Thea Bowman

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Roman Catholic religious sister (1937–1990)

title: "Thea Bowman" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1937-births", "1990-deaths", "20th-century-american-non-fiction-writers", "20th-century-american-roman-catholic-nuns", "20th-century-american-women-writers", "african-american-christian-clergy", "african-american-non-fiction-writers", "african-american-roman-catholic-religious-sisters-and-nuns", "african-american-religious-leaders", "american-roman-catholic-writers", "american-servants-of-god", "american-women-religious-writers", "american-writers-about-music", "boston-college-alumni", "catholics-from-mississippi", "catholics-from-wisconsin", "catholic-university-of-america-alumni", "catholic-university-of-america-faculty", "converts-to-roman-catholicism-from-methodism", "deaths-from-breast-cancer-in-mississippi", "laetare-medal-recipients", "people-from-canton,-mississippi", "people-from-yazoo-city,-mississippi", "religious-leaders-from-mississippi", "third-order-regular-franciscans", "african-american-venerated-catholics", "american-venerated-catholics", "viterbo-university-alumni", "viterbo-university-faculty", "writers-from-la-crosse,-wisconsin", "writers-from-mississippi"] description: "Roman Catholic religious sister (1937–1990)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thea_Bowman" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Roman Catholic religious sister (1937–1990) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox saint"]

FieldValue
honorific-prefixServant of God
nameThea Bowman
honorific-suffixFSPA
birth_nameBertha Elizabeth Bowman
birth_date
death_date
imageThea Bowman.jpg
imagesize200px
birth_placeYazoo City, Mississippi, United States
death_placeCanton, Mississippi, United States
::

|honorific-prefix = Servant of God |name = Thea Bowman |honorific-suffix = FSPA |birth_name = Bertha Elizabeth Bowman |birth_date = |death_date = |feast_day = |venerated_in = |image = Thea Bowman.jpg |imagesize = 200px |caption = |birth_place = Yazoo City, Mississippi, United States |death_place = Canton, Mississippi, United States |titles = |beatified_date = |beatified_place = |beatified_by = |canonized_date = |canonized_place = |canonized_by = |attributes = |patronage = |major_shrine = |suppressed_date = |issues = |prayer = |prayer_attrib = Mary Thea Bowman, FSPA (born Bertha Elizabeth Bowman; December 29, 1937 – March 30, 1990) was a Black Catholic religious sister, teacher, musician, liturgist and scholar who contributed to the ministry of the Catholic Church toward African Americans.

She became an evangelist among her people, assisted in the production of an African-American Catholic hymnal, and was a popular speaker on faith and spirituality in her final years, in addition to recording music. She also helped found the National Black Sisters' Conference to provide support for African-American women in Catholic religious life. She died of cancer in 1990.

In 2018, the Diocese of Jackson opened her cause for sainthood and she was designated a Servant of God.

Life

Early life

Bowman was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1937. Her paternal grandfather (Edward Bowman) had been born a slave, but her father (Theon Edward Bowman) was a physician and her mother (Mary Esther Coleman) a teacher. She was raised a Methodist but, with her parents' permission, converted to the Catholic faith at the age of nine. Bowman attended Holy Child Jesus School in Canton, Mississippi, where she met her classmate Flonzie Brown Wright.

She became the first African-American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at La Crosse, Wisconsin at age 15, overcoming her parents' objections. Bowman was also part of the civil rights movement.

As part of her religious formation, Bowman attended Viterbo University, which is run by her congregation, and earned a B.A. in English in 1965. She went on to attend The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she earned an M.A. in English in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English in 1972, writing her doctoral thesis on Thomas More, titled The Relationship of Pathos and Style in A Dyalogue of Comforte Agaynste Tribulacyon: A Rhetorical Study.

While studying for her master's at CUA, Bowman became a founding member of the National Black Sisters' Conference, inaugurated in Pittsburgh in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She remained active in the group throughout her life.

Educator

Bowman taught at an elementary school in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and then at Holy Child Jesus Catholic School, her alma mater. She later taught at her other almae matres, Viterbo College in La Crosse and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as well as at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans.

In his book Eleven Modern Mystics, Victor M. Parachin, a meditation teacher, notes Bowman's impact upon Catholic liturgical music in providing an intellectual, spiritual, historical, and cultural foundation for developing and legitimizing a distinct worship form for Black Catholics. Bowman had explained: "When we understand our history and culture, then we can develop the ritual, the music and the devotional expression that satisfy us in the Church."

Bowman became instrumental in the 1987 publication of a new Catholic hymnal, Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, the first such work directed to the Black community. James P. Lyke, Auxiliary Bishop of Cleveland, himself an African-American, coordinated the hymnal project, saying it was born of the needs and aspirations of Black Catholics. Bowman was actively involved in selecting hymns to be included, as well as her essay, "The Gift of African American Sacred Song." In it, she wrote, "Black sacred song is soulful song" and described it as holistic, participatory, real, spirit-filled, and life-giving.

