Within St John's Cathedral, the deeds of women are remembered in many different media, e.g. stained glass, painting, marble, brass, wood and needlework.

Some lived in Old Testament times (e.g. Ruth and Naomi). Others were close friends or relatives of Jesus (e.g. Elisabeth, Martha and Mary), and of course, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is represented in stained glass, marble, paintings and embroidery.

St Hilda, St Clare, St Margaret, St Catherine and others remind us of the early women saints who devoted their lives to the Lord.

The women social reformers of the 19th century are represented by Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale and the changing role of women in war may be seen in the windows of Edith Cavell, the New Guinea Martyrs and the Service Women in the Sacrifice windows in the South Transept.

There are memorials to women who lived and worked in Queensland from its earliest days and made their mark on the Colony; others have contributed their skill as needlewomen, designers of the cushions, the banners and the bosses (front porch). Many have been generous donors of windows and sacred vessels etc.

Even today, we have Revd Jo Pycroft, the first woman precentor of St John's Cathedral; and Revd Leah Shaw is a Cathedral chaplain; we have women administrators, a women's choir, women Cathedral Guides and women workers in the Cathedral shop - all performing a valuable ministry.

Women in stained glass

Biblical times

1. Ruth (2 windows) and Naomi
2. Mary, the Mother of our Lord
3. Anna, the prophetess
4. Elisabeth
5. Martha and Mary
6. The Woman of Samaria - at the well
7. Jairus's Daughter
8. Lydia, the seller of purple cloth
9. Dorcas (Tabitha)
10. Woman with child (Rev.12:1-6)

4th-13th Centuries

1. St Monica (332-387)
2. St Hilda (614-680)
3. St Etheldreda (630-679)
4. St Clare (1194-1253)
5. St Margaret (1249-1297)

18th Century onwards

1. Elizabeth Fry (1787-1845)
2. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
3. Edith Cavell (1865-1915)
4. New Guinea Martyrs - Margery Brenchley, Lilla Lashmar, Mavis Parkinson and May Hayman
5. Nurses and other Service Women in the Sacrifice Window

Women in other media

1. Mary, the Mother of our Lord
2. St Hilda (614-680)
3. St Catherine (1347-1380)
4. St Margaret (1249-1297)
5. Queen Mary (2 media)
6. Queen Elizabeth II
7. Mary Fraser
8. Amy Martha Proctor

Women embroiderers, designers and donors

1. Mothers' Union banners
2. Makers of banners and cushions
3. Gifts of G.F.S.
4. Miss Elsie Friend - Embroiderer of Frontal in Lady Chapel
5. Girls who designed the bosses
6. Many memorials to women
7. Many women donors of memorials

The living and the dead

1. Revd J. Pycroft - Precentor
2. Revd Leah Shaw - Chaplain
3. Mrs H.A. Barrett - Ashes

St Catherine
Born on 25th March, 1347, Catherine was the second youngest of the large family of Giacoma di Benincasa, a dyer, and his wife, Lapa. From her childhood, Catherine saw visions and at the age of 7 years, she dedicated herself to Jesus. At the age of 16 years, she joined the Dominican Tertiaries and lived the austere life of an anchorite of the desert. After three years of visions and conversations with Christ, she rejoined her family and began to care for the sick and the poor.

For long periods, she survived on nothing but the Blessed Sacrament, but was radiantly happy. She gathered disciples around her and in 1370, she had a series of manifestations which ended in a long trance in which she had a vision of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. She influenced the Pope and princes and with missionary zeal, threw herself into uniting Christendom against the infidel. In 1375, she received the Stigmata, though, at her special prayer, they were not visible until her death. Moving to Rome, she assisted in the reformation of the Church after the Great Schism. She died in 1380. Many of her writings survive as classics of the Italian language.

St Etheldreda

When he succeeded his father, he appealed to the bishop for the enforcement of his marital rights as against Etheldreda's religious vocation. The bishop persuaded Egfrid to allow her to live in a nunnery. Concerned for her safety, she walked to Ely where she began the foundations of the great Cathedral. She died at Ely on 23rd June, 679.

St Clare - co-foundress of the Order Poor Clares

Her younger sister, Agnes, joined her and they and other women founded the Order in a primitive dwelling in San Damiano obtained for them by St Francis. In 1215, St Francis appointed her Superior of the Order, and she remained in that office at San Damiano until her death. Later another sister, her mother and an aunt followed her into the Order.

In 1234, during an assault upon Assisi, soldiers scaled the walls of San Damiano Clare took the ciborium containing the Host from the chapel adjoining her cell, and held it in the face of the invaders at the open window, causing them to fall backwards, dazed. The rest then took flight.

On 26th September, 1255, Clare was canonised by Pope Alexander IV and soon after, the Church of Santa Chiara in Assisi was built and her remains were buried deep under the high altar. Her tomb was found in 1850 and the coffin unearthed on 23rd September. The flesh and clothing had been reduced to dust but the skeleton was perfectly preserved. On 29th September, 1872, the bones were transferred with much pomp to the shrine in the crypt at Santa Chiara where they may still be seen.

Elizabeth Fry
Elizabeth Gurney was a Quaker who, at the age of 18 years, started a Sunday School with one boy. It quickly grew to 80. She also provided the poor with food and clothes and read the scriptures to them.

In 1806, she married Joseph Fry, a wealthy merchant, and bore him ten children. In 1817, her brother-in-law, a Member of Parliament, suggested she visit the women's section of Newgate Prison. She felt this was a call from God and gladly began the work in spite of warnings about the violence of women prisoners.

