Collecting the Lives of Early Modern Women Religious: obituary writing and the development of collective memory and corporate identity

Abstract

The leaders of the new English convents founded in exile in the seventeenth century faced particular challenges. With limited resources they sought to establish high standards in their convents. Key to encouraging new members to aspire to devotion, discipline and fulfilling the rules and constitutions of the founders was the communal reading of texts of exemplary lives. Senior members of the convents displayed keen awareness of the kinds of texts most appropriate. In addition to external exemplars, obituaries recording the religious qualities of the newly deceased members and, where appropriate, praising their contributions to the life of the convent exist from the start. This article explores strategies for reading ‘obits’ from two orders of nuns (Benedictines and Poor Clares) in order to understand daily life for English women religious in the seventeenth century.