at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, and assumed the name and arms of Nightingale. Fanny's father (Florence's maternal grandfather) was the abolitionist and Unitarian William Smith. Nightingale was educated mainly by her father.
Nightingale underwent the first of several experiences that she believed were calls from God in February 1837 while at Embley Park, prompting a strong desire to devote her life to the service of others. In her youth she was respectful of her family's opposition to her working as nurse, only announcing her decision to enter the field in 1844. Despite the intense anger and distress of her mother and sister, she rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status to become a wife and mother. Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, in spite of opposition from her family and the restrictive social code for affluent young English women.
As a young woman Nightingale was attractive, slender and graceful. While her demeanor was often severe, she could be very charming and her smile was radiant. Her most persistent suitor was the politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, but after a nine-year courtship she rejected him, convinced that marriage would interfere with her ability to follow her calling to nursing.
In Rome in 1847, she met Sidney Herbert, a politician who had been Secretary at War (1845–1846). Herbert was on his honeymoon; he and Nightingale became lifelong close friends. Herbert would be Secretary of War again during the Crimean War; he and his wife were instrumental in facilitating Nightingale's nursing work in the Crimea. She became a key adviser to him in his political career, though she was accused by some of having hastened Herbert's death from Bright's Disease in 1861 because of the pressure her programme of reform placed on him.
Nightingale also much later had strong relations with Benjamin Jowett, who may have wanted to marry her.
Nightingale continued her travels (now with Charles and Selina Bracebridge) as far as Greece and Egypt. Her writings on Egypt in particular are testimony to her learning, literary skill and philosophy of life. Sailing up the Nile as far as Abu Simbel in January 1850, she wrote
"I don't think I ever saw anything which affected me much more than this." And, considering the temple: "Sublime in the highest style of intellectual beauty, intellect without effort, without suffering... not a feature is correct – but the whole effect is more expressive of spiritual grandeur than anything I could have imagined. It makes the impression upon one that thousands of voices do, uniting in one unanimous simultaneous feeling of enthusiasm or emotion, which is said to overcome the strongest man."
At Thebes she wrote of being "called to God" while a week later near Cairo she wrote in her diary (as distinct from her far longer letters that her elder sister Parthenope was to print after her return): "God called me in the morning and asked me would I do good for him alone without reputation." Later in 1850, she visited the Lutheran religious community at Kaiserswerth-am-Rhein in Germany, where she observed Pastor Theodor Fliedner and the deaconesses working for the sick and the deprived. She regarded the experience as a turning point in her life, and issued her findings anonymously in 1851; The Institution of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, for the Practical Training of Deaconesses, etc. was her first published work; she also received four months of medical training at the institute which formed the basis for her later care.
On 22 August 1853, Nightingale took the post of superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street, London, a position she held until October 1854. Her father had given her an annual income of £500 (roughly £40,000/US$65,000 in present terms), which allowed her to live comfortably and to pursue her career.
Crimean War
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| Service Award issued by Queen Victoria |
Nightingale arrived early in November 1854 at Selimiye Barracks in Scutari (modern-day Üsküdar in Istanbul). Her team found that poor care for wounded soldiers was being delivered by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medicines were in short supply, hygiene was being neglected, and mass infections were common, many of them fatal. There was no equipment to process food for the patients.
After Nightingale sent a plea to The Times for a government solution to the poor condition of the facilities, the British Government commissioned Isambard Kingdom Brunel to design a prefabricated hospital which could be built in England and shipped to the Dardanelles. The result was Renkioi Hospital, a civilian facility which under the management of Dr. Edmund Alexander Parkes had a death rate less than 1/10th that of Scutari.
The first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (1911) asserted that Nightingale reduced the death rate from 42% to 2% either by making improvements in hygiene herself or by calling for the Sanitary Commission. However, death rates actually began to rise to the highest of all hospitals in the region. During her first winter at Scutari, 4,077 soldiers died there. Ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery than from battle wounds. With overcrowding, defective sewers and lack of ventilation, the Sanitary Commission had to be sent out by the British government to Scutari in March 1855, almost six months after Florence Nightingale had arrived. The commission flushed out the sewers and improved ventilation. Death rates were sharply reduced, but she did not recognise hygiene as the predominant cause of death at the time and never claimed credit for helping to reduce the death rate. In 2001 and 2008 the BBC released documentaries which were highly critical of Nightingale's performance in the Crimean War, as were several follow on articles published in The Guardian and the Sunday Times. Nightingale scholar Lynn McDonald has dismissed these criticism as "often preposterous", arguing they are not supported by the primary sources.
