When I became martha.

I owned up to being Martha three years ago when I started a group in my church.  I am not sure, when I first learned about Martha.  It could have been as bored child in church during the cycle of readings.  More likely, I found Martha in my explorations of quirky ideas since research is my first love.

Martha is “the” Martha from the Christian bible’s story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10: 39-42).  This brief passage centers around Christ and the Apostles going to Martha’s house for lunch.  Christ gently reminded her that the meal was not the important task, but the hearing of His word was the “one needful thing.”  Mary was doing the right thing, while Martha although the dinner was lovely was mistaken.  Along the way, I learned that Mary was Mary Magdalene, sister of Lazarus (the leper).  Martha, Mary’s older sister, owned the house where Jesus, the Apostles and the various followers and hangers-on had this meal. 

Not that I sought out being Martha, quite the contrary I found Martha in nooks and crannies.  Walking along a beautiful garden path in Bayview Michigan, I noticed grave markers in the flowerbed.  Certain residents of Bayview choose cremation and had their ashes scattered among the flowers.  The Mary and Martha Society tended the garden.  While rummaging through old cookbooks at a used book sale, I found one written by the Mary and Martha Society.  Looking through an art book, I saw Martha steely looking out from her kitchen while Christ and Mary reclined in the background.

 I became martha after listening to a heated conversation between women who were dissecting the preacher’s sanctimonious sermon on the passage.  The point made, and the cause for my conversion, was that Martha served Christ and the 14 or so additional people in her home at, what seems, a moment’s notice.  It is common then as it (sadly) is today to have the women prepare, serve and clean-up after a meal.  Noticing that her younger sister chose to sit down with the (other) apostles, while she (Martha, the older sister and homeowner) made a meal for the group, Martha asked Jesus about this hoping to get help in the kitchen.  Christ gently reproached her.  Martha had claim on some help from Mary, nowadays the apostles would be expected to pitch in themselves and even Christ would be expected to carry dishes into the dining room!  That sealed the deal for me-- I am a martha!  This started me looking.

 The first official notice of the Mary and Martha Society was in the Catholic Encyclopedia.  In 1877, the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity took control of the group that began in 1836 in Cincinnati Ohio.  Similarly, St. Mary’s African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) noted Negro members of the Society in North Carolina and that the Society acted as a stop on the Underground Railroad north.  In the 1880’s, The Sons and Daughters of Mary and Martha were prevalent in Upson County, Georgia.  References from burial markers and obituaries show that the Society spread from North Carolina to Canada from 1845 until 1972.  The Society has groups in Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox, Church of Christ, Reformed, Lutheran, Episcopal, Community and American Baptist Churches.  Geographically, Societies are scattered from New England to the Southwest and Canada to the deep South.

I wrote and called the larger and older religions and congregations for organizational material on the Mary and Martha Society.  The consensus is that the Society is a volunteer group directly associated with each specific church it serves.  It is not hierarchical; each is independent.  It is known under different names, The Society of Mary and Martha (most common), The Daughters (and Sons) of Mary and Martha, Saints Mary and Martha Altar Society, and the marthas (sic).  It has amazing scope from creation and management of schools and hospitals, as a missionary society, fund raiser, cookbook writer (most prevalent) and a burial society for indigents (most prevalent during the 1800’s). 

 I assume the first Society came from Europe.  My only European connect came from a book published in 1986, The Fat Pigeon File, by a Christian retreat house in Devon England.  It notes the humorous activities of the Society and their affect on the life of the parish minister.  This gave me a toehold to Europe for inquiring into the Mary and Martha Society.  Sadly, the group did not respond to my inquiry.  Lutheran historians pointed me to the Society in Canada.  My inquiries were acknowledged by the various churches, but offered no further lead as to the origin of the Society. 

I received an elegant hand-written letter detailing the history of the Society in the Brook Highland Community Church and an apologetic email from the minister who told me the author of the letter “just didn’t truck with the Internet.”  The author, a founding member, said, “We chose the name “Mary and Martha Society, because we felt that it identified with both the internal and external service projects, which was our primary mission.”  Similarly, the Constitution of the Society in Waterloo Iowa notes that their primary interest is their bond of friendship between the ladies (sic) of the congregation and the financial assistance of the parochial school. 

Certain URLs cited the Society as a group involved with the Benedictine Sisters group named MOMS, a support group movement sponsored by the Benedictine Sisters.  I wrote to the authors of the material.  They categorically stated that the Society has no relationship with them.  I presume a Mary and Martha Society grew in the church and adopted the MOMS materials to meet the needs of its own congregation.  Recently I searched again and found the Martes, a group of hygiene lecturers in Finland founded in the 40’s.  Whither it is a glitch in my search engine or gremlins, the Martes seems linked to the Mary and Martha Society.  When I have an opportunity, I will follow up this lead.

Here in Chicago, Evanston really, I created “the marthas” three years ago in order to provide service to a small congregation.  The marthas provide simple cleaning, repair of the Church, and garner as a result, comradeship.  The name is the marthas.  There are enough Marys in the world talking about the ideas; someone has to do the physical labor.  Martha is intentionally not capitalized in homage’ to my favorite poet e. e. cummings.  It is an act of humility and a statement that I am not a proper noun.

Research originally published to Wikipedia as The Mary and Martha Society