The girls who spoke for God: vocation and discernment in seventeenth-century France

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dc.contributor.authorKort, Meghan
dc.contributor.supervisorBeam, Sara
dc.date.accessioned2016-08-30T19:49:34Z
dc.date.copyright2016en_US
dc.date.issued2016-08-30
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Historyen_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractDuring the seventeenth century, the Catholic Reformation sparked unprecedented growth in girls' educational opportunities with the opening of over five hundred new teaching convents. Yet, the active role girls played in these institutional and social changes is often overlooked. Even though girls' autobiographical writing from the seventeenth century is rare, prescriptive, educational, and biographical sources from convent schools are rich in details about girls' lives and vocational discernment. Upon leaving school, girls were encouraged to take either marriage or religious vows. Since orthodox Catholicism taught that salvation could only be received if one's life reflected God's will this decision was weighty. In fact, reformed convents tested their entrants to ensure that their vocations were freely chosen and not forced. Seventeenth-century girls' educational theorists shared this concern, and while they debated the details of curriculum, they agreed that only girls had the authority to articulate their own God-given vocations. At convent schools, girls encountered both models of female domesticity and women who were dedicated to religious life. The repeated affirmation of both of these paths created an atmosphere in which girls could legitimately choose either. Furthermore, the memories of vocational discernment recorded in nuns' lives offer evidence of plausible ways in which girls proved their callings to their communities. Focusing on religious vocation reveals how girls in the seventeenth century actively articulated their ideas, impacted their societies, and challenged adult authority.en_US
dc.description.embargo2017-08-25
dc.description.proquestcode0330en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0335en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0520en_US
dc.description.proquestemailmjkort@uvic.caen_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/7500
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectseventeenth-century Franceen_US
dc.subjectconventen_US
dc.subjectgirls' educationen_US
dc.subjectJacqueline Pascalen_US
dc.subjectSaint-Cyren_US
dc.subjectPort-Royalen_US
dc.subjectreligious vocationen_US
dc.subjecthistory of girlhooden_US
dc.subjectAngelique Arnauden_US
dc.subjectCatholic Reformationen_US
dc.subjecthagiographyen_US
dc.subjectnuns' Livesen_US
dc.subjectchurch historyen_US
dc.subjectRacine's Estheren_US
dc.subjectlettres circulairesen_US
dc.titleThe girls who spoke for God: vocation and discernment in seventeenth-century Franceen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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