A patron saint for feminists?

Previously Nunnery of  St Mary and St Radegund, now church of Jesus College

I had never heard of St Radegund until Sara Maitland proposed her as a patron saint for feminists. Radegund lived in sixth century France and apparently left an abusive marriage. Thereafter she established the convent of Our Lady of Poitiers, where she insisted that her sisters be educated. Her picture shows her carrying a staff and a book and wearing a tasselled bag over her shoulder. This indicates her high social status, or perhaps resources for almsgiving, or both. She was buried in Poitiers in the crypt of the church of St Radegunde. In France many places are named after her and in England there are five parish churches with her name. St Radegund is also the patron saint of Jesus College in Cambridge.(Wikipedia)

The church does seem to have a problem with women. MaryT Malone in her book of that title calls it “The Elephant in the Church”. And unsurprisingly since their perspective is missing, today’s women are coming to have a problem with the church, which continues to promote their “complementary” status. But Maitland says that, “Through all of history and across all known societies….an ideology of unthought-through ‘natural’ complementary has prevailed; and nowhere, ever, has it led to equality, and everywhere, always, women have been the sufferers.” (‘The Tablet’, 14 March, 2015, p. 11)

A friend once told me that she grew tired of discussing sexist liturgical language with her priest brother, and the offence this causes to women. He however insisted that pronouns were of no consequence whatsoever. “In that case,” she suggested, “we can substitute “women” each time where “men” occurs?” There was no further discussion on the importance of pronouns!

Photograph: “Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge – geograph.org.uk – 168873” by Robert Edwards. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus_College_Chapel,_Cambridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_168873.jpg#/media/File:Jesus_College_Chapel,_Cambridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_168873.jpg