No Human is More Empowered to Change the World for the Greater Good Than a Mother

“Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.” – Robert Browning

“The prohibition against owning a Bible in the Soviet Union could only confirm its importance.” — Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian poet and Gulag prisoner for writing “subversive” poetry

As we approach Christmas Day 2022 we began thinking about motherhood. We understand that Christmas December 25th, 2022 is not Mother’s Day, however one mother did more to change the world for the greater good of mankind and we celebrate the birth of her child every December 25th.

We decided to honor motherhood at a “dark time” in world history when mothers are now the pawns of politicians to further their nefarious political agendas. We believe that Motherhood should be honored year round as it is mothers who bear the future of every civilization and ultimately the fate of mankind.

We have decided to make a list of mothers who have not only empowered change in the world but have literally changed world history. Here is our list of mothers that we must honor and cherish for the child that they carried to birth.

1. Mary of Nazareth the mother of Jesus.  A Jewish woman born in 18 BC also known as the Mary the mother of Jesus, St. Mary or the Virgin Mary. Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, Israel the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus the Christ child. She is a central figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. Watch Litany of Loreto, The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary below.
2. Caterina di Meo Lippi mother of Leonardo Da Vinci. According to Professor Martin Kemp of Oxford University in 1451, when Caterina was 15, she became pregnant by Ser Piero da Vinci, 25, a lawyer working in Florence. Ser Piero da Vinci was anyway due to get married, and Caterina was married off to Antonio di Piero Buti, a farmer.
   Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 14, 1452, and brought up in the house of Ser Piero da Vinci’s father. Professor Kemp said he believes Leonardo da Vinci was not born in Casa Natale in Anchiano, but in the house of his paternal grandfather in Vinci.
3. Nancy Hanks Lincoln mother of Abraham Lincoln. Although she had no formal education, Nancy stressed the importance of learning and reading, shaping the man who would become the sixteenth United States President. She educated him, taught him virtues of honesty and compassion, and instilled in him a sense of intellectual curiosity that would make him one of the most respected leaders of the country. Nancy was born to Lucy Hanks in Virginia. It is believed that she was born illegitimate to Lucy Hanks and was raised by her grandparents, Ann and Joseph Hanks, until Joseph’s death in 1793. After his death while the family lived in Kentucky, Nancy moved in with her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Henry Sparrow. She became an excellent seamstress and was employed as such by the Richard Berry family in Mercer County, Kentucky. It was there that she met Thomas Lincoln who was employed by the Berry’s as a carpenter. In 1806, she and Thomas married. In addition to Abraham, they had a daughter named Sarah and a son, Thomas, who died in infancy. After ten years of marriage, the family moved from Kentucky to Spencer County, Indiana.
4. Louise Einstein née Rosenberg mother of Albert Einstein. On October 22, 1905, two weeks after he’d sent his father (but not his mother!) the issue of the Annalen der Physik containing his article “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” which laid out for the first time the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein received in return a letter not from his father but from his mother, Louise Einstein née Rosenberg, the daughter of a prosperous grain trader from Württemberg, who explained to her son, a little bit bashfully but with a distinct note of reproof, that she, too, was interested in his intellectual life—all the more so because his intellectual life was his life. There is simply no partaking in my son’s life if I cannot partake in his intellectual life, she wrote, such is the nature of my brilliant but pensive son, my inward-oriented, eternally brain-dwelling son! And so, she wrote, even though the article had not been sent to her, she’d snatched it up—“Please do not reproach me for this!”—as soon as his father was finished with it and set about studying it herself. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to make heads or tails of it. Despite her deep, her profoundly deep aching to understand, she wrote, the fact remained that she did not speak the physico-mathematical language in which her husband and son were fluent. “Please, Albert, explain it to me more simply! Put it in terms so simple that even the daughter of a Württemberg corn merchant can understand it!”
5. Alberta Christine Williams King mother of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. According to 11 Alive, Alberta Williams King was the First Lady of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and of her community. She was one of the original mothers of the [civil rights] movement, in literal terms as well. She was the mother of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That’s a legacy the world is very familiar with. But the story of his mother who pushed him toward a lifelong commitment to serving others has not been shared enough. Alberta Williams King’s legacy is deeply woven in the fabric of what makes Atlanta, Atlanta. “She was just a remarkable human being,” her grandson Martin Luther King III said. Her youngest granddaughter Angela Farris Watkins recalled what she loved about her grandmother. “Gifted, loving, skilled,” Watkins said. Dr. Maurice Hobson, African-American studies professor at Georgia State University, said this untold story should be shared to inspire a new generation of leaders.“ Alberta Williams King is one of the most important aspects of the modern civil rights movement,” Hobson said.
6. Gladys Presley mother of Elvis Aaron Presley. According to Smooth Radio, Gladys Love Smith was born on April 25, 1912. Her early life couldn’t have been more different from the riches her son would provide her in the future. She was the daughter of a cotton farmer, and in the 1930s she met Vernon Presley at church. She was four years older than him, and Vernon was 17 and thus underage at the time. They lied about their ages in order to get married in 1933. Gladys soon became pregnant and she gave birth on January 8, 1935. However, tragedy occurred during the birth. Gladys had twins, but the first boy, Jesse Garon Presley, was stillborn. The second boy, Elvis Aaron Presley, survived. Gladys believed that “when one twin died, the one that lived got all the strength of both.”
7. Mary Anne Trump née MacLeod mother of Donald J. Trump. According to AllThatIsInteresting.com, as a poor immigrant from Scotland, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump probably never could’ve imagined that her son would one day become the President of the United States. But Donald Trump’s mother was lucky enough to achieve the American dream — and help give her son many opportunities that she never had growing up. Raised in an environment of enormous financial hardship on a remote Scottish island, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump lived a life that her son would never relate to. Arriving in America at age 18 in 1930, she had few skills and little money. But she was able to start a new chapter thanks to help from her sister who was already living in the country. Though Mary Anne MacLeod Trump would eventually become a New York City socialite, she wasn’t that obsessed with fame. Instead, she was a bonafide philanthropist who loved to volunteer at hospitals — even when she no longer needed to.
8. Maye Musk née Haldeman mother of Elon Musk. According to the U.S. Sun, long before her son became the well-known figure he is today, Maye had already developed a prolific modelling career. Maye Musk is a dietician and high-class fashion model, having walked for the likes of Dolce and Gabbana in Milan Fashion Week as well as gracing the covers of Time magazine and Vogue. While Maye was born in Canada, her family moved to South Africa shortly after. Maye, who was then known as Maye Haldeman, was a finalist in the 1969 Miss South Africa beauty contest. She married Errol Musk in 1970, then divorced him in 1979. According to Forbes magazine, Maye moved back to Canada from South Africa with her three kids, as a single mom. She earned two master’s degrees along the way, in dietetics and nutritional science, and regularly gives lectures and presentations around the country and around the world.

While others denigrate motherhood we celebrate it.

If you would like to add your mother to this list please do so in the comments section below.

Edgar Allen Poe wrote, “Because I feel that, in the Heavens above The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love None so devotional as that of ‘Mother’” 

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Litany of Loreto, The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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