Oct. 26 Lecture featuring author Binka Le Breton, who will discuss her latest book entitled, The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang
Saint Joseph
College's Department of Religious Studies presents
the 2009 - 2010 Buckley Lecture Series:
Binka Le Breton
Activist and Author of
The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of
Sister Dorothy Stang
Monday, October 26 at 4:00 p.m.
Saint Joseph College's Department of Religious Studies will present the 2009 - 2010 Buckley Lecture Series featuring activist and author Binka Le Breton, who will discuss her latest book entitled, The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang on Monday, October 26 at 4:00 p.m. in the Crystal Room located in Mercy Hall on the College's West Hartford campus. Admission is free of charge. For more information, contact Pat Senich, faculty secretary in Academic Affairs, at 860.231.5358.
Very few religious believers are called upon to give their lives for their faith, but those individuals are often remarkably inspiring. Contemporary martyr Sister Dorothy Stang (1929-2005) was no exception. She lived a rich and full life and laid down that life for her friends. Eighteen years after entering a convent for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Sister Dorothy was granted her desire to serve the poor as a missionary in Brazil. Her somewhat naive imagination about missionary life was quickly transformed by the harsh realities of the dire poverty she witnessed. During the almost 40 years she served in Brazil, Sister Dorothy fell in love with the people and the country, and courageously aided in the struggle of poor farmers for land rights against logging and development companies. A heartbreaking story written in gripping prose throughout, The Greatest Gift is interwoven with several personal narratives from Sister Dorothy's family and close friends, lending gentle warmth to an account that is at times harrowing and cruel.
Author Binka Le Breton is the co-founder and director of the Iracambi Research Center in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, which works on biodiversity conservation, sustainability, and human rights. She is an experienced lecturer and broadcaster; her books include Voices from the Amazon, A Land to Die For and Trapped: Modern-Day Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon, which won a Judge's Award from World Hunger Year, New York.
