Women of Faith

Women of Faith

The Chicago Sisters of Mercy and the Evolution of a Religious Community

  • Auteur: Connolly, Mary Beth Fraser
  • Éditeur: Fordham University Press
  • ISBN: 9780823254736
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780823254750
  • eISBN Epub: 9780823254743
  • Lieu de publication:  New York , United States
  • Année de publication: 2014
  • Année de publication électronique: 2014
  • Mois : Février
  • Langue: Anglais

When the Sisters of Mercy lost their foundress Sister Catherine McAuley in 1841, stories of Mother Catherine passed from one generation of sisters to the next. McAuley’s Rule and Constitutions along with her spiritual writings and correspondence communicated the Mercys’ founding charism. Each generation of Sisters of Mercy who succeeded her took these words and her spirit with them as they established new communities or foundations across the United States and around the world. In Women of Faith, Mary Beth Fraser Connolly traces the paths of the women who dedicated their lives to the Sisters of Mercy Chicago Regional Community, the first Congregation of Catholic Sisters in Chicago.

More than the story of the institutions that defined the territory and ministries of the women of this Midwestern region, Women of Faith presents a history of the women who made this regional community, whether as foundresses of individual communities in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries or as the teachers, nurses, and pastoral ministers who cared for and educated generations of Midwestern American Catholics. Though they had no immediate connection with McAuley, these women inherited her spirit and vision for religious life.

Focusing on how the Chicago Mercys formed a community, lived their spiritual lives, and served within the institutional Catholic Church, this three-part perspective addresses community, spirituality, and ministry, providing a means by which we can trace the evolution of these women of faith as the world around them changed. The first part of this study focuses on the origins of the Sisters of Mercy in the Midwest from the founding of the Chicago South Side community in 1846 through the amalgamation and creation of the Chicago Province in 1929. The second part examines how the Mercys came together as one province through the changes of Vatican II from 1929 to the 1980s. Part III examines life after the dramatic changes of Vatican II in the 1990s and 2000s.

Presenting rich examples of how faith cannot be separated from identity, Women of Faith provides an important new contribution to the scholarship that is shaping our collective understanding of women religious.

  • Cover
  • Contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: “One Solid Comfort”
  • Part I: “Charity Embraces Those Who Abound”: The Spirit of Mercy Comes to America, 1846–1929
    • 1. “The spirit of our Institute is mercy, as its name denotes”: The Nature of Mercy in Nineteenth-Century America
    • 2. “Not Bound by Enclosure.” The Sisters of Mercy Respond: 1846–1929
  • Part II: “This Mutual Love and Union.” From Amalgamation to a Post–Vatican II World: 1929–1980s
    • 3. New Community, Same Spirit
    • 4. Demanding Decades. Mercy Response to the Clergy and the Laity: 1928–1960s
    • 5. “Change Is Blowing Hard”: Renewal of Religious Life in the 1960s and 1970s
    • 6. Reinventing Community and Service to the World
  • Part III: New Life, New Paths, Same Spirit: Carrying Mercy into the Twenty-First Century, 1980s–2008
    • 7. “This Far by Faith”: Reimagined Religious Life and the Sisters of Mercy
    • Epilogue: West Midwest and the Legacy of the Sisters of Mercy Chicago Regional Community
  • Appendixes
    • A. Parish Grade Schools, Academies, High Schools, Universities, and Alternative Schools
    • B. Hospitals, Facilities, and Residences Owned and/or Sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, Chicago Regional Community
  • Notes
  • Glossary
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  • Bibliography
  • Index
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    • F
    • G
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