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Women’s Higher Education in the United States pp 211–232Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Hallmarks of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in the West: Women Religious and Education in the United States

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Part of the book series: Historical Studies in Education ((HSE))

Abstract

This chapter explores the impact of the declining number of teaching sisters on Catholic schools and the steps taken by one group of sisters to preserve the identity and legacy of their institutions. During the nineteenth century, Catholic female teaching orders provided some of the most important sources of higher education for young women across the world. In America, female teaching orders increased dramatically from 1822 to 1920, with the number of nuns roughly doubling each decade. Several of these teaching orders, including the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, opened all-female boarding schools, day schools, charity schools, and colleges in Europe, the United States, South America, Asia, and Africa. By the late twentieth century however, this demographic trend changed dramatically. In the United States alone, the total number of sisters fell from around 180,000 in 1965 to roughly 50,000 in 2014—a 72 percent decline over a 50-year period. Using historical documents and oral history interviews with Sisters of Notre Dame from the Western Provence Center of the United States, Kim Tolley constructs an historical account of an important transition in Catholic female education, a shift that includes an acceptance and recognition of the necessity of working partnerships, not only with lay Catholics, but also with non-Catholic educators.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A Catholic nun lives a contemplative, cloistered life enclosed or semi-enclosed in a monastery, whereas a Catholic sister lives and ministers in the world. A Nun’s life Ministry, “What is the Difference Between a Sister and a Nun?” Accessed April 5, 2016 from <http://anunslife.org/resources/sister-or-nun>.

  2. 2.

    Erick Berrelleza, Mary L. Gautier, and Mark M. Gray, “Population Trends Among Religious Institutes of Women,” Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate Special Report (Fall 2014). Accessed June 9, 2015 from http://cara.georgetown.edu/WomenReligious.pdf.

  3. 3.

    “Sister Veronica Skillin, 1928–2015.” Accessed May 15, 2016 from http://www.snddenca.org/veronica-skillin-obit/; interview with Sr. Nancy McCarron, SNDdeN.

  4. 4.

    The quotes are from Barbara Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women (New Haven: Yale University Press), 15, 49–50. Solomon devoted relatively little space in her book to discussion of Catholic female higher education. See Linda Eisenmann, “Reconsidering a Classic: Assessing the History of Women’s Higher Education a Dozen Years after Barbara Solomon,” Harvard Educational Review (December 1997), 689–718. On the early republic, see Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect & Ideology in Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980); Mary Beth Norton, Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750 -1800 (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Co., 1980). On academies, see Nancy Beadie and Kim Tolley, eds., Chartered Schools: Two Hundred Years of Independent Academies in the United States, 1725–1925 (New York: Routledge, 2002). Also see Elizabeth Alden Green, Mary Lyon and Mount Holyoke: Opening the Gates (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1979); Patricia Ann Palmieri, In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997); Christie Anne Farnham, The Education of the Southern Belle: Higher Education and Student Socialization in the Antebellum South (New York University Press, 1994).

  5. 5.

    See Linda Eisenmann, “Building the New Scholarship of Women’s Higher Educational History, 1965–1985,” in this volume.

  6. 6.

    See Bernard Bailyn, Atlantic History: Concept and Contours (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005); Peter A. Coclanis, “Drang Nach Osten: Bernard Bailyn, the World-Island, and the Idea of Atlantic History” in Journal of World History, 13 (Spring 2002): 169–182; Nicholas Canny, “Writing Atlantic History; or, Reconfiguring the History of Colonial British America” in The Journal of American History, 86 (December 1999): 1093–1114; David Thelen, “The Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United States History,” in The Journal of American History, 86 (December, 1999): 965–975.

  7. 7.

    David Crook and Gary McCulloch, “Introduction: Comparative Approaches to the History of Education”, History of Education 31 (September, 2002): 397–400. Jackie E. M. Latham, “Pestalozzi and James Pierrepont Greaves: A Shared Educational Philosophy,” History of Education 31 (September, 2002): 59–70; Jane Read, “Froebelian Women: Networking to Promote Professional Status and Educational Change in the Nineteenth Century,” History of Education 32 (January, 2003): 17–33; David Hogan, “The Market Revolution and Disciplinary Power: Joseph Lancaster and the Psychology of the Early Classroom System,” History of Education Quarterly 29 (Autumn, 1989): 381–417.

  8. 8.

    The Council of Trent had decreed that nuns were to live cloistered unless they had a special dispensation from a bishop. See Margaret M. McGuinness, Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America (New York University Press, 2013), 18; Emily Clark (ed), Voices from an American Convent: Marie Madeleine Hachard and the New Orleans Ursulines, 1727–1760 (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 2007); Emily Clark, Masterless Mistresses: The New Orleans Ursulines and the Development of a New World Society, 1727–1834 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

  9. 9.

