Today: The 20th anniversary of Spiritual Warrior Sr. Dot’s Martyrdom

On this day twenty years ago, a 74-year-old white-haired North American woman was gunned down by hired assassins on a dirt road in the jungle of the Amazon.  Why?

Sister Dorothy Stang was a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Lamur, whose charism is to work with the poor.  For 40 years she doggedly worked with the peasants in the Amazon region, helping them build schools and defend the rainforest.  The landowners resented the empowerment that happened among the peasants she was working with.

She said, “We are only here on the land for a few decades.  Use every day to bring joy and not greed to our tired land so full of anguish.”

Many of the peasants had been beaten down for generations and landowners were angry with the sisters for exposing the injustices.  

Attending our program on Creation Spirituality during a sabbatical, she fell very much in love with Hildegard of Bingen, who helped ground her in a spiritual lineage and practices that strengthened her resistance to powerful forces.  She grew in strength to stand against those who prefer tearing down the rainforest for quick profits from cattle ranching, rather than honoring it and passing it on to future generations who will love and respect it.

Not unlike those today, whoever they are, who shout “Drill, baby drill,” rather than honor the sacredness of Mother Earth and urge an end to fossil fuels.

She saw the illegal logging and slash-and-burn destruction of the rainforest and it broke her heart.

She lobbied lawmakers, helped teach sustainable businesses like growing cacao, set up a woodworking shop, mentored young sisters, assisted farmers with legal documents, all the time with a price on her head. She encouraged small farmers to build community and homes and develop forest-friendly crops.  She worked with children, built numerous schools and confronted magistrates.  She lived a very poor life among the poor.

She said, “Our Gospel response calls us to take risks among our people.”   In Anapu today there are now 85 farming communities, up from only 35 when she died.  Sister Dorothy’s organizing farmers into a cohesive and powerful force erased the isolation and distrust of one another that had previously held sway. 

For this she was gunned down. 

For this she is honored in Latin America and around the world, including in a recent ceremony in Rome honoring contemporary martyrs.  There they presented a vial of her blood mixed with the soil of the Amazon where she fell.  Sister Dot is the first North American woman so honored. 

We all partake of her sacrifice, courage and spiritual warriorhood on behalf of the poor and the suffering of Mother Earth.

This being black history month, it seems fitting to link Sr. Dot’s warriorhood and sacrifice with that of Dr. MLK King, Jr. This prayer from Dr. King seems fitting for marking this anniversary: 

Join with the Earth and each other to bring new life to the land, to restore the waters, to refresh the air, to renew the forests, to care for the plants, to protect the creature, to celebrate the seas, to rejoice in the sunlight, to sing the song of the stars, to recall our destiny, to renew our spirits, to reinvigorate our bodies, to recreate the human community, to promote justice and peace, to love our children and love one another, to join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery, for the healing of the Earth and the renewal of all life.

Thank you, Sister Dorothy, thank you, Dr. King, for your work, courage, witness and ultimate sacrifice.  For your strength and spiritual warriorhood.

See Matthew Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, “Spiritual Warriors” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.

And Fox, “Spiritual Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Faith Traditions, pp. 404-422.

And Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Lustig, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action.

Banner Image: Detail of the flyer marking the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namurs’ rededication to the legacy of Sister Dorothy Stang.

Queries for Contemplation

How do you honor the sacredness of Mother Earth and try to remind others of the same—whoever they are?  Does Dr. King’s prayer speak for you also?  And Sister Dorothy’s life and work and death?

Recommended Reading

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug

In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.”  ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.