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The White Nuns

Author: Constance Hoffman Berman

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2018-04-04

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 0812295080

Modern studies of the religious reform movement of the central Middle Ages have often relied on contemporary accounts penned by Cistercian monks, who routinely exaggerated the importance of their own institutions while paying scant attention to the remarkable expansion of abbeys of Cistercian women. Yet by the end of the thirteenth century, Constance Hoffman Berman contends, there were more houses of Cistercian nuns across Europe than of monks. In The White Nuns, she charts the stages in the nuns' gradual acceptance by the abbots of the Cistercian Order's General Chapter and describes the expansion of the nuns' communities and their adaptation to a variety of economic circumstances in France and throughout Europe. While some sought contemplative lives of prayer, the ambition of many of these religious women was to serve the poor, the sick, and the elderly. Focusing in particular on Cistercian nuns' abbeys founded between 1190 and 1250 in the northern French archdiocese of Sens, Berman reveals the frequency with which communities of Cistercian nuns were founded by rich and powerful women, including Queen Blanche of Castile, heiresses Countess Matilda of Courtenay and Countess Isabelle of Chartres, and esteemed ladies such as Agnes of Cressonessart. She shows how these founders and early patrons assisted early abbesses, nuns, and lay sisters by using written documents to secure rights and create endowments, and it is on the records of their considerable economic achievements that she centers her analysis. The White Nuns considers Cistercian women and the women who were their patrons in a clear-eyed reading of narrative texts in their contexts. It challenges conventional scholarship that accepts the words of medieval monastic writers as literal truth, as if they were written without rhetorical skill, bias, or self-interest. In its identification of long-accepted misogynies, its search for their origins, and its struggle to reject such misreadings, The White Nuns provides a robust model for historians writing against received traditions.

The Habit

Author: Elizabeth Kuhns

Publisher: Image

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0307423956

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Curiosity about nuns and their distinctive clothing is almost as old as Catholicism itself. The habit intrigues the religious and the nonreligious alike, from medieval maidens to contemporary schoolboys, to feminists and other social critics. The first book to explore the symbolism of this attire, The Habit presents a visual gallery of the diverse forms of religious clothing and explains the principles and traditions that inspired them. More than just an eye-opening study of the symbolic significance of starched wimples, dark dresses, and flowing veils, The Habit is an incisive, engaging portrait of the roles nuns have and do play in the Catholic Church and in ministering to the needs of society. From the clothing seen in an eleventh-century monastery to the garb worn by nuns on picket lines during the 1960s, habits have always been designed to convey a specific image or ideal. The habits of the Benedictines and the Dominicans, for example, were specifically created to distinguish women who consecrated their lives to God; other habits reflected the sisters’ desire to blend in among the people they served. The brown Carmelite habit was rarely seen outside the monastery wall, while the Flying Nun turned the white winged cornette of the Daughters of Charity into a universally recognized icon. And when many religious abandoned habits in the 1960s and ’70s, it stirred a debate that continues today. Drawing on archival research and personal interviews with nuns all over the United States, Elizabeth Kuhns examines some of the gender and identity issues behind the controversy and brings to light the paradoxes the habit represents. For some, it epitomizes oppression and obsolescence; for others, it embodies the ultimate beauty and dignity of the vocation. Complete with extraordinary photographs, including images of the nineteenth century nuns’ silk bonnets to the simple gray dresses of the Sisters of Social Service, this evocative narrative explores the timeless symbolism of the habit and traces its evolution as a visual reflection of the changes in society.

The New Nuns

Author: Amy L. Koehlinger

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2007-04-30

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780674024731

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In the 1960s, a number of Catholic women religious in the United States abandoned traditional apostolic works to experiment with new and often unprecedented forms of service among non-Catholics. Amy Koehlinger explores the phenomenon of the "new nun" through close examination of one of its most visible forms--the experience of white sisters working in African-American communities. In a complex network of programs and activities Koehlinger describes as the "racial apostolate," sisters taught at African-American colleges in the South, held racial sensitivity sessions in integrating neighborhoods, and created programs for children of color in public housing projects. Engaging with issues of race and justice allowed the sisters to see themselves, their vocation, and the Church in dramatically different terms. In this book, Koehlinger captures the confusion and frustration, as well as the exuberance and delight, they experienced in their new Christian mission. Their increasing autonomy and frequent critiques of institutional misogyny shaped reforms within their institute and sharpened a post-Vatican II crisis of authority. From the Selma march to Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project, Amy Koehlinger illuminates the transformative nature of the nexus of race, religion, and gender in American society.

