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May 2
Saint Wiborada and Paulo Freire
David Barnhart
May 02, 2025
Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland, 2022. Own photo.
Today is the feast day of Saint Wiborada, who was martyred in 926 in Switzerland. She was an anchorite, meaning that she had committed to live a monastic life in a cell adjoining a church, and never leave it. She had the gift of prophecy, and warned her community of a coming invasion. While they escaped, she insisted on remaining behind, and was killed in the invasion.
Today also marks the death, in 1997, of Paulo Freire, educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His teaching has influenced generations of teachers and organizers in social justice movements.
Reflection:
Anchorites reflected a belief of the whole church that Paul’s instruction to “pray without ceasing” was a command fulfilled by the whole community. The anchorite was a volunteer who was appointed to pray and offer pastoral care. They often had one window open to the interior of the church, so they could participate in mass, and one window open to the outside world, where they could receive food and talk to visitors. They were “anchors” because the church building was thought of as a boat. (The word “nave,” the main part of a sanctuary, shares the same root as “naval,” and a “pulpit” is at the prow of a ship). The name “anchor” conveys the weight and sturdiness of the respect given to these women community leaders.
Patrisse Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, said, “We are not leaderless; we are leader-full.” This statement captures a lot of the thinking of Paulo Freire as well. His goal was not to elevate liberation-minded leaders (who can be manipulated, bought off, distracted, or killed to stop a movement), but to empower the whole community to liberate itself. He said,
The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.
He also critiqued the way the well-meaning people have used charity not to empower the poor, but to degrade them while soothing the consciences of those who support poverty-creating policies.
True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands--whether of individuals or entire peoples--need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.
Prayer: God our Helper, help your people to be leader-full, to do the work that makes charity irrelevant because society is just and everyone has enough. Inspire us to true generosity. Amen.