"Our Stories Need to Be Told": Memoirs of Former Nuns

Headshot of Bernadette McCauley

Bernadette McCauley
Hunter College of the City Univeristy of New York

Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Time: 12 - 1pm
Location: 24 Quincy Road, Conference Room

RSVP Required

 

Since 1990 over fifty women who spent part of their life as a Roman Catholic sister in the United States have written books about their lives. All these authors participated in what is often referred as the exodus from American convents which occurred in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. Mostly self-published, their books resemble oral histories more than autobiographies or memoirs and are more accurately referred to as life narratives.

The authors have lived more years outside a convent than within and while all characterize their books as ex-nun memoirs, their writings do more than describe their convent years. They locate that experience in a larger context and describe their choice to enter the religious life, the living of it, the leave-taking from it, and the subsequent experience of being an ex-nun. Themes that emerge from these narratives include the power of a strong religious faith, the attraction of the convent, the difficulties and subsequent deliberateness in both their decision to enter and leave and, most emphatically, a desire to break stereotypes about nuns and bear witness to a life that no longer exists. As one former sister explained, "Our stories need to be told."

headshot of Bernadette McCauley

Bernadette McCauley is professor emerita of history from Hunter College of the City University of New York. Her research examines the intersection of the history of Catholics, immigrants, medicine and social welfare, and women in the United States. Her published work includes Who Shall Take Care of Our Sick (2005) “Apart and Among,” in Catholics in New York (2008) “A Path to Eternal Happiness,” in Regimes of Happiness (Anthem 2019) and articles in American Catholic Studies; Culturefront; Journal of Urban History; Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences; New York Irish History; and Prospects.

ABC News recently published an article discussing the historic decline of religious sisters in the United States. Most nuns that still profess their vows are growing older, with an average age of 80, and less than 1% of all nuns are under the age of 40. While these statistics may speak to a trend toward a country without nuns, many sisters hope to reimagine and break stereotypes about life in a convent. For example, the article features Sister Kelly Williams from Chicago, who is 34 years old and plans to make her final vows soon. Williams notes that she still maintains many similar interests to other women her age, such as listening to music or posting on social media apps like TikTok. Nuns and ex-nuns have a variety of different experiences, and Bernadette McCauley hopes to share some of their stories to better represent life inside the convent.