Nightingale still believed that the death rates were due to poor nutrition, lack of supplies and overworking of the soldiers. After she returned to Britain and began collecting evidence before the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army, she came to believe that most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions. This experience influenced her later career, when she advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. Consequently, she reduced peacetime deaths in the army and turned attention to the sanitary design of hospitals.
The Lady with the Lamp
During the Crimean war, Florence Nightingale gained the nickname "The Lady with the Lamp" from a phrase in a report in The Times:She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.
The phrase was further popularised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1857 poem "Santa Filomena":
Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.
Training of Nurses
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| 1856 Hosptial Ward, Lithograph by Scutari |
Nightingale had £45,000 at her disposal from the Nightingale Fund to set up the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas' Hospital on 9 July 1860. The first trained Nightingale nurses began work on 16 May 1865 at the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. Now called the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, the school is part of King's College London. She also campaigned and raised funds for the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury near her family home.
Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing (1859). The book served as the cornerstone of the curriculum at the Nightingale School and other nursing schools, though it was written specifically for the education of those nursing at home. Nightingale wrote "Every day sanitary knowledge, or the knowledge of nursing, or in other words, of how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no disease, or that it can recover from disease, takes a higher place. It is recognised as the knowledge which every one ought to have – distinct from medical knowledge, which only a profession can have".
Notes on Nursing also sold well to the general reading public and is considered a classic introduction to nursing. Nightingale spent the rest of her life promoting and organizing the nursing profession. In the introduction to the 1974 edition, Joan Quixley of the Nightingale School of Nursing wrote: "The book was the first of its kind ever to be written. It appeared at a time when the simple rules of health were only beginning to be known, when its topics were of vital importance not only for the well-being and recovery of patients, when hospitals were riddled with infection, when nurses were still mainly regarded as ignorant, uneducated persons. The book has, inevitably, its place in the history of nursing, for it was written by the founder of modern nursing".
As Mark Bostridge has recently demonstrated, one of Nightingale's signal achievements was the introduction of trained nurses into the workhouse system in England and Ireland from the 1860s onwards. This meant that sick paupers were no longer being cared for by other, able-bodied paupers, but by properly trained nursing staff.
Though Nightingale is sometimes said to have denied the theory of infection for her entire life, a recent biography disagrees, saying that she was simply opposed to a precursor of germ theory known as "contagionism". This theory held that diseases could only be transmitted by touch. Before the experiments of the mid-1860s by Pasteur and Lister, hardly anyone took germ theory seriously; even afterwards, many medical practitioners were unconvinced. Bostridge points out that in the early 1880s Nightingale wrote an article for a textbook in which she advocated strict precautions designed, she said, to kill germs. Nightingale's work served as an inspiration for nurses in the American Civil War. The Union government approached her for advice in organizing field medicine. Although her ideas met official resistance, they inspired the volunteer body of the United States Sanitary Commission.
In the 1870s, Nightingale mentored Linda Richards, "America's first trained nurse", and enabled her to return to the USA with adequate training and knowledge to establish high-quality nursing schools. Linda Richards went on to become a great nursing pioneer in the USA and Japan.
By 1882, several Nightingale nurses had become matrons at several leading hospitals, including, in London (St Mary's Hospital, Westminster Hospital, St Marylebone Workhouse Infirmary and the Hospital for Incurables at Putney) and throughout Britain (Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; Cumberland Infirmary and Liverpool Royal Infirmary), as well as at Sydney Hospital in New South Wales, Australia.
In 1883, Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria. In 1904, she was appointed a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John (LGStJ). In 1907, she became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. In the following year she was given the Honorary Freedom of the City of London. Her birthday is now celebrated as International CFS Awareness Day.
