Sara Chapman Bull

Sara Chapman Thorp Bull (May 24, 1850 – January 14, 1911; née Sara Chapman Thorp; also known as Saint Sara) was an American writer and philanthropist. She was a dedicated disciple of Swami Vivekananda and was married to Ole Bull, a Norwegian violinist.

Family life Christened Sara Chapman Thorp, she was born in 1850 in Upstate New York, the only daughter of Joseph G. Thorp and his wife, Susan Amelia (née Chapman). Her father had relocated to Madison, Wisconsin to promote his lumber trade, later becoming a Wisconsin State Senator. Her mother was a prominent socialite. Sara had at least one sibling, a brother, Joseph Gilbert Thorp. Sara was interested in music and piano was her forte; a grand piano was kept in their house.

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.

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, 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, the Sesame Club in London, and the Barnard Club in New York City.

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 Bhagavad Gita and became a deeply spiritual person. She also developed an interest in Eastern religions, particularly of Vedanta philosophy after she became a disciple of Swami Vivekananda.

She was very generous. She made several visits to India trying to help the cause of women. She had Dr. Lewis G Janes, president of Brooklyn Ethical Association working as her secretary to promote the Cambridge Conference and also further the cause of Greenacre Conference. She had a close relationship with Sarah Farmer who was a founder of the Greenacre Conference for promoting inter faith harmony and universal tolerance. She financially helped Ms. Farmer in furthering the cause of the Greenacre conference even though later they had apparent disagreement over Ms. Farmer's inclination towards occultism. 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. 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. Saint Sara: The Life of Sara Chapman Bull, the American Mother of Swami Vivekananda, by Prabuddhaprana, was published in Calcutta in 2002. According to her biographer the servants of the household testified in favor of her daughter Olea's contest in return for monetary favor.

Partial works 1876, The Pilot and His Wife: A Norse Love Story (with Jonas Lie) 1879, The Barque Future; or, Life in the Far North (with Jonas Lie) 1882, Ole Bull: A Memoir; with Ole Bull's Violin Notes and A.B. Crosby's Anatomy of the Violinist 1888, Leif Erikson