MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Saint — Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman, FSPA

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Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman, FSPA
December 29, 1937 AD, Yazoo City, Mississippi, United States — March 30, 1990 AD, Canton, Mississippi
American Franciscan Sister; African-American Catholic evangelizer and Gospel-tradition witness
Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson, Mississippi, United States — shrine, United States
Feast
March 30
Canonized
Cause of canonization opened November 17, 2018 by the Diocese of Jackson — elevated to Servant of God
Life

Bertha Bowman was born on December 29, 1937 at Yazoo City, Mississippi to an African-American Methodist family. At the age of 9, Bertha converted to Catholicism — becoming the only African-American Catholic at the Holy Child Jesus School.

In 1953, at the age of 15, Bertha entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at La Crosse, Wisconsin — the first African-American in the congregation. Bertha took the religious name Sr. Thea Bowman.

Educated at the Catholic University of America (PhD in English 1972), Thea undertook the systematic scholarly-evangelizing ministry.

Thea became famous for her vocation of the African-American Gospel-tradition Catholic evangelization — establishing the inculturation of the Catholic liturgy with the African-American Gospel-tradition spirituals, hymns, and rhythms.

On June 17, 1989, Thea addressed the US Conference of Catholic Bishops at Seton Hall University — in a wheelchair, battling cancer — the famous speech that became the institutional witness to the African-American Catholic tradition. Thea famously led the bishops in singing 'We Shall Overcome'.

Thea died at Canton, Mississippi on March 30, 1990 at the age of 52 — of breast cancer.

The cause of canonization was opened November 17, 2018 by the Diocese of Jackson.

Miracles & Phenomena

  • The African-American Catholic Gospel-tradition inculturation

    Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman's systematic African-American Gospel-tradition Catholic evangelization — established the late-20th-century Catholic liturgical inculturation of the African-American Gospel-tradition. The Thea tradition underpinned the 21st-century African-American Catholic musical-liturgical tradition.

  • The 1989 US Bishops address

    Thea's June 17, 1989 address to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops at Seton Hall University — in a wheelchair battling cancer — became the institutional witness to the African-American Catholic tradition.

Relics
  • Body
    Relics of Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman
    Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson, Mississippi, United States — shrine

    Her relics rest at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle at Jackson.

Iconography
  • Thea addressing the US Bishops

    The African-American Franciscan Sister in wheelchair addressing the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on June 17, 1989 — the iconography of American Catholic African-American witness tradition.

Patronages
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual AdorationCatholic African-American Catholic traditionCatholic Gospel-tradition liturgical inculturationJackson (Mississippi) and the Deep South Catholic tradition
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