A Historic Journey of Faith and Courage From Italy to North Carolina

Have you ever visited a place that so intrigued you that you just had to find out more about it even after you returned home? In my case, it took a while, but I blame the magnificent setting at a lakeside hotel in Varenna, Italy on the shores of Lake Como for setting me on a path of discovery several years later. 

Foxe's book of martyrs dedicates one page to the Waldensians, yet these relatively obscure people had a great impact on Christian Europe during the second millennium A.D. and helped set the stage for the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Their story of enduring faith and valor high in the Cottian Alpscaptivated my attention. I had to return to Italy to investigate further.  (Right: Lake Como from the Villa Cipressi.)

I headed to the Waldensian valleys west of Turin, Italy to talk to local scholars and visit the many museums and sites dedicated to the Waldensian story throughout the region.                                                                                                                                                                          

Waldensian Headquarters, Torre Pellice, Italy

I began my quest at the Waldensian Museum of Torre Pellice, which provides a journey through eight centuries of Waldensian history, archaeology, and ethnographic development--their religious dissidence, the Protestant Reformation, Religious Wars, Waldensian exile and their Glorious Return, their grant of civil rights in the nineteenth century, and twentieth-century events that changed the way the church engages with the world. With these pictures in mind, I set out to roam the rest of the valley.

Monument, Oath Sibaoud, Bobbio Pellice

Some say this courageous group banded together in 1170 A.D. under Peter Waldo, who took a vow of poverty and wanted the pope to consider their grievances. Others have suggested that these great men and women of faith hail from the first-century church and carried on the traditions of their ancestors throughout the first two millennium A.D.

After spending a number of days combing the area, I became even more convinced the Waldensian story needed to be told. For whether the Waldensian narrative begins in 1170 A.D., as is the official church position, or, in fact, their ancestry is as ancient as the first-century church, it is a real-world drama that breathes life into a steadfast faith that stays the course no matter the cost.

Cave of Faith, Angrogna Valley

 Explanation of the Cave

Their story became the impetus for my contemporary romantic suspense series I self-published in 2015 and 2018. I wanted to create compelling circumstances for my protagonists in the present that mimicked a need to finish the race as their ancestors had done through their enduring faith and courage in the past.

A remnant of Waldensians still exists in their home valleys in Italy. They welcome visitors to step into the past and discover their historical roots. You can learn more about them at the foundation office or Chiesa Valdese. They would be more than happy to answer your questions. 

But one doesn't have to go that far if they live in North America. A community of Waldensians lives in Valdese, North Carolina. Each summer they reproduce their history in an outdoor amphitheater where they present the drama From This Day Forward. They've also constructed to scale an outdoor replica of the historical sites in Italy on their Trail of Faith. There are also other Waldesnian-related museums as well as things to do at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Visit their tourist office to get more information.

Mural Telling the Waldensian Story, Town Square, Valdese, N.C. 

                                               Replica of the Cave of Faith, Valdese, N.C.

If you'd like to know more about my contemporary romantic suspense Waldensian Series, you can visit my website at www.donnawichelman.com or go to Amazon.com.

(P.S. Pope Francis made peace with the Waldensian faithful in July 2015, when he asked forgiveness for crimes perpetrated by the church in past centuries.)

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Petra: Why it is Deemed one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World

Today, our journey takes us to the Near East to the ancient Nabatean city of Petra. We will be heading south from Amman, Jordan to an area below the Dead Sea. Petra had been on my bucket list for years, so I approached it with great enthusiasm.

Nothing could have prepared me for the breath-taking awe of the 2.7-mile (4.3 km) walk through narrow red sandstone canyons and open spaces. The city is magnificent in scope and astounds the mind to consider how the ancients built their facades, most of which today are burial sites that have survived. They even had a sophisticated system of collecting water and using hydraulics to insure they had a year-round water supply in an arid desert climate.

Donna and husband Jim entering the main avenue of Petra

Nabatean Water Channel to Supply the City

Leaving the Canyon into the Treasury Area

The Treasury

In 2007, more than 100 million people voted Petra as one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. Most people associate this archaeological site with the 1989 film Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Still, by far, it's the historical drama that unfolded in the region and the rise of the Nabatean culture that captures the imagination, regarding this once vibrant capital city.