Vocation in Black and White

Author: Of Preachers of the United States of Am

Publisher:

Published: 2009-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781440127472

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"Within the Dominican Order, whose motto is Truth and whose mission is the proclamation of that Truth, some proclaim primarily through their contemplative 'tryst' with that Truth. Here some of these women of the Dominican monasteries tell of how they came to embrace this way of life which to many is such a mystery. Each is a story as unique and human as its author." -Suzanne Noffke, O.P., Translator of the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena "The life of the cloistered contemplative nun is one of the most hidden but also one of the most important treasures of the Church. The prayers and sacrifices of these holy women are so crucial to the Church's well-being that it behooves all of us to know them better. The stories in this splendid book help us to do just that, since they are authentic vignettes from the personal lives of 23 different Dominican cloistered nuns." -Father Michael Monshau, O.P., Prior, Dominican House of Studies, Saint Louis, Missouri "These remarkable personal testimonies demonstrate the power of God's fruitful invitation to a contemplative and cloistered life in the Dominican tradition. Though each testimony is unique, there is a common link among them that recalls Elizabeth's words to Mary: 'Blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Luke 1:45).' These testimonies, then, are not a history of the past rather they give confidence to all in the present who have the courage to accept God's invitation to Himself. Indeed, God has done great things. This book reminds all of us that God is still doing great things." -Father Dominic Izzo, O.P., Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph

Reagan's Gun-Toting Nuns

Author: Theresa Keeley

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1501750771

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In Reagan's Gun-Toting Nuns, Theresa Keeley analyzes the role of intra-Catholic conflict within the framework of U.S. foreign policy formulation and execution during the Reagan administration. She challenges the preponderance of scholarship on the administration that stresses the influence of evangelical Protestants on foreign policy toward Latin America. Especially in the case of U.S. engagement in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Keeley argues, the bitter debate between U.S. and Central American Catholics over the direction of the Catholic Church shaped President Reagan's foreign policy. The flash point for these intra-Catholic disputes was the December 1980 political murder of four American Catholic missionaries in El Salvador. Liberal Catholics described nuns and priests in Central America who worked to combat structural inequality as human rights advocates living out the Gospel's spirit. Conservative Catholics saw them as agents of class conflict who furthered the so-called Gospel according to Karl Marx. The debate was an old one among Catholics, but, as Reagan's Gun-Toting Nuns contends, it intensified as conservative, anticommunist Catholics played instrumental roles in crafting U.S. policy to fund the Salvadoran government and the Nicaraguan Contras. Reagan's Gun-Toting Nuns describes the religious actors as human rights advocates and, against prevailing understandings of the fundamentally secular activism related to human rights, highlights religion-inspired activism during the Cold War. In charting the rightward development of American Catholicism, Keeley provides a new chapter in the history of U.S. diplomacy and shows how domestic issues such as contraception and abortion joined with foreign policy matters to shift Catholic laity toward Republican principles at home and abroad.

The Cistercian Evolution

Author: Constance Hoffman Berman

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2010-08-03

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 0812200799

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According to the received history, the Cistercian order was founded in Cîteaux, France, in 1098 by a group of Benedictine monks who wished for a stricter community. They sought a monastic life that called for extreme asceticism, rejection of feudal revenues, and manual labor for monks. Their third leader, Stephen Harding, issued a constitution, the Carta Caritatis, that called for the uniformity of custom in all Cistercian monasteries and the establishment of an annual general chapter meeting at Cîteaux. The Cistercian order grew phenomenally in the mid-twelfth century, reaching beyond France to Portugal in the west, Sweden in the north, and the eastern Mediterranean, ostensibly through a process of apostolic gestation, whereby members of a motherhouse would go forth to establish a new house. The abbey at Clairvaux, founded by Bernard in 1115, was alone responsible for founding 68 of the 338 Cistercian abbeys in existence by 1153. But this well-established view of a centrally organized order whose founders envisioned the shape and form of a religious order at its prime is not borne out in the historical record. Through an investigation of early Cistercian documents, Constance Hoffman Berman proves that no reliable reference to Stephen's Carta Caritatis appears before the mid-twelfth century, and that the document is more likely to date from 1165 than from 1119. The implications of this fact are profound. Instead of being a charter by which more than 300 Cistercian houses were set up by a central authority, the document becomes a means of bringing under centralized administrative control a large number of loosely affiliated and already existing monastic houses of monks as well as nuns who shared Cistercian customs. The likely reason for this administrative structuring was to check the influence of the overdominant house of Clairvaux, which threatened the authority of Cîteaux through Bernard's highly successful creation of new monastic communities. For centuries the growth of the Cistercian order has been presented as a spontaneous spirituality that swept western Europe through the power of the first house at Cîteaux. Berman suggests instead that the creation of the religious order was a collaborative activity, less driven by centralized institutions; its formation was intended to solve practical problems about monastic administration. With the publication of The Cistercian Evolution, for the first time the mechanisms are revealed by which the monks of Cîteaux reshaped fact to build and administer one of the most powerful and influential religious orders of the Middle Ages.

