Difficult Women and Dangerous Memories: Silenced, Suppressed, and Misrepresented Founders in the History of American Religious Life

Abstract

Abstract: In this essay, I focus on examples of controversial early members of communities of women religious in the United States, particularly their founders, whose significance (and, in some case, even existence) was deliberately obscured or removed from “approved” or “authorized” congregational histories. There are numerous such examples; here, I focus on four (though others figure briefly): Theresa Maxis Duchemin (Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), St. Andrew Feltin (Sisters of Divine Providence), Margaret Anna Cusack (Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace), and Wilhelmina Bleily (Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon). In recounting and analyzing their stories, I hope to explain why so many founders (or, at least, their significance) were silenced or repudiated, even by sisters themselves, and what their “rediscovery” in the past half century or so tells us about religious renewal in the post-Vatican II era. To what extent do their experiences derive from particularized circumstances and contextual factors? To what extent do their stories collectively inform us about important kyriarchal conditions during this formative period in apostolic women’s religious life? Moreover, despite often aggressive efforts to erase their stories or to deny their contributions, why was their influence never completely eradicated? What does this tell us about “official” and “unofficial” history, particularly for what it reveals about women’s responses to patriarchy? These accounts challenge us to see beyond a prescriptive or hagiographic understanding of women’s religious life and to appreciate the complexity of its reality.