Prior to the 6^th century B.C. when the Nabateans first arrived, the region already experienced a colorful history. The Bible recounts in Genesis 25 – 27 that Abraham’s son Isaac had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. A tense relationship existed between them, and because of Esau’s impetuous nature, he lost his birthright. He fled to the area in southwest Jordan between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba and established the Kingdom of Edom. (Of note: Esau's name and Edom both mean "red" in Hebrew--Esau's complexion having been ruddy and the region composed of red sandstone.)

During the Exodus (most accepted to be around 13th - 12th century B.C.), the route taken by Moses led them through Edom. A place here has been marked as the rock that Moses struck and drew water from in Exodus 17 and is called Moses' Spring or Ayoun Mousa.

Edom thrived between the 13th to 8th centuries B.C., most notably controlling the King's Highway and collecting tribute from traveling merchants. However, in the next two centuries, Edom experienced a period of decline until the sixth century when the Babylonians demolished it--a biblical prophecy foretold long before Edom's downfall. (See Jeremiah 49:7 - 22, Ezekiel 25:12 - 14; 35:1 - 15, Amos 1:11 - 12, Isaiah 21:11 - 12, and Obadiah 1:1 - 14.)

Beginning in the sixth century B.C., the Nabateans--a Bedouin nomadic tribe--migrated from Arabia. Over time, they gave up the nomadic lifestyle, gained the Edomites' lucrative trade routes, and carved edifices into the red sandstone region, most predominantly in the capital city, they called Raqmu (Petra).

The Royal Tombs

The Nabateans prospered for centuries, acquiring wealth and power as caravan merchants and controlled the Transjordan into Syria. In 2 Corinthians 11:32 - 33, we read that Paul had to sneak out of Damascus in a basket through a window to escape from the ethnarch under King Aretas, who was a Nabatean.

The Nabateans maintained a peaceful co-existence with Rome for several centuries until 106 A.D., when Rome took complete rule of the region. Earthquakes in 363 and 747 A.D. severely damaged Petra, and the Bedouin who remained protected Petra from outsiders for more than 1,000 years.

Then in 1812, a Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, took on the alias of a devout Muslim, and under the auspices of making a pilgrimage was given access to the ancient city. He published his find, and slowly Europeans flocked to see the wondrous site. The deception caused a great disdain for foreigners by the Bedouins for many years afterward.

Today, the Bedouin welcome visitors to the region, selling their wares along the avenue of a city that once was a thriving metropolis. It is truly worthy of being called one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Donna in the Background, Surveying the Souveniers

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Guadix: A City of Cave Dwellers in Southern Spain

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live underground? 

Today in my History, Travel, and Adventure Blog, I switch directions back to Europe and take us to a lesser-known, but no less fascinating place in the Andalucían province of Granada, Spain.

 
Located on a plateau at almost 3,000 feet (913 meters) in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada is the city of Guadix. The city’s history goes back to ancient Roman times, and sources say Julius Caesar founded Guadix to mine the craggy ochre hills for silver. He called the town Julia Gemella Acci, and residents today are still called Accitanos.

However, it’s the Barrio de las Cuevas or Neighborhood of Caves that draws awe and wonder and compels one to stop and stare and explore what lays beneath the surface of this community. For amidst a dry, rugged landscape, a moon-like topography dotted with white chimneys, poking through the earth, gives evidence of a people known as the troglodytes, who have made their homes in caves for more than five hundred years. But what drove them underground?

Barrio de las Cuevas  

Barrio de las Cuevas

From the 8th to the 15th centuries, much of Spain was under Moorish rule. After several civil wars, Guadix became an important capital of a Moorish kingdom under El Zagal at the end of the Nasrid Dynasty. But in 1492, Granada fell to Catholic Spain, and the town was conquered. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Moors were expelled from Spain, and it's said that many took refuge in the caves around Guadix.

