Tag Archives: Clare of Assisi

Jeanne-Marie de Maillé

The Other Sister Research Group met on May 16th, 2025, to discuss the noblewoman Jeanne-Marie de Maillé who, after a chaste marriage, lived an intriguing religious life in widowhood, never entering a religious order. Her vita and canonization inquest are currently being compiled, translated, and commented on by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Bruce Venarde, and Edmund (Ed) van der Molen for their forthcoming volume, Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1331-1414): Searching for Sainthood in Late Medieval France.

The circulated readings included the introduction and four chapters, one with an extract from the vita, “Chapter 3: A Pious Young Widow in the City,” and the others with extracts from the inquest: “Chapter 13: The Articles of Interrogation” “Chapter 20: The Testimony of Pierre des Aubuis,” and “Chapter 25: The Testimony of Jeanne la Carrée.” Each extract is followed by a commentary.

Renate started the presentations by explaining how she came across Jeanne-Marie while working on the political visions of other medieval women religious, such as Constance de Rabastens, and thanks to the work of André Vauchez: Jeanne-Marie had had a vision about the papal schism. Renate then suggested to Bruce that they work together on her vita by the Franciscan Martin of Boisgaultier and her inquest. After they started their collaboration, they came across Ed’s name, through A.J. Langley’s podcast “My Favorite Mystic,” as someone also working on Jeanne-Marie; they contacted him and all three decided to work together. The group’s three-part collaboration functions through a tripartite division of the vita and inquest texts. Each translates their sections of the primary sources and writes commentaries for them, but also comments on the others’ translations and commentaries with a colour-coded schema. They are in the later stages of the process, and Renate noted that their work on the texts has already begun to establish multiple additional projects, such as her current work on Jacques II de Bourbon (d. 1438), Comte de La Marche, who possibly sponsored Jeanne-Marie’s canonization inquest. Bruce added that their chosen structure for the book, which incorporates a commentary at the end of each chapter, has been influenced by the example of the recent publication A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy: The Life of Clare of Rimini, by Jacques Dalarun, Sean L. Field, and Valerio Cappozzo (2023).

Ed, the second speaker, explained that he discovered Jeanne-Marie through his doctoral research on the construction of saints’ identities. He is especially interested in exploring the disagreements that could develop over what kind of saints could emerge from canonization processes. His initial fascination with Jeanne-Marie was due to her liminal position between religious and lay. He considers the texts of the vita and the inquest to represent the first stages of saint-making, and, using the methodology of value theory, he emphasizes the differences in values that are apparent among the different proponents of Jeanne-Marie’s canonization. The initial stages of the canonization process invited people to negotiate, transform, and appropriate value of different kinds, encouraged the exercise of social creativity, and defined the values of the community. In general, Ed said, during the development of a saint’s cult, community consensus was important to the construction of saintly identity, yet multiple identities emerge from Jeanne-Marie’s dossier. As he pointed out, the two texts present additional questions: since there is no known surviving manuscript of the vita (only a seventeenth-century printed edition), the sources provide few answers to queries about the intended audience, purpose, and dissemination. Jeanne-Marie’s name does appear in a fifteenth-century breviary now in Besançon, suggesting her cult spread beyond her native region.

Next, Ed explained that Jeanne-Marie’s hagiographer extrapolated a make-shift set of religious vows for her in the vita encompassing poverty, chastity, and obedience through the mechanism of mystical visions of Mary and Christ and demonstrated, for example, by her refusal to remarry after the death of her husband. Within the vita, there is some effort to cloister her and to regularize her identity.

Bruce, the final speaker, discussed his entry into the project through an invitation by Renate. He also praised the group’s work process, which he emphasized is heavily collaborative in all aspects. This project was particularly attractive, he said, due to the manageable length of the inquest and its potential usefulness for both teaching and research. So far, only canonization inquests in partibus (organized from Rome) have been edited and translated. This will be the first translation into English (or any modern language) of the preceding stage, the diocesan inquest.