Death
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| Grave of Florence Nightingale |
On 13 August 1910, at the age of 90, she died peacefully in her sleep in her room at 10 South Street, Mayfair, London. The offer of burial in Westminster Abbey was declined by her relatives and she is buried in the graveyard at St. Margaret Church in East Wellow, Hampshire. She left a large body of work, including several hundred notes which were previously unpublished.
Contributions and Legacy
Statistics and sanitary reform
Indeed, Nightingale is described as "a true pioneer in the graphical representation of statistics", and is credited with developing a form of the pie chart now known as the polar area diagram, or occasionally the Nightingale rose diagram, equivalent to a modern circular histogram, in order to illustrate seasonal sources of patient mortality in the military field hospital she managed. Nightingale called a compilation of such diagrams a "coxcomb", but later that term would frequently be used for the individual diagrams. She made extensive use of coxcombs to present reports on the nature and magnitude of the conditions of medical care in the Crimean War to Members of Parliament and civil servants who would have been unlikely to read or understand traditional statistical reports.
In her later life Nightingale made a comprehensive statistical study of sanitation in Indian rural life and was the leading figure in the introduction of improved medical care and public health service in India. In 1858 and 1859 she successfully lobbied for the establishment of a Royal Commission into the Indian situation. Two years later she provided a report to the commission, which completed its own study in 1863. "After 10 years of sanitary reform, in 1873, Nightingale reported that mortality among the soldiers in India had declined from 69 to 18 per 1,000".
In 1859 Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association.
Nursing
Florence Nightingale's lasting contribution has been her role in founding the modern nursing profession. She set an example of compassion, commitment to patient care and diligent and thoughtful hospital administration. In addition to the continued operation of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King's College London, The Nightingale Building in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Southampton is also named after her. International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday each year.
The Florence Nightingale Declaration Campaign, established by nursing leaders throughout the world through the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH), aims to build a global grassroots movement to achieve two United Nations Resolutions for adoption by the UN General Assembly of 2008. They will declare: The International Year of the Nurse–2010 (the centennial of Nightingale's death); The UN Decade for a Healthy World–2011 to 2020 (the bicentennial of Nightingale's birth). NIGH also works to rekindle awareness about the important issues highlighted by Florence Nightingale, such as preventive medicine and holistic health. So far, the Florence Nightingale Declaration has been signed by over 18,500 signatories from 86 countries.
During the Vietnam War, Nightingale inspired many U.S. Army nurses, sparking a renewal of interest in her life and work. Her admirers include Country Joe of Country Joe and the Fish, who has assembled an extensive website in her honour.
The Agostino Gemelli Medical School in Rome, the first university-based hospital in Italy and one of its most respected medical centres, honoured Nightingale's contribution to the nursing profession by giving the name "Bedside Florence" to a wireless computer system it developed to assist nursing.
In 1912 the International Committee of the Red Cross instituted the Florence Nightingale Medal, awarded every two years to nurses or nursing aides for outstanding service.
Florence Nightingale Medal
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| Florence Nightingale Medal |
It was initially set up to be awarded to six nurses annually, although the first 42 awards were only made in 1920 because of the First World War.
The medal was restricted to female nurses until regulation changes in 1991. Under the new regulations it is open to both women and men, and is awarded every two years to a maximum number of fifty recipients worldwide. Each recipient is given a medal and a diploma, usually presented by the Head of State at a ceremony in their own country, which is required to have "a formal character, in keeping with the founders' wishes". In 2007, the 41st set of medals were awarded. The 35 recipients from 18 countries in that year, brought the total number of medals awarded to 1,309. In 2009, the 42nd set of medals were awarded. The 28 recipients from 15 countries in that year (including for the first time to an Afghan nurse), brought the total number of medals awarded to 1,337. In 2011, the 43rd set of medals were awarded. The 39 recipients from 19 countries in that year (including for the first time to two Kenyan nurses), brought the total number of medals awarded to 1376.
