Dearly Beloved,

Today we have the happy task of writing to you to inform you that the Moorish Orthodox Church is to have a new saint in its Calendar of Saints.

We are graced now to announce that the late Mary Pinchot Meyer, an artist and activist, of blessed memory, is to be elevated to the Sainthood of the Church by Canonization here at the Cathedral of Saints Sergius & Bakkhus on June 24th of this year, during a concelebration of a solemn high pontifical liturgy at 11:00 o'clock in the morning. All of the faithful of the diocese, and of our sister jurisdictions, are invited and encouraged to attend this happy event, at which I as your bishop enjoy the blessing and privilege of acting as principal celebrant.

Mary Pinchot Meyer was one of U.S. President John F. Kennedy's many mistresses who, like Marilyn Monroe, died under ambiguous circumstances. Ironically, and perhaps fittingly, she had also been at times the lover of Dr. Timothy Leary, of blessed memory, who is soon to be announced officially as another candidate for Canonization.

Mary Pinchot (Saint Mary of Washington, as she is to be henceforth officially known) came of a socialite Washington, DC family. She was the sister-in-law of Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post and an exceptional beauty - in both her physical as well as spiritual aspect - as well as a highly talented painter. She was peripherally involved in espionage of behalf of the United States government among others, and was for a time in the pay of the Central Intelligence Agency. Her superiors, however, never fuilly trusted her owing to what was felt to be her predisposition to becoming involved in sudden passionate love affairs, and it was felt that this interfered with her judgment.

She eventually married Cord Meyer, a leading CIA officer, and devoted herself for the most part to her art and other pursuits of a spiritual character.

In 1962, after becoming mistress to John F. Kennedy (his premiere mistress according to one source who claims he even thought of divorcing Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy to marry her) Mary Pinchot Meyer began to undertake a self-initiated plan of her own design to - as she felt - save the world from atomic war, apparently informing Dr. Timothy Leary of her proposed undertaking. He appears to have encouraged her.

According to journalist Deborah Davis, there existed at that time a group of "society matrons" in Washington who thought that if they could get their partners - invariably men in power - involved in the use of psychotropic entheogens, they would be rendered capable of seeing the world and their and America's place in it in a different, healthier and more whole fashion. This, it was felt by these courageous women, would end the unremitting tension engendered by the "Cold War" and indeed end all warfare.

It was a most ambitious plan and a good number of these women obtained LSD-25 from Dr. Leary, (then) Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, who had by that time studied the potentialities of the drug for enhancing human cognition and accelerating the pace of evolution.

Mary and her comrades tried to "turn on" (using the parlance of the day) as many high Government officials as possible, and to this day no one knows to what extent they succeeded. One report claims that Mary and President Kennedy had many (perhaps as many as thirty) LSD trips while consummating their intimacies.

Mary Pinchot Meyer was murdered on October 12, 1964, shot twice in the head. A Black laborer was arrested, tried and acquitted for lack of evidence. The murder remains officially unsolved.

For her vision, her courage, and her intention to build a healthier planet, it is likely that Saint Mary was the victim of a political assassination, according to many knowledgeable historians and conspiracy theorists.

James Jesus Angleton, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and an operative of the highly secretive Roman Catholic organizations Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta acquired Saint Mary's personal diary and - allegedly - soon after reading it, burned it.

In 1979 investigative journalist Deborah Davis published "Katherine the Great" a book about the Washington Post and sub rosa politcal intrigues in Washington, which included some details on Mary Pinchot Meyer. The publisher printed 25,000 copies but within a few days withdrew them from bookstores and pulped them.

Clearly, Mary Pinchot Meyer was a heroic woman who died under circumstances that - at a very minimum - suggest strongly that she gave her life for her country and her planet.

For these reasons, and for others that cannot be publically divulged at this time, Mary Pinchot Meyer will on June 24th, 2004, become Saint Mary of Washington, a Saint of the Moorish Orthodox Church. Her feast day is to be set as October 12th, and the liturgical color is Red.

+ Sotemohk
Bishop, Diocese of New Jersey
The Moorish Orthodox Church in America