Martyrdoms of Mary Dyer and Joan of Arc

I've been really busy this week, so I wasn't able to post this on time. However, Wednesday May 30 was the date that Joan of Arc was martyred, and Friday June 1 was the day that Mary Dyer was martyred.

I've already discussed St. Joan, who followed what she believed to be God's orders, against the teachings of the church (especially on the matter of gender roles and appropriate clothing) to her death. History proved her right, and I believe the Episcopal Church now includes her in Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

Mary Dyer was another such woman. Unlike Joan, she was not a soldier, but she is the only woman to die in the US from causes related to religious freedom. From the Wikipedia article:

In 1637 Mary Dyer met Anne Hutchinson, who preached that God "spoke directly to individuals" rather than only through the clergy. Dyer joined with Hutchinson and became involved in what was called the "Antinomian heresy," where they worked to organize groups of women and men to study the Bible in contravention of the theocratic law of the Massachusetts Bay Colony...

Mary Dyer and her husband returned to England with Roger Williams and John Clarke in 1652, where Mary Dyer joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) after hearing the preaching of its founder George Fox and feeling that it was in agreement with the ideas that she and Hutchinson held years earlier. She eventually became a Quaker preacher in her own right.

The Dyers returned to Rhode Island in 1657. The next year she traveled to Boston to protest the new law banning Quakers, and she was arrested and expelled from the colony. (Her husband, who had not become a Quaker, was not arrested.)

Mary Dyer continued to travel in New England to preach Quakerism, and was arrested in 1658 in New Haven, Connecticut. After her release, she returned to Massachusetts to visit two English Quakers, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, who had been arrested. She was also arrested and then permanently banished from the colony. She traveled to Massachusetts a third time with a group of Quakers to publicly defy the law, and was again arrested, and sentenced to death. After a short trial, two other Quakers were hanged, but because her husband was a friend of Governor John Winthrop he secured a last-minute reprieve -- against her wishes, for she had refused to repent and disavow her Quaker faith.

She was forced to return to Rhode Island, traveled to Long Island, New York to preach, but her conscience led her to return to Massachusetts in 1660 to defy the anti-Quaker law. Despite the pleas of her husband and family, she again refused to repent, and she was again convicted and sentenced to death on May 31. The next day Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for the crime of being a Quaker in Massachusetts.

"Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent."

A statue of her stands outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

Given the nature of the times we're in, both conservative and liberal Anglicans could politicize these women, and say that we too must follow God's commands, and to heck with the Nigerians/Americans. Both sides are, after all, pretty darn sure that they're following God's law. But it is not my intent to politicize the witness of these saints.

Mary and Joan were called by God, it seems. Their fellows turned against them, and killed them, and certainly in Joan's case, her gender played some role in her death. Lord, have mercy on us.

Mary's and Joan's witness do show us that sometimes, you have to do what you are called by God to do. Only history may vindicate your actions, so you have to realize that you might be wrong.

Did Mary have doubts, in her heart, as she was led to be hanged? Did she at least consider the possibility that she was wrong? It's impossible for me to say. But if she did, she still acted on what she believed were God's orders, as did Joan. And God vindicated them in time.

So, God, have mercy on those who killed Joan and Mary. Grant Joan and Mary rest eternal, and let light perpetual shine upon them. And God, please grant us all your spirit of discernment. Let it be that no one needs to be imprisoned or persecuted for following you, and let us never think that following you means we are called to imprison or kill our fellow human beings. Because, to you, we are all sisters and brothers. Amen.