During the Q&A period, moderated by Joseph George Akl, Isabelle Cochelin asked how Jeanne-Marie’s hymen could have been inspected after her death (as mentioned in the inquest) to prove her virginity. Renate and Bruce suggested that there is no information about this in the text and mentioned the unique character of the expression used: claustrum virgineum integrum, incorruptum, atque intactum (“a whole, pure, and intact hymen”, Ch. 25). Such an expression does not appear to have been used elsewhere. Lori Walters provided the example of Joan of Arc, whose virginity was also checked, and she suggested that this was a fairly normalized practice. Isabelle clarified that her astonishment was related to Jeanne-Marie being dead when the examination occurred.

Laura Moncion suggested that Jeanne-Marie perfectly fits the description of an “other sister,” owing particularly to her interactions with lay society (taking care of pregnant women, attending baptisms, etc.). Laura asked whether Jeanne-Marie was performing midwife duties and whether she shared a spiritual or worldly relationship with the children whose baptisms she attended or those of the pregnant women she helped. She also asked who set the articles of interrogation in the inquest: a confessor, a court employee, or the community. In response to the latter question, Bruce answered that the hagiographer, local members of the clergy, and perhaps Jacques de Bourbon, the possible funder of the project, each had roles in the process. Renate added that it was most likely a joint project, although the preliminary inquest would have come from the diocese. Jacques de Bourbon’s procurator seems to have acted in his stead since he himself was not physically there: he was about to be married to Queen Joanna II of Naples. Despite these clues, there is no clear indication of who funded the project. There were only 16 witness across the course of a year, most of them from in or near Tours, so funding may simply have been piecemeal.

In response to Laura’s question about midwifery and godparentage, Ed answered that Jeanne-Marie did not necessarily act as a midwife, but she did act as godmother to at least one child, a son of Duke Louis I d’Anjou. While married, she also acted as a foster mother to three orphaned children, who vanish from the narrative after they are mentioned. She is, however, portrayed as a maternal figure. The narrative includes several miracles related to childbirth. In one example, Jeanne-Marie convinces a knight who is skilled in surgery to intervene in a successful caesarian birth. There are also examples of long-distance miracles related to childbirth, which are formulaic: the pregnancy seems doomed, Jeanne-Marie intervenes, and both mother and child survive. Ed added that she is viewed as both a spiritual and worldly maternal figure and godparent and perhaps even as a godparent to the wider community. This appears to have been a significant and purposeful theme in the texts provided through multiple examples of her nurturing of children’s spiritual development.

Lucy Barnhouse responded to Ed,s comments on maternal characteristics, suggesting connections to Laura Kalas’ theory that Margery Kempe did spiritual work that paralleled the roles of mothering and care that she would otherwise have fulfilled within a more traditional life path. Lucy then proposed that some of Jeanne-Marie’s activities complemented the work of hospital sisters. Some hospital records from France excluded pregnant women and foundlings from the hospital, perhaps due to concerns about noise. Thus, Jeanne-Marie was engaging in work that hospitals were not doing for various reasons; her embedment in her community might parallel some phenomena discussed in Ruth Salter’s “cure seekers.” Lucy then asked whether the three speakers have considered Jeanne-Marie’s potential relation to hospital work. Renate answered that Jeanne-Marie did work at a hospital at one point, but an unfortunate incident with an ill man, related to grapes and diarrhea, ended her employment there. Indeed, she was a “gig worker” and did not work in hospitals or the medical field in any consistent way.

Ed added that Jeanne-Marie’s hagiographer struggled to fit her into a box: almost a mystic, almost a recluse, almost a hospital worker, but none of them completely. She often shifted what she was doing, which led to issues crafting a distinct narrative and identity, further emphasizing the code-switching and liminality inherent in her narrative. Renate added that she wants to compare the vita and the inquest at some point in the future since many aspects of the inquest, such as Jeanne-Marie’s visions, are excluded from the vita. Some other aspects of Jeanne-Marie’s life, however, appear to have been over-emphasized and dramatized by the hagiographer. Her liberation of prisoners, for example, mentioned briefly in a written testimony, became a multiple-paragraph section in the vita. Within this context, determining how the hagiographer selected information to include in the vita is a matter of great interest.

