Faculty Directory
Catherine M. Mooney
Associate Professor of Church History
Catherine M. Mooney
Ph.D.
Contact
Simboli Hall 308
Telephone: 617-552-6525
Email: catherine.mooney.1@bc.edu
Education
- A.B., Saint Louis University
- M.T.S., Harvard University
- M.A., Yale University
- M.Phil., Yale University
- Ph.D., Yale University
Research Interests
Medieval Church History and Theology; Christian Saints & Hagiography; Christian Spirituality; History of the Church; History of Women in the Church; History of the Papacy; Franciscan History and Spirituality; Ignatian Spirituality; History of Religious Orders
Expertise
- Historical Theology and Church History
- Spirituality Studies
- Ignatian Spirituality and History
- Feminist and Liberation Theologies
Profile
Catherine Mooney holds a B.A. in History from Saint Louis University; an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School; an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in medieval history from Yale University. She has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA; the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she was also Co-coordinator of the Gender Studies graduate program, and Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her research awards include grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Women’s Studies in Religion Program of Harvard Divinity School, and the Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University, NY. Her current involvement in professional organizations dedicated to the study saints includes her roles as President of the Hagiography Society and Advisory Council Member for the Bollandist Society founded by the Jesuits. She has previously served on Boards for the Society for Medieval Feminist Studies, the Franciscan Life in Ministry Directorate of Holy Name Province, and Monastic Matrix, a scholarly resource devoted to the study of women religious from 400 to 1600 CE.
Besides lecturing in scholarly and pastoral venues, Dr. Mooney is active in human rights efforts. Since 1990, she has served on the board of the Ignacio Martin-Baro Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights, named after one of the Jesuits murdered by the military in El Salvador in 1989. She regularly circulates news to a list of thousands of online followers about the ongoing struggle for justice of the Wichi Amerindians of northern Argentina, whom she first met while working as a pastoral and human rights advocate during Argentina's military dictatorship.
Selected Publications
Books
Filipina Duchesne: Una Mujer con los pobres y marginados. Trans. María de los Ángeles Garriga González, with Clara Malo and Catherine M. Mooney (Kit, 2018). Revised & expanded edition of Philippine Duchesne: A Woman with the Poor.
Clare of Assisi and the Thirteenth-Century Church: Religious Women, