Sara Chapman Bull

Sara Chapman Thorp Bull (May 24, 1850 – January 14, 1911; née Sara Chapman Thorp; also known as Saint Sara)

Family life

Christened Sara Chapman Thorp, she was born in 1850 in

In 1868, Ole Bull, a violinist, who was a widower, met Sara. Sara and Ole Bull were secretly married in June of that year. After they returned to the United States in the fall season, a formal wedding was held in Madison. A daughter, Olea, was born in March 1871.[2] Sara lived in Madison for a few years in a house which was a gift from her father.^[3] The Bulls spent ten years happily married. Sara toured with Ole many times to the U.S. and Europe. She accompanied him during musical concerts as his pianist. In 1879, Sara, with her daughter and mother, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and lived in a rented house called "Elmwood".^[2] Two years later, Ole purchased a summer house in West Lebanon, Maine and named it "Ironwell".^[4]

Sara managed the couple's finances. Their house was the center of intellectual activities in which leading intelligentsia, artists and philosophers of Harvard University, like William James, George Santayana, Josiah Royce, and many others were regular participants. Music was part of their activity,^[5] in the form of the "Cambridge Conferences". The conferences were held at their Brattle Street house and included a series of lectures from 1896 to 1899. Sara's friends, who were also active in her cultural and social activities, were Julia Ward Howe, Annie Allegra Longfellow Thorp (wife of Sara's brother Joseph, and daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), Alice Mary Longfellow, and Sarah Orne Jewett. She was a member of the Cambridge Garden Club,^[3] the Sesame Club in London, and the Barnard Club in New York City.^[6]

After her husband's death in 1880, Sara wrote his biography titled Ole Bull, a Memoir, which was published in 1882. Having acquired an interest in Norway, her husband's place of birth, she participated in activities of the Scandinavian community. She turned to philosophy, read the

Sara met Vivekananda in the spring of 1894. She was impressed by his depth of spiritual knowledge, as she herself was deeply spiritual. In the summer of 1895, she invited Vivekananda to be her guest. She also invited her friend, Professor William James, to meet Vivekananda. They had long conversations many times. Sara was struck by Vivekananda's innocence and lack of worldly ways, which was similar to her late husband's manner; Vivekananda soon became her Indian "son" and guru.[7] Bull was one of the few American women who associated with Swami Vivekananda and the others were Mary Hale, Josephine MacLeod, Sister Christine and Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita in later years).^[8] They were in constant touch through letters. Vivekananda considered Sara Bull as his American mother, addressing her as Dhira Mata (calm mother),^[9] and also as Mother Sara.^[10][11]

She was very generous. She made several visits to India trying to help the cause of women.

Sara had not been well for several years before her death and during these later years, she became influenced by the Rajah Yogi Indian sect.^[16] According to Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, her biographer, she did not come under the influence of any other sect other than her allegiance to the Vedanta philosophy as she had hated sectarianism and occultism throughout her life.^[12] So the Rajah Yogi sect may have been a reference to the Vedanta Society established by Swami Vivekananda as he wrote the book titled Raja Yoga.^[17] She died in 1911 at her home at 168 Brattle Street in Cambridge. Funeral service was held at the home of E. A. Grosser where her husband's compositions, "Adagio Religiose" and "Saterdesog" were played. She was interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery.^[6]

Sara left almost her entire estate, valued at approximately US$500,000, to the

Bibliography

• Badrinath, Chaturvedi (January 1, 2006). Swami Vivekananda, the Living Vedanta. Penguin Books India.
  ISBN 978-0-14-306209-7
  .
• Haugen, Einar; Haugen, Einar Ingvald (1993). Ole Bull: Norway's Romantic Musician and Cosmopolitan Patriot. University of Wisconsin Press.
  ISBN 978-0-299-13250-7
  .
• Mukherjee, Mani Shankar (January 1, 2011). The Monk as Man: The Unknown Life of Swami Vivekananda. Penguin Books India.
  ISBN 978-0-14-310119-2
  .
• Prabuddhaprana (2002). Saint Sara: The Life of Sara Chapman Bull, the American Mother of Swami Vivekananda. Sri Sarada Math.
  ISBN 978-81-86617-33-5
  .
• Syman, Stefanie (June 22, 2010). The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 48.
  ISBN 978-1-4299-3307-0
  .

• Works by Sara Chapman Bull at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Sara Chapman Bull at Internet Archive
• Sara Chapman Bull at Find a Grave