ABSTRACT
The first Franciscans, the early Quakers, and the followers of Gandhi: here are three radical religious movements, widely separated in time and place, but sharing elements which their adherents identified as 'feminine'. We are all familiar with the images of gentleness and domesticity of Francis preaching to the birds and Gandhi spinning. So familiar, in fact, that it would be difficult to describe the personal style of these leaders and their closest followers and avoid feminine associations. One thinks immediately of Francis plucking the juiciest grapes to encourage a sick brother to eat, of Gandhi fussing over his family's diet, dispensing garlic to those he decided needed it, and of the 'Mothers in Israel' who were the earliest Quaker missionaries. One of Gandhi's adopted children wrote a biography of him which she called Bapu - My Mother. Margaret Fell called George Fox 'our dear nursing father'. The most intimate term which the Franciscan brothers used to address the founder was 'mother'.