Next, Adam Davis asked, related to Ed’s comments on the competing versions of identity, how intensely Jeanne-Marie’s identities differed. He also asked how the ambition of female saints was discussed and represented, extending this question to the ambition of the hagiographer. How did writers stretch the boundaries of what was acceptable for women? Adam offered a comparison between Jeanne-Marie and Clare of Rimini, who both wished to drink from the chalice at Communion. While Clare did drink the wine, Jeanne-Marie’s mouth filled with blood in its place. In response to the first question, Ed answered that there are at least three or four versions of Jeanne-Marie that emerge from the narratives of different witnesses: worldly mystic, efficient healer, and St Martin-like character. The vita is meant to synthesize these different versions and produce a cohesive portrait. He added that her relationship with the Franciscans is emphasized in the vita through mutual support.  She also interacts with a lot of aristocratic networks connected to the Franciscans, which is emphasized in the vita but not by the witnesses, demonstrating significant value differences between different communities. Thus, the identities that emerge include Jeanne-Marie as a traditional healing saint, an idealized Franciscan saint, an otherworldly mystic, and a corporate civic saint. At the point in the process that is revealed by the two source documents, no significant synthesis between these perspectives has yet been achieved.

Bruce added that many aspects of sainthood were comprised in the two texts and that this seems to have been purposeful on the part of the hagiographer. Ed said that they seemed to be “ticking boxes” for different aspects of sainthood. Renate emphasized that no writings directly from Jeanne-Marie survive, unlike for some of her contemporaries such as St Colette of Corbie; we only have second-hand accounts of Jeanne-Marie’s religious philosophy.

Delfi Nieto-Isabel then asked how much we know about Jeanne-Marie.s “devotees” – the people who were behind the inquest and vita – especially about their social connections to Jeanne-Marie and to each other. She also asked what Jeanne-Marie’s exact relationship was to the Franciscans. How was she both reclusive and staying with them? Finally, she inquired about the language used to refer to Jeanne-Marie in the sources. Since Jeanne-Marie fulfilled so many different roles and appeared to have been buried in a Franciscan habit, how did people refer to her? To this last question, Renate answered that the description “hermitesse” was insulting to Jeanne-Marie. She compared Jeanne-Marie to Colette of Corbie, citing her forthcoming article (“La recluse et l’‘Hermitesse’: La place et la fonction de la réclusion et de l’érémitisme dans les vies de Sainte Colette de Corbie (1381-1447) et de la bienheureuse Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1331-1414)” in Une autre Cité des dames: Hommage à Yasmina Foehr-Janssens, edited by Hélène Bellon-Méguelle, Camille Carnaille, Philippe Frieden, and Marion Uhlig, forthcoming): Colette was enclosed in a church for multiple years, but Jeanne-Marie had a retreat outside of Tours, at Notre-Dame de Planche-de-Vaux, where she stayed from time to time. She lived in a variety of places in and around Tours. Bruce added that she is not referred to as either a recluse or a beguine and that she seems to have been called a “hermitesse” because she used to dress in very simple clothing. Ed clarified that the texts describe her as a “holy woman,” “holy lady,” or “saint.”

Ed also answered Delfi’s question about networks around Jeanne-Marie. The bourgeois of Tours, for example, are demonstrated to have known each other, and their narratives suggest interaction among them. There is also an aristocratic support network, with a prominent Angevin element. There is not much connection in between these two networks, however. Bruce mentioned that there is also a local clerical network, not associated with Franciscans, but with St Martin’s Basilica.  Ed added that there are no Franciscan witnesses included in the inquest. Why? This seems odd, considering the vita’s emphasis on Jeanne-Marie’s Franciscan connection, apparent in both her relationships with individual Franciscans and with the order in a broader sense.

Renate suggested that Jeanne-Marie had at last one direct international connection, as demonstrated by a letter from the King of Cyprus included in the inquest. The king was part of this aristocratic international network, demonstrating its far reach and the circulation of Jeanne-Marie’s reputation.