Evangelist

After Bowman had spent 16 years in education, the Bishop of Jackson invited her to become a consultant for intercultural awareness. She became more directly involved with ministry to her fellow African-Americans, and began giving inspirational talks to Black congregations. She brought her "ministry of joy" to people as far Nigeria and Kenya, to Canada, the Virgin Islands to Hawaii, New York, and California. She called on Catholics to celebrate their differences and to retain their cultures, but to reflect their joy at being one in Christ. In his book Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters Across the Color Line, Christopher Pramuk wrote:

::quote Arguably no person in recent memory did more to resist and transform the sad legacy of segregation and racism in the Catholic Church than Thea Bowman ... who inspired millions with her singing and message of God's love for all races and faiths. Sister Thea awakened a sense of fellowship in people both within and well beyond the Catholic world, first and foremost through her charismatic presence.Bowman was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984, after which she began treatment but maintained a robust speaking schedule. As her illness progressed, her fame grew and she made several overseas trips, including visits to West Africa and Lourdes, France. She also appeared on national news outlets and was even filmed for a documentary on her life after a terminal diagnosis.

During an appearance on the show 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace, she prodded him into saying "Black is beautiful."

In 1989, shortly before her death, in recognition of her contributions to the service of the Church, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Boston College in Massachusetts.

===Death=== Just months before her death from cancer, Bowman spoke in 1989 to American Catholic bishops from her wheelchair, and they "powerfully and visibly moved, applauded her. When she had finished, they stood linking arms and singing as Bowman led them in the spiritual, 'We Shall Overcome'." Harry Belafonte met her in Mississippi that year, hoping to do a film on her life with Whoopi Goldberg portraying her; the project did not materialize.

Less than a week before her death, the University of Notre Dame announced that it would award Bowman the 1990 Laetare Medal. It was presented posthumously at their 1990 commencement exercises. She died on March 30, 1990, aged 52, in Canton, Mississippi, and was buried with her parents in Memphis, Tennessee.

==Legacy== The 25th anniversary of Bowman’s death brought forth numerous tributes. Her 1988 albums, Songs of My People and* 'Round the Glory Manger*, initially released on stereo audiocassette by the Daughters of St. Paul, were re-released in 2020 for the 30th anniversary of her death under the title, Songs of My People: The Complete Collection.

===Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center=== Boston College instituted the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (African, Hispanic, Asian, Native American).

===Sister Thea Bowman Foundation=== Shortly before her death, the Sister Thea Bowman Black Catholic Educational Foundation was established to raise scholarship money on a national scale for underserved students of color, who sought post-secondary education but did not have the means to attend – an endeavor Bowman saw as key to raising up the Black people. She conceived of the foundation as early as 1984 and articulated its mission for the students: "Walk with us. Don't walk behind us and don't walk in front of us; walk with us." The vision was brought to life in 1989 by founder Mary Lou Jennings under the guidance and direction of Sister Thea Bowman. By 2015, it had put more than 150 African American students through college.

===Cause for canonization=== The cause for Bowman’s canonization was opened by the Diocese of Jackson in mid-2018, giving her the official designation “Servant of God”, the first of four steps toward the Church’s official recognition of a saint. At the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2018 Fall General Assembly, the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance indicated unanimous support for the advancement of Bowman's canonization cause on the diocesan level.

===Institutions named after Bowman===

*Sister Thea Bowman Center at Viterbo University *Sister Thea Bowman Center at University of Notre Dame

==Works==

  • Bowman, Thea (1985). Families, Black and Catholic, Catholic and Black. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference. Commission on Marriage and Family Life. .
  • Bowman, Thea; Cepress, Celestine (1993). Sister Thea Bowman, Shooting Star: Selected Writings and Speeches. La Crosse, WI: Saint Mary's Press. . OCLC 28935744.
  • Bowman, Thea; Nutt, Maurice J. (2009). Thea Bowman: In My Own Words. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications. . – index of Bowman's speeches, writings, and interviews, with a brief biographical sketch and epilogue.

==References==

==Further reading==

  • Nutt, Maurice J. Thea Bowman: Faithful and Free. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2019. . OCLC 1101785462.
  • Nutt, Maurice J. An Hour with Thea Bowman. (pamphlet) Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2018. .
  • Smith, Charlene; Feister, John. Thea's Song: The Life of Thea Bowman. Orbis Books, 2010. .

