Women Religious and Epistolary Exchange in the Carmelite Reform

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bárbara Mujica
Keyword(s):  
Women Religious ◽  
Epistolary Exchange

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bárbara Mujica
Keyword(s):  
Women Religious ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Maria De San Jose ◽  
Teresa De Jesus ◽  
Epistolary Exchange ◽  
The Middle Ages

Women Religious and Epistolary Exchange in the Carmelite Reform tells the story of the Carmelite expansion beyond the death of Teresa de Jesús, showing how three of her most dynamic disciples, María de San José, Ana de Jesús, and Ana de San Bartolomé, struggled to continue her mission in Portugal, France, and the Low Countries. Like Teresa, these women were prolific letter writers. Catalina de Cristo, a Carmelite nun who never left Spain, also produced a corpus of letters that reveals the distress of those who anxiously waited for news of their sisters abroad. In devoting themselves so assiduously to letter-writing, these women, as Joan Ferrante has shown, were continuing a long monastic tradition that had begun in the Middle Ages.

Women Religious and Epistolary Exchange in the Carmelite Reform

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bárbara Mujica
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Women Religious ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
San Jose ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Maria De San Jose ◽  
Epistolary Exchange ◽  
The Catholic Church

The sixteenth century was a period of crisis in the Catholic Church. Monastic reorganization was a major issue, and women were at the forefront of charting new directions in convent policy. The story of the Carmelite Reform has been told before, but never from the perspective of the women on the front lines. Nearly all accounts of the movement focus on Teresa de Avila, (1515-1582), and end with her death in 1582. Women Religious and Epistolary Exchange in the Carmelite Reform: The Disciples of Teresa de Avila carries the story beyond Teresa’s death, showing how the next generation of Carmelite nuns struggled into the seventeenth century to continue her mission. It is unique in that it draws primarily from female-authored sources, in particular, the letters of three of Teresa’s most dynamic disciples: María de San José, Ana de Jesús and Ana de San Bartolomé.

Non-ordained

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanine Kraybill
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Women Religious ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Institutional Church

The Catholic Church, constructed on an all-male clerical model, is a hierarchical and gendered institution, creating barriers to female leadership. In interviewing members of the clergy and women religious of the faith, this article examines how female non-ordained and male clerical religious leaders engage and influence social policy. It specifically addresses how women religious maneuver around the institutional constraints of the Church, in order to take action on social issues and effect change. In adding to the scholarship on this topic, I argue that part of the strategy of women religious in navigating barriers of the institutional Church is not only knowing when to act outside of the formal hierarchy, but realizing when it is in the benefit of their social policy objectives to collaborate with it. This maneuvering may not always safeguard women religious from institutional scrutiny, as seen by the 2012 Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, but instead captures the tension between female religious and the clergy. It also highlights how situations of institutional scrutiny can have positive implications for female religious leaders, their policy goals and congregations. Finally, this examination shows how even when women are appointed to leadership posts within the institutional Church, they can face limitations of acceptance and other constraints that are different from their female religious counterparts working within their own respective religious congregations or outside organizations.

Other Factors Influencing Religious Vocations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thu T. Do
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Women Religious ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Religious Vocation ◽  
Devotional Practices ◽  
Religious Vocations ◽  
Primary And Secondary School

This chapter presents an overview of aspects that may influence women and men religious on their religious vocational decision during their childhood with their family and parish, their attendance of primary and secondary school, their participation in parish life, and their college years. The influential aspects addressed are: attending Mass regularly and devotional practices, having the opportunity to discuss and receive encouragement from others to discern a religious vocation, the witness of men and women religious, and being engaged in youth and voluntary ministry programs. The chapter concludes that while not every individual religious has opportunities to experience these activities in various environments before he or she decides to enter religious life, all the aspects complement one another and have an impact on religious vocational discernment and decision-making.

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