Alison More asked how useful it was (and is) to fit Jeanne-Marie into a specific box given the diversity of her identities. She suggested that women religious perceived their multiple identities as irregular and extra-regular ways of “life,” and not necessarily as distinct labels. She also asked about the definition of Jeanne-Marie’s tertiary identity and requested additional clarification about the absence of Franciscans among the witnesses. Renate answered that Jeanne-Marie was not officially called a tertiary but that such terminology has been applied in the source texts for other cases, such as that of St Colette, who took tertiary vows, as a recluse before becoming a Poor Clare. It appears that the Franciscans were trying to keep Jeanne-Marie safe throughout her life and that they eventually took her in on their land in Tours, though there was never an official affiliation. Ed suggested that Jeanne-Marie emphasized the Franciscan relationship when it was particularly helpful to her. Her chosen confessor was not a Franciscan, but, later in her life, she decided that Franciscans would provide permanence. Overall, she picked and chose based on differing circumstances. She was buried in the habit of St Clare. Thus, her burial garb was a statement of intent and not a reflection of reality. Bruce said that the relationship between the Franciscans and Jeanne-Marie appears to have been a mutually beneficial arrangement. Although Jeanne-Marie was most likely looking for stability with the Franciscans, the Franciscans would have benefitted from her reputation as a holy woman and significant figure in the region.

Renate added that there are some questions about Jeanne-Marie’s poverty since she donated many relics and riches to churches but still begged on the streets and took a vow of poverty. She also went on pilgrimages, which were expensive. These examples provide a contradiction regarding her financial means. Alison suggested that poverty might have been an identity marker, particularly for Franciscans, but was not necessarily a reality. Delfi added that, within her sources, there are many examples of tertiaries begging while also donating much – voluntary poverty was only possible with funding.

Next, Lori asked where the information about Jeanne-Marie’s connection to and criticisms of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria came from. Renate answered that this connection is mentioned in the vita and had been established because Jeanne-Marie was from the aristocracy. Lori asked as well about the dates of Jeanne-Marie’s interactions with the king and queen as related to the timing of Charles’ mental illness, and Renate responded that they occurred after 1392 and the onset of illness, providing context for Jeanne-Marie’s more significant interactions with Isabeau. Lori then asked whether the information in the vita might have been glossed during the writing process. Renate answered that this is unlikely, since Martin of Boisgaultier, her hagiographer, was simply trying to piece her identity together and did not include allegorical interpretation in his text. Bruce agreed that the dossier was not theological, and Ed suggested that the hagiographer’s sources were other vitae and that he was piecing his vita together from these examples.

Next, Lucy added to the discussion of the flexibility of Jeanne-Marie’s poverty, suggesting that this fluidity reflects the relationships of “other sisters” to the categorization of “poor” since they embraced the identities of service to the poor by being poor themselves (pauperes). Lucy suggested that such identification is related to a rhetorical construction of the poor and the identity of the poor within the Christian community, which hinges upon the distinction between deserving and undeserving poor.

Renate added that they do not know what happened to the canonization dossier later on. To whom was it delivered given that it was written during the Council of Constance and the tri-papacy? The manuscript of the vita no longer exists. Unlike the continued efforts to canonize St Colette, there were no other inquests related to Jeanne-Marie. Why? Renate said that André Vauchez has demonstrated that there was an early modern cult related to the hermitage of Notre-Dame de Planche-de-Vaux, but all of this appears to have had no continued impact.

Isabelle suggested that the nobility was occupied by other events, such as the end of the Hundred Years’ War and Charles VI’s illness, and that there was no religious order to help develop a sustained, devoted cult. She also followed up on Adam’s question about ambition. Renate answered that we do not have much information about Jeanne-Marie’s ambition, since we do not have access to her thoughts in her own words, only her actions as seen through a secondary lens. She does not appear to have been ambitious in terms of pursuing a singular goal, but she was possibly ambitious in the number of things she tried to do and in her liminality and refusal to adhere to a single identity. She also generally refrained from overstepping the boundaries of social acceptability, though she was attacked in Paris and accused of witchcraft.

Bruce added that, once, someone threw a stone at her, but she was never pursued by the inquisition. Renate mentioned that she only appears to have been accused of witchcraft by one person, but this never happened in Tours, where she was very well known. Bruce and Renate also discussed small incidents where she was mistreated or rejected for her clothing and poor appearance and one incident in which her brother acted as if he did not recognize her. Ed added that the question of ambition might be applied to the intention to achieve sainthood, which was unacceptable since a large part of holiness relates to humility. We do not know if Jeanne-Marie attempted to present herself as a saint. How much of her action was deliberate? The hagiographer was also attempting to create this persona for Jeanne-Marie, ticking many of the boxes of sainthood on her behalf: how much of this construction was the agency of the hagiographer and how much of it was the agency of Jeanne-Marie?