==External links==

[[Category:1937 births]] [[Category:1990 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns]] [[Category:20th-century American women writers]] [[Category:African-American Christian clergy]] [[Category:African-American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:African-American Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns]] [[Category:African-American religious leaders]] [[Category:American Roman Catholic writers]] [[Category:American Servants of God]] [[Category:American women religious writers]] [[Category:American writers about music]] [[Category:Boston College alumni]] [[Category:Catholics from Mississippi]] [[Category:Catholics from Wisconsin]] [[Category:Catholic University of America alumni]] [[Category:Catholic University of America faculty]] [[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Methodism]] [[Category:Deaths from breast cancer in Mississippi]] [[Category:Laetare Medal recipients]] [[Category:People from Canton, Mississippi]] [[Category:People from Yazoo City, Mississippi]] [[Category:Religious leaders from Mississippi]] [[Category:Third Order Regular Franciscans]] [[Category:African-American venerated Catholics]] [[Category:American venerated Catholics]] [[Category:Viterbo University alumni]] [[Category:Viterbo University faculty]] [[Category:Writers from La Crosse, Wisconsin]] [[Category:Writers from Mississippi]] ::

References

  1. (2017-05-25). "The Mississippi Encyclopedia". Univ. Press of Mississippi.
  2. Feister, Charlene Smith and John. (2009). "Thea's Song: The Life of Thea Bowman". Orbis Books.
  3. "Sister Thea Bowman (1937–1990)". Boston College.
  4. (March 23, 2020). "The Archivist's Nook: Sr. Bowman Goes to Washington – What's Up".
  5. ""Stand Together": Sister Thea, Our Saint in the Making". The Catholic University of America.
  6. "Thea Bowman".
  7. Parachin, Victor M.. (2011). "Eleven Modern Mystics, and the Secrets of a Happy, Holy Life". Hope Publishing House.
  8. Bowman, Thea. (1987). "Lead Me, Guide Me". GIA Publishing.
  9. (April 28, 1990). "Sister Thea Bowman (1937–1990)". America Magazine.
  10. Fulkerson, Mary McClintock. (2015-10-01). "Christopher Pramuk, Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters across the Color Line". The Journal of Religion.
  11. (2014-06-24). "To Live Fully: The witness of Sister Thea Bowman". America Magazine.
  12. Bowman, Thea. (June 19, 1989). "Address to U.S. Bishops". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
  13. Parachin, Victor M.. (June 20, 2011). "Thea Bowman: Soulful Mystic".
  14. Dyer, Ervin. (November 28, 2003). "Black nun being examined for sainthood".
  15. "Laetare Medal Recipients". University of Notre Dame.
  16. "Talbot School of Theology".
  17. (March 20, 2015). "Sister Thea Bowman 25 death anniversary Archives".
  18. (2015-02-26). "The Life and Legacy of Sister Thea Bowman". Wisconsin Public Radio.
  19. Lee, Daniel. "[http://bcgavel.com/2015/03/31/bc-celebrates-inaugural-thea-bowman-legacy-day/ BC Celebrates Inaugural Thea Bowman Legacy Day]", ''The Gavel'', March 31, 2015.
  20. "Sister Thea Bowman Foundation".
  21. "History". Sister Thea Bowman Foundation.
  22. Roberts, Tom. (2015-04-30). "Good news for one another: The legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman". Global Sisters Report.
  23. Stockman, Dan. (November 14, 2018). "Sr. Thea Bowman takes step further toward canonization with bishops' vote". National Catholic Reporter.
  24. "Making of a Saint".
  25. (May 19, 2014). "Thea Bowman News". Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
  26. "Bishops support Sister Thea Bowman's cause for canonization". Archdiocese of Seattle.
  27. "Thea Bowman Center - Beacon of Hope".
  28. (April 8, 2016). "Thea Bowman Center Intergenerational Garden".
  29. (2017-07-28). "Advantage Health Center to offer dental service at its Thea Bowman clinic in Detroit". Crain's Detroit Business.
  30. "Thea Bowman House".
  31. "USNEWS on Leadership Academy".
  32. "Thea Bowman Residence in Amityville, New York". Affordable Housing Online.
  33. "Thea Bowman Spirituality Center, St. Moses the Black Priory in Raymond, Mississippi".
  34. "Thea Bowman Women's Center {{!}} St. Francis Inn Ministries".
  35. "Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center at Howard University, Washington, D.C.".
  36. "Sister Thea Bowman Academy, Wilkinsburg".
  37. "Sister Thea Bowman Catholic School".
  38. "Sister Thea Bowman Center for Women at Siena College".
  39. (2017). "Biography".
  40. "Sister Thea Bowman Grade School".
  41. Quigley, Kaitlin. (July 24, 2020). "Loyola renames Flannery O'Connor Hall after Sister Thea Bowman".
  42. "Sister Thea Bowman Residence Hall".
  43. "Thea House, Catholic Campus Ministry serving Bennett College and NC A&T".
  44. "Thea Bowman Hall".
  45. "Sr. Thea Bowman Center {{!}} Viterbo University".
  46. "Notre Dame renames Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion {{!}} Notre Dame University".

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