Martha (pigeon)

Martha (c. 1885 – September 1, 1914) was the last known living passenger pigeon; she was named "Martha" in honor of the first First Lady Martha Washington.

Early life

The history of the Cincinnati Zoo's passenger pigeons has been described by Arlie William Schorger in his monograph on the species as "hopelessly confused," and he also said that it is "difficult to find a more garbled history" than that of Martha. The generally accepted version is that, by the turn of the 20th century, the last known group of passenger pigeons was kept by Professor Charles Otis Whitman at the University of Chicago. Whitman originally acquired his passenger pigeons from David Whittaker of Wisconsin, who sent him six birds, two of which later bred and hatched Martha in about 1885. Martha was named in honor of Martha Washington. Whitman kept these pigeons to study their behavior, along with rock doves and Eurasian collared-doves. Whitman and the Cincinnati Zoo, recognizing the decline of the wild populations, attempted to consistently breed the surviving birds, including attempts at making a rock dove foster passenger pigeon eggs. These attempts were unsuccessful, and Whitman sent Martha to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1902.

Martha

Martha of Bethany (Aramaic: מַרְתָּא Martâ) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness to Jesus' resurrection of her brother, Lazarus.

Etymology of the name

The name Martha is a Latin transliteration of the Koine Greek Μάρθα, itself a translation of the Aramaic מַרְתָּא Martâ, "The mistress" or "the lady", from מרה "mistress", feminine of מר "master". The Aramaic form occurs in a Nabatean inscription found at Puteoli, and now in the Naples Museum; it is dated AD. 5 (Corpus Inscr. Semit., 158); also in a Palmyrene inscription, where the Greek translation has the form Marthein.

Biblical references

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha. The two sisters are contrasted: Martha was "cumbered about many things" while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen "the better part", that of listening to the master's discourse. The name of their village is not recorded, nor any mention of whether Jesus was near Jerusalem:

Martha (1923 film)

Martha is a short film made by Walt Disney in 1923. It was black and white, and also silent. It was made in the United States.

Martha, mother of Simeon Stylites the Younger

Saint Martha (died 551) was the mother of Simeon Stylites the Younger. She is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on July 4.

When her parents betrothed her to a young man, she seriously considered leaving home and withdrawing from the world. However, John the Baptist is said to have appeared to her and advised her to do as her parents had arranged and marry the man to whom they had betrothed her. Simeon Stylites was the child of this marriage.

She is said to have risen at midnight for prayer every night. She regularly helped those in need, visited the poor and orphans, and attended to the sick.

In the year before her death, she is said to have seen a number of angels with candles in their hands and to have learned the time of her upcoming death from them. The vision prompted her to even greater dedication to prayer and good works.

She died in 551 AD, and was buried near her son.

There have been many reports of her appearing to various people since her death, generally to heal the sick and offer instruction to people. The most noted of these was to an abbot of the monastery founded by her son. The abbot placed a votive candle on her grave with the instruction that the light never be allowed to be extinguished. Martha appeared to him saying that when the abbot burned a light on her grave, he was asking her to pray to the Lord for him.