Bruce concluded that Jeanne-Marie was very old at the time of her death and that much of the vita reflects her early life. Thus, much of the information in the vita must have been provided by Jeanne-Marie herself.

The Other Sister Research Seminar: Images

By Meghan Lescault

As The Other Sister project examines women who often took religious life in new and interesting directions, it was only fitting that we followed in their footsteps ever so slightly for our most recent online research seminar on December 13, 2024, where we departed from our customary format and ventured into new territory. Prior to the meeting, images that had been sent in by several scholars were disseminated to all participants. During the seminar, these scholars had the opportunity to discuss these images that they had come across in their research of medieval and early modern religious women and to ask all attendees for information, ideas, and points of comparison with their own research. This collaborative exercise, hosted by Mary Doyno and Tanya Stabler Miller, was a great success, as it led to robust discussion and a helpful exchange of ideas.

A close-up from the left panel, taken from the larger image seen here.

Isabelle Cochelin began the conversion with the above image of a woman, who is thought to be St. Monica, from a fifteenth-century Netherlandish triptych depicting scenes from the life of St. Augustine. She discussed her search for representations of non-cloistered religious women in art, of which this painting is a potential example. This search has led to questions as to whether such women can be detected in crowds and as attendees of sermons in pieces of artwork. Cochelin also mentioned the difficulties of determining the identity of women depicted in art on the basis of their habits. For example, how can we tell whether the subject is meant to be dressed in the garb of a widow or of another type of non-cloistered woman? Devon Sherwood offered the comparison of books of hours that did in fact belong to religious women but depict their owners in secular clothing. Ashley Tickle Odebiyi offered the insight that the potential St. Monica is portrayed here in a blue habit, a noteworthy point given that the bizzoche of Rome studied by Odebiyi are associated with a consorority of St. Monica that also had habits of a blue hue.

Meghan Callahan further stirred up a flurry of conversation with an image taken from Francesco da Castiglione’s sixteenth-century biography of Sister Domenica da Paradiso. It can be seen on the second page of Callahan’s 2012 article found here. The unusual image is meant to depict Domenica in the midst of a vision, seemingly having a mystical experience of Christ’s crucifixion. Callahan asked the group if others had encountered any comparable images. Amongst several interested respondents, Kate Bush recalled a description of a similar image portraying Vanna of Orvieto in 1306 as well as the accounts of Margaret of Cortona mystically experiencing the wounds of Christ. Callahan was the recipient of several inquiries, as curious attendees wanted to know more about the intriguing image: Who drew it? Could it have been a female artist? Why the detailed outline of Domenica’s legs? Why the Y-shaped cross? Callahan believes that it was composed by Domenica’s confessor and biographer Francesco and that the details of the image simply represent an attempt to portray the sight of Domenica during her visions accurately.

Margot Fassler’s chosen image, found in the Klarenbuch, Karlsruhe, BLB Cod. Thennenbach 4, continued the theme of women depicted in unusual places that are typically reserved for Christ. In this case, St. Clare is placed at the middle of a Last Supper table—seated between Christ and St. John—in a late-fifteenth- or early-sixteenth-century painting by the Poor Clare Sybilla von Bondorf. In comparing this painting to a similar depiction of St. Francis at the Last Supper, also painted by Bondorf and found in the Life of Francis in German (London, BL 15710, f.168v), Fassler surmised that Bondorf may have been appealing to her viewers’ memories, as she painted Clare as the presider in one painting and Francis in the other. This can also be seen in two depictions of Bonaventure painted by Bondorf. Fassler’s work on music, in which one melody can have multiple settings, led her to the realization that a similar phenomenon may be at play in artwork—highly stylized images with similar themes but slightly different details. Amanda Pullan offered a helpful comparison with seventeenth-century embroidery in which women would embroider angel or biblical stories on the left side of the panel, changing the exact content but maintaining the same location of the images.

