Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920

• Publisher:   The University of North Carolina Press
• Number Of Pages:   344
• Publication Date:   1999-04-26
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0807824739
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780807824733

Made doubly marginal by their gender and by their religion, American nuns have rarely been granted serious scholarly attention. Instead, their lives and achievements have been obscured by myths or distorted by stereotypes. Placing nuns into the mainstream of American religious and women's history for the first time, Spirited Lives reveals their critical impact on the development of Catholic culture and, ultimately, the building of American society.

Focusing on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, one of the largest and most diverse American sisterhoods, Carol Coburn and Martha Smith explore how nuns directly influenced the lives of millions of Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, through their work in schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other social service institutions. Far from functioning as passive handmaidens for Catholic clergy and parishes, nuns created, financed, and administered these institutions, struggling with, and at times resisting, male secular and clerical authority.

A rich and multifaceted narrative, Spirited Lives illuminates the intersection of gender, religion, and power in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America.

If you are looking for a book that extolls the virtues of self-sacrifice and non-feminist heroism, and that records the profound influence of Catholicism on the American culture, you may very well enjoy this scholarly but readable book. It has 19 photographs of sisters in traditional habits. Many picture sisters working in the pre-1920 classroom, hospital, operating room, and orphanage. For the collector of books about nuns, there is a 9 page bibliography that lists other nun books. If you went to pre-Vatican II grammar school,it makes you feel grateful to those young women who educated you! Thank you, Sisters!

The authors, unwittingly I'm sure, set forth a problem that has affected every religious group in the United States: the "American way" is foremost, and religious belief and practise carefully modified in a subordinate role. The accomplishments of religious Sisters are undeniable, and the book has some merit in treating of their role in a nation that was predominantly Protestant, yet the authors would leave one in the dark about the solid religious principles (ascetic, and generally misunderstood) which motivated many of those in religious life. One would think their sole purpose in life was to make people "more American."

Research is often poor, and sometimes beyond naive. For example, though any immigrant or working class kid knows better, the authors seem at their wits' end to set forth the "classless" American society and its "nobility." That the Sisters of Saint Joseph established private schools which charged tuition fees, as well as free schools, is presented as a desperate measure, to which people were opposed because of the American dislike for class. To imply that the wealthy could not bear having their children attend a private school for this reason is about as accurate as seeing nineteenth century nuns, who could not wash their handkerchiefs without permission, as having unusual freedom.

Where is the true Catholicism? I doubt the founding fathers or pilgrims would see it as compatible with the American dream.

This is a very well done history of a large religious community. The authors were wise to select the Sisters of St. Joseph (CSJ) a case study of Catholic religious in the United States. CSJs are very typical of American Catholic Sisterhoods in that they had a European origin, adapted European customs to an American context, performed marvels through hard work and dedication in schools and hospitals, and were a vital force in the Americanization of immigrants.

Forget any streotypes about passivity. Leaders of many American religious communities had to be adept at church politics. Authority figures--The Bishop, The Priest, The Cardinal, had very fixed ideas about control of property, assigning of nuns to various projects, as well as gratingly petty demands. The CSJs were marvels at outfoxing some of these demanding reverend gentlemen. And, when one considers that The Bishop had the hierarchical authority of the Church as well as Victorian ideas about the submissiveness of women working on his side, the sagicity of these women is admirable.

Occasionaly, the authors compare the lives and work of the CSJs with Protestant women. I found this interesting and useful and wish the book covered the subject more thoroughly.

The authors perhaps overemphasize the freedom of the Sisters, as compared to married women. Get real. 19th century nuns lived in a ludicrously controlled world where drinking water between meals without permission was considered a fault. The fact that Sisters managed to accomplish all that they did despite rules and regulations dating from the Middle Ages is a testimony to their dedication.

I wish I had written this one!

In sophisticated and multilayered arguments, Spirited Lives describes how the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet emigrated to North America, expanded their work and influence in the West, created an American identity for themselves, and then helped to "Americanize" generations of mostly poor Catholic immigrants in the United States. They did so by developing and staffing a myriad of educational, health and social service institutions. This work called forth generations of sisters who were educated, hard working, and committed to a spiritual life, women who worked within gender boundaries to affect change in the larger society. This book is meticulously researched and written with precision and honesty, providing a wealth of new information on religion in America, the contributions of a particular group of women to American society, and how American culture was shaped by them. The fact that the book was conceptualized, researched and written by two historians makes this a project unusual for the vigor of the questions, experience and approach brought to bear on the topic. Still, the most exciting aspect of this work lies in two other important areas.

For decades, women's historians have based the emergence of American feminism on the influence of Evangelical Protestantism on white, middle-class women. For that matter, the historiography on American social movements generally has been shaped by this interest in the intersection between religion and reform, more recently adding gender to the mix. Such a focus has, I believe, caused scholars to ignore the committed and growing numbers of Catholic women religious who came to America on missions of mercy and stayed to help build America. Using the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as a case study, Carol Coburn and Martha Smith's Spirited Lives has both filled the void and analyzed the process. Catholicism, as well as Protestantism, formed this culture we call American, and women were leaders in both instances. This is an important conclusion overlooked for the most part by American social historians.

More importantly for women's history is the growing realization that the intersection of religion, gender and reform is more complicated than previously thought. Catholicism, as well as Evangelical Protestantism, shaped women's lives and shaped American society. Women's history has argued for decades that religion and family role moved women from the private space of the home to the reform activities of public space. Now, thanks to the work of Carol Coburn and Sister Martha Smith, we see that the power gained by nuns from their role in "sacred space" gave them the authority to work for change in the larger secular and public spaces of society. These women, in fact, because of their vows of chastity were free to pursue education and work unfettered by the demands placed on Evangelical women who drew their authority from their status as wives and mothers.

Finally, this book has real value for a wide variety of college classrooms. It is always difficult to find monographs that will allow students to learn about a range of historical topics; this one is perfect for that. Religion, ethnicity and race, immigration, social services and social policy, gender, identity formation, poverty, education, and medicine are all topics covered in this "truly American narrative." (p. 10)

Carol Coburn and Martha Smith have produced an excellent case study of the far ranging influence exerted by religious sisters in the United States over a period of more than a century.

Through their work in schools, hospitals, child care institutions and special education the Sisters of St Joseph interacted with many people outside the Catholic community. Their work in parish schools was particularly important in creating a cohesive and informed Catholic community. It is certain that the history of the Catholic Church in the United States would have been very different had there not been a source of cost effective labour to support a separate school system. As studies on the health care apostolate of the Church (Stepsis & Liptack and Kaufmann) have shown the sisters' apostolate was a means of breaking down prejudice. Their work in private academies did much the same. As the authors point out the work in parish schools also assisted the passage of social mobility for a largely migrant school population.

Not only do we learn how the sisters influenced the population of the United States during its great period of expansion. To the European reader it is also obvious how much the ethos of the pioneer country - not always appreciated by European religious superiors - affected the sisters themselves. The development of religious life in the United States, particularly for those communities founded there or detatched from European congregations, was quite different from that in Europe. In a large country with ever expanding horizons it is much easier to be innovative.

Personally I would have liked a little more comparison between the experience of the Sisters of St Joseph and others communities. On the whole, however, the book was extremely readable and well documented. I cannot claim sufficient acquaintance with feminist theory to say whether this is feminist history. What I do know is that it is good history because it is based on an informed use of rich primary sources and it does not vouch opinion or analysis without sound reasons.

The enormous work of a more general approach is awaited eagerly. If only communities and researchers in Britain had the vast resources that can be taken advantage of in the United States to produce a similar study.

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