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English Benedictine Nuns in Exile in the Seventeenth Century
Through her extensive use of convent archival material--including translations, devotional literature, prayers, obituary notices, chronicles, annals, epigraphs, and various forms of governance literature, such as 'Statutes' and 'Constitutions' (documents which regulated everyday...
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Published in: | British Catholic history 2018, Vol.34 (1), p.182 |
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Main Author: | |
Format: | Review |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Through her extensive use of convent archival material--including translations, devotional literature, prayers, obituary notices, chronicles, annals, epigraphs, and various forms of governance literature, such as 'Statutes' and 'Constitutions' (documents which regulated everyday life in convents) as well as printed works--Lux-Sterritt elucidates the many ways in which the Benedictine nuns, despite clausura, were engaged with the political and theological questions of their time.Chapters 1 through 4, 'The contemplative ideal of dying to the world', 'When spiritual and secular families overlap', 'The secular concerns of contemplatives', and 'The missionary spirit of enclosed nuns' cover familiar territory previously explored by scholars such as Claire Walker in Gender and Politics in Early Modern Europe: English Convents in France and the Low Countries (2003), and Caroline Bowden in her numerous articles, editions, and book chapters.Lux-Sterritt discusses the obituary of the Ghent Abbess, Lucy Knatchbull, which states: when her Eyes were dead [closed] she moved her lips in prayer, consumating her combat, with intire victory over her wicked enemy; Going Triumphantly, as we piously believe, like a Martir of love to heaven there to Receive a Laurell of honnour from the Great king of martirs Lux-Sterritt writes: 'She drew her very last breath in a mortal combat for God, therefore becoming a martyr, a fearless defender of the faith' (p. 233, emphasis added). |
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ISSN: | 2055-7973 2055-7981 |
DOI: | 10.1017/bch.2018.13 |