Raven Wilkinson and Sisters of the Holy Nativity, in Fond du Lac,
Wisconsin
Raven Wilkinson was baptized Anglican Catholic and attended a church called the Little Church Around the Corner and St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church growing up. Even as she was touring, she would still make her best efforts to attend some type of worship service, often with her roommate and friend Eleanor D’Antuono. Prayer and meditation was an important part of her life. On tour with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Wilkinson had the opportunity to visit religious communities and later decided to further investigate the convent life. Her father thought that if it was something she felt she needed to do she should do it, while her mother was not a great supporter of the idea.
Wilkinson entered the novitiate at the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, in Fond du Lac Wisconsin in the Spring of 1963 and stayed for 7 months. While there, she trained in vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She found obedience the most difficult component, especially as it related to dance, as they would often be required to be still. One day, some Roman Catholic nuns invited Wilkinson’s congregation to see the National Ballet of Canada. Wilkinson recognized the name of a dancer in the program and after obtaining permission only if she went just for a few minutes, went backstage to see her. Once going backstage and visiting her friend Joysanne Sidimus, she was invited to see her friend perform Don Quixote from a balcony backstage, therefore requiring her to disobey her orders to come right back. Wilkinson remembers, “I recognized that that meant I would stay backstage though the intermission and not go back. I made a decision and I am sure it was a very hard decision, not to go back and stood there and watched that pas de deux.” Wilkinson also recalls the vital life lesson saying, “It made me realize I wanted to dance more than anything in the world, I always had and probably always would.” Being in the convent allowed Wilkinson to better understand her calling in relation to God, expressing, “I realized what a vocation I had and how you had to be so sincerely and totally devoted in what you were doing as an artist or dancer. I realized that therein, if you want to glorify God, the greatest place is in the gifts He gives you.”
Sources:
Black Ballerinas Dancing on the Edge: An Analysis of the Cultural Politics in Delores Browne’s and Raven Wilkinson’s Careers, Joselli Deans
Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society
More about Sisters of the Holy Nativity, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
The Sisters of the Holy Nativity is a religious order of the Episcopal Church that was founded in 1882 by Reverend Charles C. Grafton in Boston, Massachusetts. Grafton had a long-standing interest in developing women’s missionary societies.
When Grafton left the Cowley Fathers, a society he founded in England also called the Society of St. John the Evangelist, members of a women’s missionary society called the Society of St. Margaret asked Grafton to act as their chaplain. Within this change, the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity was established. The headquarters of the missionary society was originally located in Rhode Island, but a Mission House of Visitation was established in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The Fond du Lac mission acquired a larger building in 1985 that could be a more permanent home for the sisters, and in 1905, the headquarters moved from Providence to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity’s primary work is of a “parochial nature” and includes teaching Sunday School, preparing theology candidates for the sacraments, and teaching in parochial schools. Records indicate the sisters were involved in relief work such as emergency aid following natural disasters and distributing food and clothing to those in need.
Sources:
Black Ballerinas Dancing on the Edge: An Analysis of the Cultural Politics in Delores Browne’s and Raven Wilkinson’s Careers, Joselli Deans
Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society
Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity Records
Thandi Steele
