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Catholic nuns in transnational mission, 1528–2015*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Anne O’Brien
Anne O’Brien*
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

From the Counter-Reformation to the present, women in a variety of contexts of colonization, decolonization, and slavery crossed the threshold from missionary congregation to missionary workforce to live in Catholic religious community. Comparative, transnational analysis provides insights from a variety of angles into the myriad local factors that fashioned their understandings of the relationship between the spiritual and material benefits so gained. Their experiences were uneven, shaped by the race, gender, and status politics of each ecclesiastical and secular context, by their usefulness to the wider missionary project and the state, and by shifts in ecclesiastical rulings that were prompted by changes in the Vatican’s temporal status. In the later twentieth century, some became activists and advocates, using their symbolic power to work in the interests of women and poor people, and to reform the patriarchy at the core of the church.

Keywords

Catholiccolonialismfeminismnunsslaverytransnational
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , November 2016 , pp. 387 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Alanna Harris, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, and Carmen Mangion for their invitation to address ‘The Nun in the World’ conference, at the London Global Gateway of the University of Notre Dame, USA in 2015. Though this article bears little resemblance to that address, the invitation prompted me to return to the subject and to think about its transnational implications. I would also like to thank my colleague Peter Ross, the editors of the Journal of Global History, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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