An Examination of the Oblate Sisters of Providence as Religious Women of Color, Educators, and Leaders PDF Download

Author: Camelia Taylor
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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This thesis examines the Roman Catholic religious order, the Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSP), and their roles as educators, religious women, and community leaders from the antebellum period through the Reconstruction era.In 1828, the Oblate's founder, Mother Mary Lange, created the religious order alongside Sulpician Priest, Father James Nicholas Joubert. The Oblate Sisters' primary mission was to educate African American girls despite the pressures to the contrary in the slaveholding state of Maryland. Also, the Oblate sisters had founded their school, Saint Frances Academy, which offered African American girls a religious, classical, and vocational education. The school endeavored to give students a skillset to survive in the local economy while allowing young girls and religious nuns to positively define notions of Black womanhood through the Catholic faith.As the first female Catholic religious order of African descent in the United States, the Oblate sisters endured opposition from both the Catholic Church and the community of Baltimore. Even though the strict consecrated life required by the church could be perceived as oppressive of women, especially Black women who lived in a society restricted by enslavement, the Oblates successfully built a sanctuary community that offered a degree of freedom for young African American girls and women.This thesis argues that the Oblate's actions offered Black girls and women possibilities to resist societal expectations of Black womanhood. However, empowering Black girls and women to specifically reject these expectations was not the order's intent. The community did not see themselves as activist or Black feminists. Instead, the Oblates embraced the Cult of True Womanhood, which restricted women significantly. However, by following these traditional gender standards, the Oblates upended racist expectations of Black womanhood. As a result,their contributions during the antebellum period through Reconstruction aided the educational advancement of African American girls and women and challenged the intersectional oppression they encountered in the Catholic Church, the city of Baltimore, Maryland, and American society at large.