Publications
| “ | Nightingale's achievements are all the more impressive when they are considered against the background of social restraints on women in Victorian England. Her father, William Edward Nightingale, was an extremely wealthy landowner, and the family moved in the highest circles of English society. In those days, women of Nightingale's class did not attend universities and did not pursue professional careers; their purpose in life was to marry and bear children. Nightingale was fortunate. Her father believed women should be educated, and he personally taught her Italian, Latin, Greek, philosophy, history and - most unusual of all for women of the time - writing and mathematics. | ” |
While better known for her contributions in the nursing and mathematical fields, Nightingale is also an important link in the study of English feminism. During 1850 and 1852, she was struggling with her self-definition and the expectations of an upper-class marriage from her family. As she sorted out her thoughts, she wrote Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truth. This was an 829 page, three-volume work, which Nightingale had printed privately in 1860, but which until recently was never published in its entirety. An effort to correct this was made with a 2008 publication by Wilfrid Laurier University, as volume 11 of a 16 volume project, the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. The best known of these essays, called Cassandra, was previously published by Ray Strachey in 1928. Strachey included it in The Cause, a history of the women's movement. Apparently, the writing served its original purpose of sorting out thoughts; Nightingale left soon after to train at the Institute for deaconesses at Kaiserswerth.
Cassandra protests the over-feminization of women into near helplessness, such as Nightingale saw in her mother's and older sister's lethargic lifestyle, despite their education. She rejected their life of thoughtless comfort for the world of social service. The work also reflects her fear of her ideas being ineffective, as were Cassandra's. Cassandra was a princess of Troy who served as a priestess in the temple of Apollo during the Trojan War. The god gave her the gift of prophecy; when she refused his advances, he cursed her so that her prophetic warnings would go unheeded. Elaine Showalter called Nightingale's writing "a major text of English feminism, a link between Wollstonecraft and Woolf.
- Nightingale, Florence (1979). Cassandra. First published 1852: 1979 reprint by The Feminist Press. ISBN 0-912670-55-X. Retrieved 6 July 2010
- "Notes on Nursing: What Nursing Is, What Nursing is Not". Philadelphia, London, Montreal: J.B. Lippincott Co. 1946 reprint (First published London, 1859: Harrison & Sons). Retrieved 6 July 2010
- Nightingale, Florence; McDonald, Lynn (2001). Florence Nightingale's Spiritual Journey: Biblical Annotations, Sermons and Journal Notes. Collected Works of Florence Nighingale (Editor Lynn McDonald). 2. Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-88920-366-0. Retrieved 6 July 2010
- Florence Nightingale's Theology: Essays, Letters and Journal Notes. Collected Works of Florence Nighingale (Editor Lynn McDonald). 3. Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 2002. ISBN 0-88920-371-7. Retrieved 6 July 2010
- Nightingale, Florence; Vallée, GéRard (2003). Mysticism and Eastern Religions. Collected Works of Florence Nighingale (Editor Gerard Vallee). 4. Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-88920-413-6. Retrieved 6 July 2010
- Nightingale, Florence; McDonald, Lynn (2008). Suggestions for Thought. Collected Works of Florence Nighingale (Editor Lynn McDonald). 11. Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 978-0-88920-465-2. Retrieved 6 July 2010. Privately printed by Nightingale in 1860.
- Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes. London: Harrison. 1861. Retrieved 6 July 2010
- The Family, a critical essay in Fraser's Magazine (1870)
- "Introductory Notes on Lying-In Institutions". together with A Proposal for Organising an Institution for Training Midwives and Midwifery Nurses (London: Longmans, Green & Co) 5 (106): 22. 1871. Bibcode 1871Natur...5...22. doi:10.1038/005022a0. Retrieved 6 July 2010
- Una and the Lion. Cambridge: Riverside Press. 1871. Retrieved 6 July 2010. Note: First few pages missing. Title page is present.