Nuns Having Fun

Author: Maureen Kelly

Publisher: Workman Publishing

Published: 2008-05-28

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780761150411

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Hallelujah, it's a book! After proving itself to be the "funniest calendar of the year" (according to Gene Shalit), "irresistible" (USA Weekend), and "habit-forming" (Maxim magazine), the Nuns Having Fun calendar has inspired Nuns Having Fun, a book of endearing nuttiness. Catholic kitsch doesn't get any funnier. Written by Maureen Kelly and Jeffrey Stone, pitch-perfect co-authors of the nuns calendar and the New York Times bestseller Growing Up Catholic, Nuns Having Fun features hundreds of sisters in full habit, cutting loose and having a hoot. Here are nuns in the surf ("This is even more fun than walking on water"), nuns in bumper cars ("We brake for Jesus"), nuns in a beer hall ("Ale Marys"), and nuns in the museum, huddled in front of a study of nudes ("It's okay to open your eyes. Sister Wendy says it's art"). There are nuns on skates, at bat, at the theater, skeet shooting (nuns with guns!), even hitting the slots (you know it's for a good cause). The 125 images are from the 1950s and '60s, black-and-white and possessing a pure retro charm; the written material is all-new. Drawing on their years as parochial school students, the authors explore the lore and legends surrounding nuns, including Favorite Punishments from Nuns, Nuns Say the Darndest Things, How to Recognize a Nun After Vatican II, a Wimple Watch, and List of People Who Could Have Been Nuns. As Sister says, "To err is human. To laugh is divine."

And Then There Was Nun

Author: B.G. Wood

Publisher: Bogwood Films Inc

Published: 2023-11-15

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0985194367

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Welcome back to Maidenwell, where the Christmas snow is falling—but so are the bodies. Hired as the eyes and ears of eccentric billionaire Matthias Loneskum, Gina Biletti thought she’d signed up for a tranquil life in Maidenwell, enjoying cozy tea shops, quaint cottages, and harmless village gossip. Little did she know that the holiday season would bring a chilling turn to the village’s idyllic charms. As Christmas approaches, an engagement party for Matthias’ overachieving sister, Beatrix, sets the stage for murder and mystery. And everyone on the guest list has their own agenda: a bewitching young nun, a suspiciously suave ex-con, an enigmatic foreign businessman, and a group of ambitious young tech entrepreneurs competing for a $5 million start-up prize. Just as Gina decides maybe, just maybe, she can relax and enjoy her mulled wine, a gunshot rings out, disrupting a Christmas outing in Maidenwell’s snowy forest. Before you can say “figgy pudding,” tragedy strikes again with a jaw-dropping “suicide,” flipping Gina’s cozy world on its head. As if on cue, a massive winter storm seals the village up like a snow globe, and Gina faces a dreadful realization. She is trapped with a cunning and cold-blooded killer. Can she unravel the truth before another body falls, or will this be her first and last Christmas in Maidenwell? Book Two in the Murderwell Mysteries series, AND THEN THERE WAS NUN, is a suspenseful Christmas romp, garnished with humor, unexpected twists, and a dash—or maybe a blizzard—of holiday charm. About the Sleuth Gina Biletti is a spunky ex-New Yorker, ex-market researcher, and ex-wife with a talent for asking questions and uncovering secrets. Armed with a cat-like curiosity and a passion for telling it like it is, Gina becomes billionaire Matthias Loneskum’s trusted eyes and ears in Maidenwell. With each case, she fearlessly unravels mysteries, deciphering cryptic clues and untangling motives with a razor wit and a big heart.

Queer Nuns

Author: Melissa M. Wilcox

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2018-05-22

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1479820369

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"Modern-day badass drag queen superhero nuns"--"It was like this asteroid belt": the origins and growth of the sisters -- "We are nuns, silly!": serious parody as activism -- "A sacred, powerful woman": complicating gender -- "Sister outsiders": navigating whiteness -- "A secular nun": serious parody and the sacred -- New world order? -- Blooper reel -- Studying the sisters