Bibliograph

Nicholas Black Elk, medicine man, catechist, saint, Jon M. Sweeney

Type

Label

Nicholas Black Elk, medicine man, catechist, saint, Jon M. Sweeney

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Nicholas Black Elk

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Jon M. Sweeney

Series statement

People of God

Sub title

medicine man, catechist, saint

Summary

Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) is popularly celebrated for his fascinating spiritual life. How could one man, one deeply spiritual man, serve as both a traditional Oglala Lakota medicine man and a Roman Catholic catechist and mystic? How did these two spiritual and cultural identities enrich his prayer life? How did his commitment to God, understood through his Lakota and Catholic communities, shape his understanding of how to be in the world? To fully understand the depth of Black Elk's life-long spiritual quest requires a deep appreciation of his life story. He witnessed devastation on the battlefields of Little Bighorn and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, but also extravagance while performing for Queen Victoria as a member of "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show. Widowed by his first wife, he remarried and raised eight children. Black Elk's spiritual visions granted him wisdom and healing insight beginning in his childhood, but he grew progressively physically blind in his adult years. These stories, and countless more, offer insight into this extraordinary man whose cause for canonization is now underway at the Vatican

Target audience

adult

Contributor