- "Una and Her Paupers, Memorials of Agnes Elizabeth Jones, by her sister". with an introduction by Florence Nightingale (New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1872). Retrieved 6 July 2010. See also 2005 publication by Diggory Press, ISBN 978-1-905363-22-3
- Letters from Egypt: A Journey on the Nile 1849-1850 (1987) ISBN 1-55584-204-6
Hospitals
Four hospitals in Istanbul are named after Nightingale: F. N. Hastanesi in Şişli (the biggest private hospital in Turkey), Metropolitan F.N. Hastanesi in Gayrettepe, Avrupa F.N. Hastanesi in Mecidiyeköy, and Kızıltoprak F.N. Hastanesi in Kadiköy, all belonging to the Turkish Cardiology Foundation.An appeal is being considered for the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary hospital in Derby, England to be named after Nightingale. The suggested new name will be either Nightingale Community Hospital or Florence Nightingale Community Hospital. The area in which the hospital lies in Derby has recently been referred to as the "Nightingale Quarter".
Museums and monuments
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| Derby Royal Infirmary Statue |
A remarkable stained glass window was commissioned for inclusion in the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary chapel in the late 1950s. When the chapel was later demolished the window was removed, stored and replaced in the new replacement chapel. At the closure of the DRI the window was again removed and stored. In October 2010, £6,000 was raised by friends of the window and St Peters Church to reposition the window in St Peters Church, Derby. The remarkable work features nine panels, of the original ten, depicting scenes of hospital life, Derby townscapes and Florence Nightingale herself. Some of the work was damaged and the tenth panel was dismantled for the glass to be used in repair of the remaining panels. All the figures, who are said to be modelled on prominent Derby town figures of the early sixties, surround and praise a central pane of the triumphant Christ. A nurse who posed for the top right panel in 1959 attended the rededication service in October 2010.
The Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas' Hospital in London reopened in May 2010 in time for the centenary of Nightingale's death. Another museum devoted to her is at her sister's family home, Claydon House, now a property of the National Trust.
Upon the centenary of Nightingale's death in 2010, and to commemorate her connection with Malvern, the Malvern Museum held a Florence Nightingale exhibit with a school poster competition to promote some events.
In Istanbul, the northernmost tower of the Selimiye Barracks building is now a Florence Nightingale Museum. and in several of its rooms, relics and reproductions relevant to Florence Nightingale and her nurses are on exhibition.
When Nightingale moved on to the Crimea itself in May 1855, she often travelled on horseback to make hospital inspections. She later transferred to a mule cart and was reported to have escaped serious injury when the cart was toppled in an accident. Following this episode, she used a solid Russian-built carriage, with a waterproof hood and curtains. The carriage was returned to England by Alexis Soyer after the war and subsequently given to the Nightingale training school for nurses. The carriage was damaged when the hospital was bombed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It was later restored and transferred to the Army Medical Services Museum in Mytchett, Surrey, near Aldershot.
A bronze plaque, attached to the plinth of the Crimean Memorial in the Haydarpaşa Cemetery, Istanbul and unveiled on Empire Day, 1954, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her nursing service in that region, bears the inscription:
"To Florence Nightingale, whose work near this Cemetery a century ago relieved much human suffering and laid the foundations for the nursing profession."
References
- Baly, Monica E. and H. C. G. Matthew, "Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910)"; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (2004); online edn, May 2005 accessed 28 October 2006
- Bostridge, Mark (2008). Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend. London: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-87411-8.
- Gill, G. The extraordinary upbringing and curious life of Miss Florence Nightingale Random House, New York (2005)
- Kelly, Heather (1998). Florence Nightingale's autobiographical notes: A critical edition of BL Add. 45844 (M.A. thesis). Wilfrid Laurier University.
- Lytton Strachey; Eminent Victorians, London (1918)
- McDonald, Lynn ed., Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Pugh, Martin; The march of the women: A revisionist analysis of the campaign for women's suffrage 1866-1914, Oxford (2000), at 55.
- Sokoloff, Nancy Boyd.; Three Victorian women who changed their world, Macmillan, London (1982)
- Webb, Val; The Making of a Radical Theologician, Chalice Press (2002)
- Woodham Smith, Cecil; Florence Nightingale, Penguin (1951), rev. 1955
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One: Profession of Faith, Sect 2 The Creeds, Ch 3:2
CHAPTER THREE
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
II. The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy
Spirit
The proper
name of the Holy Spirit
691
"Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify
with the Father and the Son. the Church has received this name from the Lord
and professes it in the Baptism of her new children.Mt 28:19
The term "Spirit"
translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath,
air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to
Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God's breath, the
divine Spirit.In 3:5-8 On the other hand, "Spirit" and
"Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By
joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designate
the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation
with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy."