    See Harold A. Buetow, Of Singular Benefit: The Story of Catholic Education in the United States (London: Macmillan, 1970); Eileen Mary Brewer, Nuns and the Education of American Catholic Women, 1860–1920 (Chicago: Loyola University Press), 13. Also see Anne M. Butler, Across God’s Frontiers: Catholic Sisters in the American West (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

  10. 10.

    Brewer, Nuns and the Education of American Catholic Women, 7–8; John J. Fialka, Catholic Nuns and the Making of America (New York: Macmillan, 2004).

  11. 11.

    Donald Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and the Stony Mountains: Exploring the West from Monticello (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981); Henry Adams, History of the United States of America during the Administration of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Library of America Edition, 1986); Kim Tolley, “Many Years Before the Mayflower: Catholic Academies and the Development of Parish High Schools in the United States, 1727–1925,” in Nancy Beadie and Kim Tolley, eds., Chartered Schools, 304–330.

  12. 12.

    Geraldine J. Clifford, Those Good Gertrudes: A Social History of Women Teachers in America (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 24–5; Brewer, Nuns and the Education of American Catholic Women, 25.

  13. 13.

    Mary J. Oates, “Catholic Female Academies on the Frontier.” U.S. Catholic Historian, 12 (Fall 1994): 121–136; Tolley, “Many Years before the Mayflower.” Also see M. Reginald Gerdes, “To Educate and Evangelize: Black Catholic Schools of the Oblate Sisters of Providence (1828–1880)”, U.S. Catholic Historian 7 (Spring-Summer, 1988): 183–199; Diane Batts Morrow, Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828–1860 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Suellen Hoy, Good Hearts: Catholic Sisters in Chicago’s Past (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

  14. 14.

    Michael David Knowles, “Roman Catholicism,” Encyclopaedia Brittannica. Accessed April 4, 2016 from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism/Structure-of-the-church.

  15. 15.

    Ebaugh, “Patriarchal Bargains and Latent Avenues of Social Mobility.” The quote is on page 401; Kandiyoti, “Bargaining with Patriarchy,” Gender & Society.

  16. 16.

    See Elinor Tong Dehey, Religious Orders of Women in the United States: Catholic, Accounts of Their Origins, Works, and Most Important Institutions, Interwoven with Histories of Many Famous Foundresses (Hammond, Indiana: W. B. Conkey, 1930); Garibaldi Rogers, Habits of Change: An Oral History of American Nuns (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Margaret M. McGuinness, Neighbors and Missionaries: A History of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine (Fordham University Press, 2012).

  17. 17.

    Tracy Schier and Cynthia Russett, Catholic Women’s Colleges in America (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 35–37.

  18. 18.

    McGuinness, Called to Serve, 197; Carol K. Coburn and Martha Smith, Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836–1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999).

  19. 19.

    Oates, “Catholic Female Academies,” 121–136.

  20. 20.

    Brewer, Nuns; Nancy Beadie, “Female Students and Denominational Affiliation: Sources of Success Among Nineteenth Century Academies,” American Journal of Education 107: 2 (February 1999): 75–115; Kim Tolley and Nancy Beadie, “Socioeconomic Incentives to Teach in New York and North Carolina: Toward a More Complex Model of Teacher Labor Markets, 1800–1850,” History of Education Quarterly 46: 1 (Spring 2006), 60–61.

  21. 21.

    Marie Steenhaut, An Act of Gratitude: Marie Steenhaut, Soeur de Notre Dame, 1782–1844. Undated published memoir, California Province Center, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 6. This is an autobiography by one of the first members of the institute of Notre Dame de Namur.

  22. 22.

    Coburn and Smith, Spirited Lives, 149.

  23. 23.

    Steenhaut, An Act of Gratitude; JoAnn M. Recker, Très Affectueusement, Votre Mère en Dieu: Françoise Blin: French Aristocrat, Belgian Citizen, Co-Foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (1756–1838) (New York: Peter Lang, 2001). Sister Mary of the Angels English Province, Some Aspects of Blessed Mère Julie’s Letters (Belmont, CA: College of Notre Dame, n.d.) California Province Center. Also see Roseanne Murphy, Julie Billiart, Woman of Courage: The Story of the Foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame (New York, Paulist Press, 1995).

  24. 24.

    Steenhaut, An Act of Gratitude; Recker, Très Affectueusement, Votre Mère en Dieu; Sister Mary of the Angels English Province, Some Aspects of Blessed Mère Julie’s Letters.

  25. 25.

    Sister Mary of the Angels English Province, Some Aspects of Blessed Mère Julie’s Letters. The quote is on p. 13. On obedience in the monastic tradition, see Andre Louf, In the School of Contemplation (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2015).

  26. 26.

    Louis Reilly, “François Norbert Blanchet,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907). Accessed November 13, 2015 from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02593a.htm; Mary Dominica McNamee, SNDdeN, Willamette Interlude (Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books, 1959), 209–236. The quote is on p. 210.

  27. 27.

