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Catholic Women Religious Vocations in the Twentieth Century: The Slovenian Case

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Review of Religious Research

Abstract

In the twentieth century, female monasticism in Slovenia enjoyed a dynamic period. In this paper, I present changes in numerical trends for the whole century and explore the broader social circumstances and conditions that influenced the dynamics of this phenomenon. The basic thesis is that the numbers of members of religious orders change depending on the manner in which monasticism is structured in the economic, political and cultural life of a certain society. The major part of the discussion focuses on the first half of the century, which saw the greatest growth. In comparing the Slovenian statistical regions, I found that the majority of women members came from regions in which the demographic imbalance favoring women over men and the influence of the Catholic Church on everyday life were the greatest. In Slovenia, the decline in female religious vocations started after WWII and, especially until the second Vatican Council, was part of a manifest secularization process rooted in political change. The numerical trend in Slovenian female monasticism differs from West European and USA trends; therefore, a different approach and explanation was needed. This enabled me to re-think the social circumstances and position of Catholic orders in Slovenian society.

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Notes

  1. In the first half of the twentieth century, the average age of women in religious orders in Slovenia was 37.5 years. In 2000, the average age was 64 years, and the majority of the women had joined orders before WWII.

  2. The vows of chastity, poverty and obedience are the three constitutive elements of the religious vocation.

  3. Carniola was a historical region, comparable today to the central region covering the Gorenjska, Dolenjska and Notranjska regions.

  4. The Sodality of Our Lady was established in Rome in the sixteenth century. Under the leadership of Jesuits, they were also introduced to Slovenia. Joseph II dissolved religious brotherhoods and sodalities at the end of the eighteenth century. With the concordat signed by Franz Joseph I and Pius IX in 1855, they were tolerated again (Gruden 1906, p. 17).

  5. Les Filles de la Charite de Saint Vincent de Paul, with the maternal seat in Paris, France.

  6. The laws affected big landowners, the occupiers (Germans, Austrians and Italians), and those who collaborated with the occupiers during the WWII.

  7. In 1967, members of the Discalced Carmelites returned from Austria. In 1969, Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco or the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians opened a new community for novitiates. In 1970, the School Sisters opened a new community in Prekmurje… (Bizjak 2007, pp. 157, 177).

  8. A woman born in 1930 in a village in eastern Slovenia explained that an adult woman moved to their parish when she was a child. The woman organized all the girls in the village to join the Sodality. She lived on parish property and never married. Under her tutelage girls met to pray, to decorate the church and all the chapels in the parish. In the Easter procession, Sodality members dressed in white and scattered roses on the path in front of the priest and other attendants. (An interview with a member of the Sodality of Our Lady, October 2011, Slovenia).

  9. Statistical regions are units defined by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

  10. The last women working in Egypt returned to Slovenia in the 1960s and 1970s. For more information, see: www.aleksandrinke.si.

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    Sonja Bezjak

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Bezjak, S. Catholic Women Religious Vocations in the Twentieth Century: The Slovenian Case. Rev Relig Res 54, 157–174 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-012-0049-2

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