Today, almost 19,000 people live in Guadix, many of them inhabiting 4,000 caves as permanent homes in and closeby to the town. An attraction to living underground is a year 'round temperature of sixty-six degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius) in an arid climate that can reach the high 90s F in summer (35 c) and get down to the low 20's (-6 c) in winter. Rather than a dank, dark environment, the caves have been modernized, some of them turned into luxurious dwellings, and some have even been converted into hotel accommodations for visitors who would like the experience. The area is considered to have the biggest concentration of inhabited caves in Europe. 

When we visited, my friend Cristina and I toured one of the caves, owned by a sweet man whose name is Jose. Friendly and excited to show us through his home, he led us through quite comfortable and homey rooms that include an up-to-date kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and displayed pictures of his family. When we asked if he would live anywhere else, he said no. His ancestors have lived in this particular cave for generations, and he couldn't imagine living anywhere else. And I can see why. He has everything he needs, and then some.

Jose Welcoming us at the Front Door

                                                          The Front of Jose's Home

Donna in the Foyer of Jose's Home

Jose's Living Room

Jose's Neighbor's Home

Besides the intriguing Barrio de las Cuevas, Guadix boasts an impressive cathedral in the heart of the city that combines the three centuries (16th - 18th) of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles that it took to erect it and the ochre-colored fortress or Alcazaba de Guadix built during the tenth and eleventh centuries by the Moors. Both testify to the captivating contrast of cultures that have contributed to molding Spain into what it is today. 

Left: Guadix Cathedral, Right: Alcazar de Guadix

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Dingle, Ireland to Georgetown, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, Part II

Last week, I began a new blog series, focusing on historical and cultural sites around the world that have captivated my interest. I began with a two-part series “From Dingle, Ireland to Georgetown, Colorado,” exploring the Dingle Peninsula where my protagonist, Anna Katherine O’Sullivan had come from in my Singing Silver Mine Trilogy. Today, I’m exploring the glorious majesty of the Colorado Rockies, the immigrants who came to tame them, and the people who populated the territory before the white man moved in.

 While the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry had the tallest mountains in all Ireland, the tallest peak only rose to thirty-four hundred feet. Yet, as Anna rode south to Denver aboard the Denver Pacific Railway from Cheyenne, Wyoming in October, she would have seen mountains rising to more than fourteen thousand feet formed in ages past by tectonic and glacial activity. Her eyes must have grown as wide as the grand peaks she saw. She wouldn’t have been the first European to feast her eyes on those peaks, however.

View of the Continental Divide from Brown  Mountain near Georgetown--Summer

In the mid-nineteenth century, many of these mountains were denuded to build mines and housing.

                            View of the Continental Divide from Rocky Mountian National Park in October

The Spanish Conquistadores occupied Colorado in the seventeenth-century and annexed it into the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.  It wasn’t until 1846 when the United States went to war with Mexico that a treaty was finally reached in 1848, giving the territory to the United States.

Most white settlers avoided the rugged terrain, until 1858 when a party from California discovered gold around Pikes Peak. More than one thousand people converged on the Territory of Colorado to find gold. Within a decade, hard rock gold, silver, and other minerals, including coal, gave impetus for prospecting. Some grew rich; most didn’t. Immigrants from Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Russia provided labor for mining, railroads, and farming. Experts in mining technology from Europe flocked to exploit the land. In August 1876, Colorado officially became the thirty-eight state of the union.

When the Spanish first arrived, they set up a system of trade with Native Americans, and between 1832 - 1856 traders, trappers, and settlers established trading posts along the Arkansas, South Platte, and Sain Vrain Rivers, carrying on a robust trade. Most prominent among them were the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute who lived on the plains and moved west along the Front Range of the Colroado mountains, or in the south near New Mexico. These people had their own colorful culture, customs, and religious traditions.

Yet, with immigration came increased pressures for land and resources. Native Americans were pushed off their lands, their sacred burial grounds trampled, diseases like tuberculosis raged through their tribes, and treaties were signed and broken. Cheyenne and Arapaho joined forces against the calvary as skirmishes took place, the two deadliest being the Sand Creek (1864) and Summit Springs (1869) against the Native Americans. Though eventually Native Americans reluctantly accepted reallocation to reservations, strife continued through the twentieth century. 

