The ‘Mixed Life’: Challenging Understandings of Religious Life in Victorian England

Abstract

Communities of women religious2 became a vital component of Catholic parish life in Victorian England.3 The ‘works of mercy’ of active, simple-vowed religious sisters whose evangelical efforts took them outside the cloister were numerous and visible in public spaces. This so-called ‘mixed life’, a religious life of prayer commingled with active evangelization (as teachers, nurses and parish visitors), appealed to women desiring a role within religious life but outside the cloister. The mixed life also appealed to a Catholic hierarchy which was struggling to build a devout Catholic body and in great need of an army of Church workers. While women religious, as visible symbols of Catholicism and celibate women, were contentious in Victorian Britain,4 their charitable work for the poor was highly regarded by some, including even Protestants typically quick to deride their efforts as ‘papist’.5 As religious sisters taking simple vows, they were classified differently from the cloistered, solemn-vowed contemplative nuns who had dominated women’s religious life since medieval times.6 Their mixed life of prayer and ‘works of mercy’ required a spirituality which accommodated evangelization in public spaces but allowed for a prayerful retreat within the sacred spaces behind convent walls. Religious sisters prized their spiritual lives as well as their evangelical efforts, but reconciling the dual aspects of their vocation had its challenges.