Pillar of Fire
A Novel
- Fiction
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2020
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Publisher's Description
In an age of intolerance, compassion can be dangerous. Pillar of Fire captures the stunning witness of the medieval mystics known as Beguines. Amid the intrigues of kings and knights, against a panorama of church corruption, Crusader campaigns, and Inquisition trials, these bold women broke all the rules. In this sweeping historical saga, young Clarissa flees from a forced marriage, befriends a colorful minstrel, and unravels the mystery of a midwife's murder. After a spiritual pilgrimage to the Egyptian desert, she returns with a Muslim orphan and gathers a community of devoted sisters. Threats come when they offer refuge to people suffering from leprosy and a Jewish family under persecution. When church officials get word of their rituals celebrating the feminine aspects of God and of Clarissa's mystical visions, they charge her with heresy and turn up the heat, as she struggles with the wound of betrayal and discovers the power of forgiveness.
Endorsements (5)
“For those who are already reading Christian mystics such as Julian of Norwich and those looking for a place to begin, Pillar of Fire vividly details the world in which such women lived. Joyce Hollyday’s compelling characters place readers among the Beguines in the ordinary and extraordinary parts of their communities.”
“In this historical novel, Hollyday, a veteran curator of women’s stories of faith, brings alive the remarkable (and too-long obscured) medieval Beguine movement. She weaves together feudal social disparities, Abrahamic traditions, ecclesial machinations, and doses of magical realism into a fabric of adventure that gallops across Europe to Sinai and back. Retelling the gospel story in a feminist key, Pillar of Fire is a compelling mirror for our own times and consciences.”
“This profound epic tale will move you to tears, incite your righteous anger, and inspire you to create authentic community. Reading Pillar of Fire is like taking a deep spiritual journey—one that will carve out a change in you. It certainly did that for me. Thank you for leading us, Joyce Hollyday.”
“Joyce Hollyday writes with a crystal-clear eye for the well-being of all people. Here she brilliantly evokes two kinds of place—the world in which the characters live which none of us have experienced, and the inner life of meaning where all of us can meet each other.”
“This beautifully written story will make you weep, but will also certainly make you cheer. This book should be on every woman’s shelf right next to Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children books and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series.”
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