Called to be Women: Mary's Genius and Ours
“Called to be Woman: Mary’s Genius and Ours,” presented by Sr. Ann Astell, took place at the McGrath Institute for Church Life conference True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture at the University of Notre Dame in March 2025, developed by Abigail Favale, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice, Theology & Literature, at the McGrath Institute for Church Life.
Experience the Episode
Presented by McGrath Institute for Church Life
Thirty years ago, in both Evangelium Vitae and his Letter to Women, Pope John Paul II issued a clear call for the genius of women to be “more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as in the life of the Church” (Letter to Women 10). Throughout his papacy, in fact, he emphasized women’s “prophetic character,” calling on them to be “witnesses” and “sentinels” — guardians of the sacred gift of life and the order of love (Mulieris Dignitatem 29; Homily at Lourdes 2004). “Called to be Woman: Mary’s Genius and Ours,” presented by Sr. Ann Astell, took place at the McGrath Institute for Church Life conference True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture at the University of Notre Dame in March 2025, developed by Abigail Favale, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice, Theology & Literature, at the McGrath Institute for Church Life.
Meet the Faculty: Sister Ann W. Astell
Sister Ann W. Astell is Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of six books, most recently Eating Beauty: The Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages (2006), and is now completing a monograph on hagiography and the Bible. She has been the recipient of an N.E.H. fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. She has edited eight collections of essays, most recently Saving Fear in Christian Spirituality (2020). Past President of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality and also of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, she has published recently in Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Spiritus, Theological Studies, Marian Studies, and Religion and Literature.