The Talent to Speak in Private and in Public: Retreats for Women from Seventeenth-century France and the Philippines
(2023) Catholic Record Society, 65th Annual Conference — Location: Leeds (24.July.2023)
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- Abstract
- Numerous experiences bear witness to the various contributions of women religious to Reformed Catholicism. They were involved in apostolic work, in a context where more fluid gender identities offered women the opportunity to lead their spiritual lives. While a lot has been said about congregations focused on teaching, mission, care or charity, less attention has been given to the work of retreats organised by both religious women and women religious. In the early modern period, the missionary framework (catechism, preaching, confession to save souls) allowed regular and secular priests to choose lay women as relays of their apostolic work (such as Michel Le Nobletz and his taolennoù in Brittany). Said lay women would follow a more or less institutionalised religious life. The work of retreats will be analysed from a global perspective considering two communities of women, close to the Jesuits, and organising such enclosed retreats: one founded in 1675 by a French noblewoman, Catherine de Francheville, in Vannes (France) and one founded in the same period by the daughter of a Chinese migrant and a native Filipina, Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, in Manilla (Philippines). Through normative sources such as the Rules and the Constitutions, this paper will explore the role of the Spiritual Exercises and the apostolate of the women giving advice, recommendations, and instructions to other women during the retreats.
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Barthélemy, S. (2023). The Talent to Speak in Private and in Public: Retreats for Women from Seventeenth-century France and the Philippines. Catholic Record Society, 65th Annual Conference, Leeds.