    McNamee, Willamette Interlude, 209, n. 9. The Central School Reader: Being a Collection of Essays and Extracts from approved Writers (Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co, 1847); John Abercrombie, Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers, and the Investigation of Truth (New York: Harper Brothers, 1843).

  28. 28.

    McNamee, Willamette Interlude, 217.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., 237–245; Butler, Across God’s Frontiers, 155–156.

  30. 30.

    McNamee, Willamette Interlude, 246–250; NDNU “History.” Accessed October 10, 2015 from http://www.ndnu.edu/about/history/. Also see Nancy Beadie, Education and the Creation of Capital in the Early American Republic (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 20–21.

  31. 31.

    Farnham, The Education of the Southern Belle, 65, 11–12; McNamee, Willamette Interlude, 246–250; NDNU, “History,” accessed October 10, 2015 from http://www.ndnu.edu/about/history/.

  32. 32.

    Mary Dominica McNamee, Light in the Valley: A Story of California’s College of Notre Dame (Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books, 1968).

  33. 33.

    Berrelleza, Gautier, and Gray, “Population Trends Among Religious Institutes of Women.” Also see Clifford, Those Good Gertrudes, 260.

  34. 34.

    Helen Rose Ebaugh, Jon Lorence, Janet Saltzman Chafetz, “The Growth and Decline of the Population of Catholic Nuns Cross-Nationally, 1960–1990: A Case of Secularization as Social Structural Change,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35 (June 1996): 171–184.

  35. 35.

    Rodney Stark & Roger Finke, “Catholic Religious Vocations: Decline and Revival,” Review of Religious Research 42 (December 2000): 125–145.

  36. 36.

    Pope Paul VI, “Council Closing Messages, December 8, 1965”. Accessed December 3, 2015 from http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6closin.htm.

  37. 37.

    Helen Rose Ebaugh and Janet Saltzman Chafetz, “Agents for Cultural Reproduction and Structural Change: The Ironic Role of Women in Immigrant Religious Institutions,” Social Forces, 78 (December, 1999): 585–613.

  38. 38.

    Ruth A. Wallace, “Catholic Women and the Creation of a New Social Reality,” Gender & Society, 2 (March, 1988): 24–38.

  39. 39.

    Joan Ryan, “Convent Life at Twilight: The Sisters of Mission San Jose Seek Ways to Modernize Their Message for a Changed World,” SF Gate (Sunday, June 17, 2007).

  40. 40.

    The Amazing Grace of Sr. Dorothy Stang, Source: http://www.sndden.org/en/who-we-are/where-we-are/latin-america/the-amazing-grace-of-sr-dorothy-stang/ Accessed May 22, 2015.

  41. 41.

    Melanie M. Morey and John J. Piderit, Catholic Higher Education: A Culture in Crisis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); Peter Steinfels, A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003); John Michael Pressimone, “Preserving the Sponsoring Tradition: A Study of Catholic Colleges and Universities Founded by Religious Orders.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Benedictine University, 2013), 5–7.

  42. 42.

    See Pressimone, “Preserving the Sponsoring Tradition,” 5–6; Benedict XVI, “Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI at the Conference Hall of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C., Thursday, 17 April 2008.” Accessed January 5, 2016 from http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080417_cath-univ-washington.html.

  43. 43.

    Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, “California Province Sponsorship Program: Additional Information (2007–2004), Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Province Center Archives, Belmont, California [hereafter PCA]. Shyrl McCormick, April 13, 2015 comment in “Sister Veronica Skillin, 1928–2015.” Sister Louise O’Reilly, SNDdeN, to Kim Tolley, June 16, 2016. Email in the author’s possession.

  44. 44.

    SNDdeN, “Sponsorship/Mission Integration Summary-2010, PCA”. Sr. Louise O’Reilly, SDNdeN, to Kim Tolley, June 16, 2016 (email in possession of the author); Interview with Interview with Nancy McCarron, SNDdeN, June 9, 2015; SNDdeN, The Hallmarks of a Notre Dame de Namur Learning Community for Generations to Come (Belmont, CA: Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, California Province, 2005).

  45. 45.

    NDNU, “Hallmarks of a Notre Dame de Namur Learning Community.” Accessed November 13, 2015 from http://www.ndnu.edu/about/mission-strategy/hallmarks-of-a-notre-dame-de-namur-learning-community/.

  46. 46.

    NDNU, “NDNU Dedicates New Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement March 19” (Belmont, CA: March 13, 2008). Accessed July 12, 2015 from http://www.ndnu.edu/media-center/press-releases/dorothy-stang-dedication/. In 2016, BestColleges.com ranked NDNU third nationally for the ethnic diversity of its student body, according to “Most Diverse Colleges,” accessed February 14, 2016 from http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/most-diverse-colleges/.

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  1. Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, United States

    Kim Tolley

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  1. Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA

    Margaret A. Nash

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Tolley, K. (2018). The Hallmarks of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in the West: Women Religious and Education in the United States. In: Nash, M.A. (eds) Women’s Higher Education in the United States. Historical Studies in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59084-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59084-8_10

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