Humble Women, Powerful Nuns

Kristien Suenens • Boek • paperback

• Samenvatting
  Nineteenth-century female congregation founders could achieve levels of autonomy, power and prestige that were beyond reach for most women of their time. With a subject hidden for a long time behind a curtain of modesty and mystery, this book recounts the fascinating but ambiguous life stories of four Belgian religious women. A close reading of their personal writings unveils their conflicted existence: ambitious, engaged, and bold on the one hand, suffering and isolated on the other, they were both victims and promotors of a nineteenth-century ideal of female submission. As religious and social entrepreneurs these women played an influential role in the revival of the church and the development of education, health care and social provisions in modern Belgium. But, equally well, they were bound to rigid gender patterns and adherents of an ultramontane church ideology that fundamentally distrusted modern society.
  
  Nineteenth-century female congregation founders could achieve levels of autonomy, power and prestige that were beyond reach for most women of their time. With a subject hidden for a long time behind a curtain of modesty and mystery, this book recounts the fascinating but ambiguous life stories of four Belgian religious women. A close reading of their personal writings unveils their conflicted existence: ambitious, engaged, and bold on the one hand, suffering and isolated on the other, they were both victims and promotors of a nineteenth-century ideal of female submission. As religious and social entrepreneurs these women played an influential role in the revival of the church and the development of education, health care and social provisions in modern Belgium. But, equally well, they were bound to rigid gender patterns and adherents of an ultramontane church ideology that fundamentally distrusted modern society.
• Productinformatie
  Binding : Paperback
  Distributievorm : Boek (print, druk)
  Formaat : 174mm x 240mm
  Aantal pagina's : 384
  Uitgeverij : Leuven University Press
  ISBN : 9789462702271
  Datum publicatie : 08-2020
  
• Inhoudsopgave
  Introduction PART I RELIGIOUS REVIVAL, ROMANTICISM AND FEMALE ACTION IN A POST-REVOLUTIONARY AGE: FOUR YOUNG WOMEN (ca. 1820-ca. 1860) ‘Foremothers’, Revolutions and Revival (ca. 1820-ca. 1848) The female pioneers of the revival Ambiguous images of women Aut maritus, aut murus? Between marriage and the convent Female Religious Entrepreneurship on the Offensive (ca. 1848-ca. 1860) Religious education: the female voice of the revival The need for male support Enterprising and discursive mechanisms Social and political tensions and female agency The Spiritual Dialectic of Revival Devotion “L’ eucharistie peut sauver le monde” A plurality of devotional practices and ascetic self-denial A passion paradigm Female saints as role models PART II FEMALE AGENCY AT A TURNING POINT: FOUR CONGREGATION FOUNDERS (1857-1867) Between Longing and Coercion: Spiritual Partnerships “Une religieuse, c’est une paroisse”: frustration and appreciation Jesuits: irresistible and unavoidable Soulmates and Rivals: The Power(lessness) of Female Alliances The convent as a place of refuge An alternative family unit: ambiguous female bonding on a micro level “Autel contre autel”: the limits of a wider female coalition Mechelen and Rome: Normative Identity and Ecclesiastical Positioning Sterckx’s pragmatic policy Basic feminine inspiration Male implementation Containing the revival: the struggle with the contemplative legacy The crowning accomplishment: a Roman approval PART III FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP IN AN ULTRAMONTANE CHURCH: FOUR CONVENT SUPERIORS (ca. 1865-ca. 1885) Between Dream and Reality: Charisma and Numbers The story behind two typical congregations “Les Dames illusionnées”: ambitions and criticism Convents and Castles: An Uneasy Alliance In the grip of ultramontane elites A forced turn to the countryside “Au comble du bonheur”: women for women The female alliance challenged Crusading in a Convent Habit A modern apostolate, conservative ideas Female agency, the European culture wars and the missionary drive The inevitability of the crusade: the School War (1879-1884) The challenge of social Catholicism Victims and religious entrepreneurs: the spiritual dynamics of ultramontanism “Pas assez femme”? Female Leadership in Women’s Convents “Une hostie vivante”: institutionalised self-denial Internal power balances Lay sisters: women among women “Domina ista valde facunda est” Female Leadership in a Male Church A double-voiced ‘conventualisation’ Gender, power and freedom of conscience: the confessor issue Roman feminism? Epilogue The Shaping of Perceptions Fanny Kestre: an active “femme forte”, a spiritual “âme simple” Antoinette Cornet: between oblivion and rediscovery Anna de Meeûs: “trop robuste pour être sainte” Wilhelmina Telghuys: always independent Conclusion A Study in Ambiguity Timeline Bibliography Index of names Colophon
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