Humble Women, Powerful Nuns

Kristien Suenens is a senior researcher and heritage consultant at KADOC-KU Leuven, with a focus on the intersection of women's history and Catholicism.

• IntroductionPART 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 revivalAmbiguous images of womenAut maritus, aut murus? Between marriage and the conventFemale Religious Entrepreneurship on the Offensive (ca. 1848-ca. 1860)Religious education: the female voice of the revivalThe need for male supportEnterprising and discursive mechanismsSocial and political tensions and female agencyThe Spiritual Dialectic of Revival Devotion“L’ eucharistie peut sauver le monde”A plurality of devotional practices and ascetic self-denialA passion paradigmFemale saints as role modelsPART 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 appreciationJesuits: irresistible and unavoidableSoulmates and Rivals: The Power(lessness) of Female AlliancesThe convent as a place of refugeAn alternative family unit: ambiguous female bonding on a micro level“Autel contre autel”: the limits of a wider female coalitionMechelen and Rome: Normative Identity and Ecclesiastical PositioningSterckx’s pragmatic policyBasic feminine inspirationMale implementationContaining the revival: the struggle with the contemplative legacyThe crowning accomplishment: a Roman approvalPART III FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP IN AN ULTRAMONTANE CHURCH: FOUR CONVENT SUPERIORS (ca. 1865-ca. 1885) Between Dream and Reality: Charisma and NumbersThe story behind two typical congregations“Les Dames illusionnées”: ambitions and criticismConvents and Castles: An Uneasy AllianceIn the grip of ultramontane elitesA forced turn to the countryside“Au comble du bonheur”: women for womenThe female alliance challengedCrusading in a Convent HabitA modern apostolate, conservative ideasFemale agency, the European culture wars and the missionary driveThe inevitability of the crusade: the School War (1879-1884)The challenge of social CatholicismVictims and religious entrepreneurs: the spiritual dynamics of ultramontanism“Pas assez femme”? Female Leadership in Women’s Convents“Une hostie vivante”: institutionalised self-denialInternal power balancesLay sisters: women among women“Domina ista valde facunda est”Female Leadership in a Male ChurchA double-voiced ‘conventualisation’Gender, power and freedom of conscience: the confessor issueRoman feminism?EpilogueThe Shaping of PerceptionsFanny Kestre: an active “femme forte”, a spiritual “âme simple”Antoinette Cornet: between oblivion and rediscoveryAnna de Meeûs: “trop robuste pour être sainte”Wilhelmina Telghuys: always independentConclusionA Study in AmbiguityTimeline Bibliography Index of names Colophon

The implications of Suenens’s research in 'Humble Women, Powerful Nuns' are quite striking: she has opened up many avenues for future work for other historians. How widespread was this view in the global Catholic Church, for example? Why is it that women with financial means were seemingly more exempt from gendered norms andspaces, and how were these lines drawn? How do we account for personality clashes in these complex, patriarchal worlds and the women who break out beyond the private sphere? Extending even further, this book offers a unique historical reflection on the problems still facing Catholic women today, in the form of a hierarchy of virtue inthe Catholic Church, in which personal virtue is pitted against public virtue in expectations of Catholic concepts of “womanhood” and “femininity”. This book should be of interest to scholars well beyond historians of women religious, as it represents new, interesting ways to think about women in history.Rose Luminiello, Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique (vol. 117, 2022/1-2)