Tanya Stabler Miller continued the discussion by presenting sketches of the tomb effigies of three identifiable medieval Parisian beguines—Jeanne Brichard, Agnes d’Orchies, and Marie de Gonesse. Images of the latter two can be found on pages 100 and 51, respectively, in Stabler Miller’s book. She pointed out that such items allow for interesting observations about how the women chose to represent themselves, and she specifically drew attention to the girdle books carried by Brichard and Gonesse in these images, suggesting that such an accessory might have an association with beguines. Their connection with these wearable pouches intended to carry and protect psalters and other books would make sense given their reputation for piety and charitable work as well as their movement between spaces such as the beguinage, workshops, and home. In asking the group for comparisons, Stabler Miller received feedback about similar tomb effigies of women depicted with books. Moreover, Margot Fassler and Siobhan Nelson noted the similarity of these girdle books to chatelaines, which were used by women working in nursing and haberdashery to store their belongings needed for such tasks. Stabler Miller pointed out that beguines could function as caregivers and silk-workers and that the need for a storage device of this kind highlighted their mobility and fluidity between spaces.

Diptych-reliquary depicting Dominican saints, saint Ursula, saint Catherine of Alexandria, the Virgin and donors. Burgos, Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Huelgas. 13.2 x 20.2 x1 cm (both panels). Beginning of the fourteenth century. Reproduced with the permission of Patrimonio Nacional.

Mercedes Pérez Vidal brought the conversation off the page and into the third dimension, as she discussed the above devotional diptych and reliquary that probably originated in or near Cologne but is now housed at the Cistercian monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos, Spain. She emphasized two especially intriguing, even puzzling aspects of this object. The diptych contains one of the earliest known depictions of Helen of Hungary, a Dominican nun who is styled as a saint here, and at the same time, it is very similar to an object that belonged to Christina von Stommeln, a beguine who lived near Cologne in Jülich. Pérez Vidal noted that this points to a blurring of boundaries between cloistered and non-cloistered women, Dominicans and beguines. Isabelle Cochelin responded by inquiring about the price of such a precious object and who would have had the means to afford it. Pérez Vidal emphasized that the origin of the diptych remains unknown but discussed the possibility that it came out of the context of the circulation of relics, especially those of the 11,000 virgins of Cologne, that occurred in the area between Cologne and the Low Countries.

Barbara R. Walters furthered the discussion with a presentation of an illumination in a Mosan Psalter (The Hague, KB 76 G. 17 f. 82v). She explained that she approaches images in terms of historical sequences, palimpsests, and progressions with particular emphasis on the feast of Corpus Christi. The thirteenth-century women of Liège, especially the recluse Eve of St. Martin and St. Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, are represented here by this image from a Mosan Psalter, as this is part of a group of psalters that likely circulated among laywomen of Liège. Moreover, the image’s depiction of the elevation of the host highlights the Eucharistic devotion among the women of Liège, who were instrumental in instituting the new feast of Corpus Christi in 1246. Thinking about generations of recluses, Walters asked the group if it makes sense to see different generations of recluses in Liège as part of a progression from a friendship network to a more formal set of church roles and relationships. Isabelle Cochelin responded that the notion of recluses as wholly enclosed with a locked door has been debated throughout the centuries. While the rhetoric suggested constant enclosure, there were significant variations in reality.

Katherine Clark Walter brought the session to a fitting close with some perplexing illuminations from a fourteenth-century pontifical of William Durand (Clm 10037, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich). Three images found on folios 80v (page 170 in the above link), 81r, (171), and 233r (475) depict women standing behind a bishop at various consecration ceremonies, an unusual sight in such manuscripts. We especially focused on folio 81r (171), where such an illumination is paired with the text for the benediction of widows. Clark Walter thought that the woman right behind the bishop might be an officiant at the benediction alongside the bishop and asked the group why this might be. In response, Isabelle Cochelin discussed the often-significant roles played by abbesses at the professions of nuns and introduced the question of the potentially diverging roles of the abbess and the bishop, depending on the sources consulted. Margot Fassler and Meghan Callahan both questioned whether the woman was playing an active part as an officiant or rather was serving as a witness. Bruce Venarde drew everyone’s attention to the highly unusual nature of the image, highlighting the strange placements of the virgins to one side, the bishop to the other side, the woman behind the bishop, and a monk front and center.

Mary Doyno noted that ending on the note of oddity was a fitting cap for this meeting, as its goal was to elicit analysis, draw out questions, and illustrate the need for further research. This session did just that, highlighting the potential successes of crowdsourcing and proving that sometimes a picture is worth more than 1000 words.