Growing up, I never heard about St. Phoebe. She, like so many women of the early church, was lost to me for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The female doctors of the church \u2014 Catherine, Teresa<\/a>, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, and, later, Hildegard \u2014 were beacons whose wisdom, faith and example I was drawn to. As a young adult, I grew to know and love Mary Magdalene<\/a>, the apostle to the apostles, as well as a number of other women saints, who, each in her own way, invited me to be more fully myself and more fully engaged with my faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n