In the twenty-first century, great strides have been made to educate people about Native American culture and traditions, such as the Denver Indian Market & Southwest Art Fest held every January to bridge the gap. If the history of humanity teaches us anything, it ought to be to value and respect all human life, created in the image of God, wherever it may be found.

Former Site of Arapaho Camp Ground along the Cache La Poudre River, Fort Collins, CO

Alleged Site of Arapaho Council Tree, Cache La Poudre River, Fort Collins, CO

Alleged Site of Arapaho Council Tree

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New Blog Series Travels to the Past and Explores Our History

Do you enjoy an adventure? Are you fascinated by people, places, and history? When you travel, do you find yourself exploring every nook and cranny of a place, talking to locals and learning about the culture? When you read books, do find yourself gravitating towards non-fiction on times and eras and events that took place in the past? Or if you read fiction, do you tend to get embroiled in historical novels that bring the past to life?

If you've answered yes to any of these questions, you may find my new blog series resonates with you. Every Wednesday, I will post a piece that explores sites around the world that have captivated my interest because of their unique culture or history. Sometimes I'll address a place or people in one of my novels. Other times, I'll talk about a place, monument, or site on one of my travels that struck me as unique or different. And if you've visited a place you think others might want to learn about, I invite you to write a 350 - 500-word piece as a guest blogger.

Today is the 7th of October, so it's fitting to start with two places that are near and dear to my heart because both are dear to the heart of Anna Katherine O'Sullivan in my new Singing Silver Mine Trilogy. Anna emigrated from Dingle, Ireland in the fall of 1872 to live in the Colorado Rockies and arrived in Georgetown on October 7th. She left the love of her life and the only land she'd ever known because the Irish system of landholding made it impossible for a woman born of poverty to marry well without a dowry, and her aunt in Colorado promised her vast opportunities for life and love waited for her there. But what had she left behind?

The Dingle Peninsula--that remote mountainous finger of western Ireland, jutting into the Atlantic Ocean--is most often associated with the Great Hunger of 1845 - 1851 when the potato blight tragically killed more than a million people in all Ireland by starvation, County Kerry being one of the hardest hit.

Long before the nineteenth century, however, various tribes lived on the Dingle Peninsula for more than 6000 years, passing along their myths and folklore in the ancient Irish language. The peninsula boasts a rich and complex archaeological history with more than 2,000 monuments preserved through the millennia. A several-hour tour along the circular route of Slea Head Drive, beginning and ending in Dingle, provides a most spectacular scenic journey through wild landscape, remote Irish-speaking villages, and historic cultural and archaeological sites. 

The Dingle Peninsula provides you with a sense of awe and inspires the imagination. You can easily understand how hard it would have been for Anna to leave her beloved land.

Next week, I'll explore the grand and glorious majesty of the Colorado Rockies, the immigrants who came to tame them, and the people who populated it long before the white man. 

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All Hallows Dead by Marilyn Leach a Good Read on these Short Autumn Days

As a writer, I'm a reader of various genres--from mystery, thriller, and suspense to historical fiction and romance and, on occasion, mainstream. Each genre gives me a taste of the craft of writing from a number of excellent authors.

   One of my most recent favorite cozy mystery authors is friend and co-writer Marilyn Leach. At the age of nine, Marilyn wrote her first play withe a neighbor friend—a mystery—The Ghost and Mr. Giltwallet. She’s been writing in one form or another, hobby or livelihood, since then.  As well as teaching art, she’s had the opportunity to co-author several plays that have been performed on both church and secular stages, as well as two screenplays.

   Though Marilyn Leach grew up in the Western United States, she became a dyed-in-the-wool British enthusiast after exploring the United Kingdom and making lasting friends there. Her travels throughout England color her life and
written works. A keen fan of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and David Cook’s Hetty Wainthropp series, Marilyn was inspired to write her Berdie Elliott Mystery Series, which takes place in a small English village where the vicar’s wife, Berdie Elliott, is the divine sleuth.

   In her latest in the series, All Hallows Dead, when Berdie Elliott, vicar’s wife and sleuth extraordinaire, attends a church course with her husband in the North of England, she bumps into her former newspaper boss who calls upon her to investigate beguiling circumstances that spell murder.  From the landed Cavendish family to the local pub’s manager, Criswell Abbey and its village are steeped in a centuries-old mystery.  The legend of a departed churchman, a mysterious bell tower, England’s tangled history, a delayed marriage proposal, and a wily parrot all help Berdie to declare the truth in All Hallows Dead.

