Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 25:3 (Summer 2011)
Article: Travels with Cathie
Author: Dorothy Irvin

PP 25:3 (Summer 2011) p. 11

Travels with Cathie

Dorothy Irvin

Dorothy Irvin has taught theology at several Catholic universities; published a book on the Old Testament and a commentary on the Sunday Scripture readings for the three-year lectionary cycle; and contributed

articles to books, journals, and encyclopedias.

She has been on the staff of an archaeological

project in Jordan for nineteen years. Most recently, she has begun presenting, in the form of annual calendars, her work on the archaeological

documentation of women in the early church who were deacons, priests, and bishops.

What a joy it was to be around Cathie! We met seldom, and it was always too short. She had so much information and so many new ideas and insights to share that there was never enough time to do all the discussing we wanted to do. And, underneath the intellectual excitement of learning more about our faith, Cathie always had a related concern for the wellbeing of others.

I first met Cathie and her husband, Richard, in 1978 at a meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature and the American School of Oriental Research in New Orleans. I was giving a research report on spindle whorls, the small stone discs, each with a single perforation, from which all the textiles in the ancient world were made. I had a few of these ancient worked stones, and with me was a drop-spindle spinner, a woman skilled in using these tools, which were perhaps 5,000 years old. We had found sticks to put through the holes and had made working spindles with which the spinner demonstrated to the assembled archaeologists how wool or linen thread was spun. With this thread, all clothing and, in fact, all textiles were woven.

Cathie’s interest in women in the Bible and antiquity brought her to this live demonstration of the work to which all women, from slaves and peasants to queens, devoted hours every day in the biblical period. From the “valiant woman” of Proverbs 31, to the weaving of Delilah, to “the lilies of the field, which toil not, neither do they spin,” textile production is an important piece of the biblical background concerning women. Cathie and I saw that we had interests in common and exchanged addresses.

Coincidentally, a few months later, I obtained a teaching position at Saint Catherine University (at that time the College of Saint Catherine) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where Cathie lived and studied classics at the University of Minnesota. She included me in the events of the Evangelical Women’s Caucus, and I found out more about the missionary history of evangelical women. We were both working on the archaeology of wom...