Titles of
the Holy Spirit
692
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him
the "Paraclete," literally, "he who is called to one's
side," advocatus.In 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7 "Paraclete" is commonly translated
by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler.Jn 2:1 The Lord
also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth."In 16:13
693
Besides the proper name of "Holy Spirit," which is most frequently
used in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, we also find in St. Paul
the titles: the Spirit of the promise,Gal 3:14 The Spirit of
adoption,Rom 8:15 The Spirit of Christ,Rom 8:9 The Spirit of the
Lord,2 Cor 3:17 and the Spirit of God25 - and, in St. Peter, the Spirit
of glory.1 Pet 4:14
Symbols of
the Holy Spirit
694
Water.
the symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since
after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental
sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in
water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine
life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all
baptized," so we are also "made to drink of one
Spirit." 1 Cor 12:13 Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water welling
up from Christ crucifiedJn 19:34 as its source and welling up in us to
eternal life.Jn 4:10-14
695
Anointing.
the symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit,In
2:20:27
to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian
initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called
"chrismation" in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be
grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy
Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the one
"anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the
Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David.Ex 30:22-32 But Jesus is
God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely
anointed by the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit established him as
"Christ."Lk 4 18-19 The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy
Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and
prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord.Lk 2:11
The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his
acts of healing and of saving.Lk 4:1 Finally, it was the Spirit who raised
Jesus from the dead.Rom 1:4 Now, fully established as "Christ" in
his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly
until "the saints" constitute - in their union with the humanity of
the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ":Eph 4:13 "the whole Christ," in St.
Augustine's expression.
696
Fire.
While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy
Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions.
the prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose
"word burned like a torch," brought down fire from heaven on the
sacrifice on Mount Carmel. Sir 48:1; cf. ⇒ 1
Kings 18:38-39 This event was a "figure" of the
fire of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who
goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims
Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with
fire."Lk 1:17 Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire
upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" Lk 12:49 In the
form of tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples
on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himselfActs 2:3-4 The spiritual
tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive
images of the Holy Spirit's actions.Cf. St. John of the Cross, the Living Flame of Love, in the
Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. K. Kavanaugh, OCD, and O.
Rodriguez, OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1979), 577 ff. "Do not quench the
Spirit."1 Thess 5:19
697
Cloud
and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy
Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now
luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of
his glory - with Moses on Mount Sinai,Ex 24:15-18 at the tent of
meeting,Ex 33:9-10 and during the wandering in the desert,Ex 40:36-38 and with
Solomon at the dedication of the Temple.1 Kings 8:10-12 In the Holy Spirit, Christ
fulfills these figures. the Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary and
"overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to
Jesus.Lk 1:35 On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the
"cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Peter, James
and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, my
Chosen; listen to him!'"Lk 9:34-35 Finally, the cloud took Jesus out of
the sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension and will reveal him as
Son of man in glory on the day of his final coming.Acts 1:9
698
The
seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his
seal" on Christ and also seals us in him.Jn 6:27 Because this seal indicates
the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has
been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible
"character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments.
699
The
hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on
them.Mk 6:5 In his name the apostles will do the same.Mk 16:18 Even more
pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is
given.Acts 8:17-19 The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among
the "fundamental elements" of its teaching. Heb 6:2 The Church has
kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its
sacramental epicleses.
700
The
finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out
demons."Lk 11:20 If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by
the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to
the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."Ex 31:18 The
hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the
Father's right hand."Easter
Season after Ascension, Hymn at Vespers: digitus paternae
dexterae.
dexterae.
701
The
dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove
released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign
that the earth was again habitable.Gen
8:8-12 When Christ comes up from the
water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon
him and remains with him.Mt 3:16 and parallels The Spirit comes down and remains in the
purified hearts of the baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved
in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the
altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.
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