She was appalled with what she found - drunken women in rags, swarming with lice and with virtually no bathing facilities. They were crammed into a very small space. No medicines were available. Little food was provided and there was only dirty straw for "beds". Death from typhus was common. Children were there with their mothers because there was nowhere else for them to go and babies were born in prison. There was no discipline and bullies ran the wards.

Elizabeth appealed to the women through their children and the miracle happened! She gained supplies through her supporters and organised classes in knitting and sewing. Soon the women were able to sell their piece-work and buy soap and food. She fought for a room for a school and the best-educated among them began to teach. Every day, she read the scriptures and many were converted. Elizabeth persuaded the prison authorities to appoint matrons instead of male turnkeys.

She also instructed reformers in the organisation of women convicts transported to New South Wales. Her reforms spread to many other countries including Germany.

She died, aged 65 years, having transformed the lives of hundreds of women and children through her vision and faith.

Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, in 1820 to wealthy English parents and was educated by her father. She did not care for a social life and at 17 years, she felt God had a special mission for her.

When she was 26 years, she chose to become a nurse and as there was no formal training available in England, she went to Germany.

When the Crimean War broke out, she went to Scutari and, with family influence, she was given charge of military hospitals. She found the men kept unwashed and still wearing their Army uniforms that were "stiff with dirt and gore". In these conditions it was not surprising that in Army hospitals, war wounds accounted for only one death in six. Diseases such as typhus, cholera and dysentery were the main reasons why the death rate was so high among wounded soldiers.

Setting standards of cleanliness and care which reduced mortality, she became known as "The Lady with the Lamp". She trained other girls to become nurses at her training centre at St Thomas's Hospital, London.

In 1866, Sir Henry Parkes, the New South Wales Colonial Secretary, asked Florence to send some of her nurses to the Sydney Infirmary, Australia. One of these Nightingale nurses, Annie Miller, came to Brisbane and was Matron for a short time at the Brisbane Hospital and from 1877 to 1887 at the Asylum at Woogaroo.

When Florence Nightingale died in 1910, she was afforded a national funeral.

Edith Cavell
Edith was born at Swardeston, Norfolk, where her father was Rector. She was an accomplished artist and she and her sister sold paintings and cards to raise money to build a Church Room.

She took several posts as a Governess in England and in Brussels. In 1895, she returned to Swardeston to nurse her father through a brief illness and decided to take up nursing as a career in 1896, training at the London Hospital.

She worked in many nursing homes in England and in Brussels and, on 10th October, 1907 took charge of a pioneer training school for lay nurses on the outskirts of Brussels.

When war broke out in 1914, she was at home with her mother but returned to Brussels immediately. When that city fell to the Germans, they commandeered the hospital for their own wounded. English nurses were sent home, but Edith and her assisstant, Miss Wilkins stayed. An "underground lifeline" was established and some 200 allied soldiers were helped to escape. This organization lasted for almost a year. Eventually her part in it was discovered; she was interned and sentenced to death. A Lutheran chaplain obtained permission for the English Chaplain to visit her on the eve of her execution and to administer the Blessed Sacrament to her.

In the early hours of October 12th, 1915, the death sentence was carried out by a firing squad. During her last hours, she wrote, "Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone."

After the War, her remains were escorted to Westminster Abbey for the first part of the Burial Service, on May 15th, 1915. A special train then took the remains to Norwich where they were interred in the Cathedral precincts.

The New Guinea Martyrs
Twelve missionaries and church workers were killed by the invading Japanese in New Guinea in the Second World War. The four women in the group are commemorated in a window high up the east wall in the south transept of St John's Cathedral.

Lilla Lashmar and Mavis Parkinson were teachers and Margery Brenchley and May Hayman were nurses. Lilla and Margery were stationed at Sangara. They were rounded up by the Japanese with some of the men and were beheaded on Buna Beach in August 1942. Lilla Lashmar was originally from Kangaroo Island, South Australia, and trained as a teacher before responding to the call to missionary work. Margery Brenchley was born in England but came to Brisbane as a teen-ager. She trained as a nurse in Brisbane and went to New Guinea in 1927.

May Hayman and Mavis Parkinson were stationed at Gona and were captured by the Japanese after many difficult days in the jungle, trying to escape the patrols and were executed by the bayonet in late August 1942 at Jegerata.

May had worked as a nurse in various Australian hospitals and not long before her death had announced her engagement to the Reverend Vivian Redlich, another New Guinea martyr. He was with the Sangara group on Buna Beach. Mavis Parkinson grew up in Ipswich and was an old girl of Ipswich Girls' Grammar School. She trained as a teacher at the A.B.M. College before going to New Guinea.

All these women were devoted to their work with the New Guinea people and refused to leave them even at the risk of their own lives.

Prepared by Lesley Williams
August 2002

Bibliography

• Addison, K. (2001) Volunteer Guides' Notes
• Hebermann, C.G. (1907-1912) The Catholic Encyclopaedia. Appleton
• Chamberlin, Rev. D. Vicar of Swardeston. Edith Cavell 1865-1915: A Norfolk Heroine www.edithcavell.org.uk
• Clark-Kennedy, A.E. (1965) Edith Cavell, Pioneer and Patriot. Faber
• Matheson, A. (1964) Florence Nightingale - A Biography. Collins
• Tomkins, D. and Hughes, B. (1970) The Road from Gona. Angus & Robertson.
• Uglow, J. (1998) The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography. Macmillan
• Whitney, J. (1947) Elizabeth Fry. Harrap
• Woodham-Smith, C.B. (1951) Florence Nightingale 1820-1910. McGraw Hill