Excerpt:

    Berdie Elliott and her best friend, Lillie Foxworth, often find themselves in hot water, and they’re not brewing tea.

     What I found is absolutely priceless. There’s….” Berdie stopped when she became aware of clip-clop steps in the nave. “Shh.” She put her index finger to her lips. 

     “Why shush?” Lillie didn’t make her voice particularly quiet.

     Berdie raised her brows and pointed toward the nave. “Someone’s about the place,” she whispered. “We can’t let on that we’re in here…”

     The steps outside became louder. They were advancing toward the tower.

     Lord have mercy. 

     There was a hesitation.
     Berdie held her breath. She realized instantly that whoever was on the other side of the door, was perhaps one who knew all the secrets of this place which could mean she and Lillie were in very real danger.

Short autumn days and long blustery nights are just the season to read All Hallows Dead with a hot cup of tea close at hand. Cheers!


You can find All Hallows Dead and all the books from the Berdie Elliott Mystery Series at 

www.amazon.marilynleach                

marilynleachteaandbooks.com

pelicanbookgroup.com

Calling All Kindred Spirits

At various times in a writer's life, we come across kindred spirits in surprising places. A kindred spirit is one who has the same view of life as you or with whom you share a common interest. I met such a couple at my church's 4th of July festivities.
     Hans and Lily Diehl are parents of a friend at church, and they had recently come back from touring the Waldensian Valleys of France and Italy. They hadn't known of Jamie and Alessandro's dramatic tale as it unfolds in my Waldensian Series before they visited the region, but they expressed the same fascination for the Waldensian story.
     But what so captivates our hearts about the Waldensians?
     I believe the Waldensian story mesmerizes us by the real-life drama of a people of such tenacious trust in their Savior that they would rather suffer persecution and martyrdom for centuries rather than deny the truths they held so dear. These truths were so entrenched in their hearts and minds that most could not imagine revoking them. They would defend the truth of the gospel to their deaths.
     It was the Waldensian's uncompromising faith in real-life that captured Jamie's heart in Light Out of Darkness and encouraged her to stand firm and face a formidable foe in Undaunted Valor. Her fictional story awakens in us a hope that we, too, might remain resolved when put to the test.
      At the same time, the Waldensian story terrifies and beckons us to ask the hard questions of ourselves in the same way Alessandro wrestled with trusting God in the hour of his trials. What would I do today, at this moment, if a soldier came to my door asking me to denounce my faith? What would you do? How will either of us be remembered by those who come after us?
       In the end, the real-life history of the Waldensians and the fictional drama carried out in Jamie and Alessandro's world reminds me of the challenge to people of faith given by the author in Hebrews. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses ..." Will you and I be counted among them?

The Waldensian Series is a contemporary Christian suspense series in which the characters find the courage to face their own fears based on the real-life drama of a Christian sect who stood firm for centuries and gained a place in history as a people of undaunted valor.

For nature lovers, ski aficionados, travel enthusiasts, and history scholars, the French and Italian Alps offer some of the most spectacular scenery and outdoor recreation in Europe with its majestic mountain peaks, cascading waterfalls, unspoiled forests, and quaint villages. People visit to get away from the daily grind and rejuvenate their spirits. 

     But when Alessandro Marianni's grandmother is kidnapped during a church conference in Chamonix, the same landscape becomes an ominour height to scale, and Jamie Holbrooke and her fiancé Alessandro have difficulty distinguishing between friend and foe on a race to find her. They will have to weather a rainstorm on a mountain trail, negotiate a dangerous waterfall, outmaneuver a car chase, defy an assassin's gun in their search.

     Will they find their beloved Luciana before it's too late, and who will die on the way to the finish line? Who can they trust? Where will Jamie find the courage to confront her adversaries? In this sequel to Light Out of Darkness, the answers will lay in unanticipated places and with unexpected allies and require Jamie to discover what means to trust God with Undaunted Valor.