Northern Settlement Houses and Southern Welfare Centers: The Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine, 1910–1971

Abstract

This chapter focuses on “the sisters,” members of women's religious communities (“nuns,” strictly speaking, were members of cloistered communities; most U.S. sisters pursued active vocations outside monastic settings). These “women religious” were surely the most conspicuous signs of Catholic presence in the Unites States from the Civil War era through the 1960s. Members of women's religious communities taught millions of parochial school students; others provided social services to immigrants and the poor. The Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine—among dozens of communities responding to the needs of immigrants—adapted the settlement house tradition founded by secular reformers with whom they shared many concerns with one fundamental difference: a sacramental worldview inspiriting apostolic work for personal rebirth and social renewal.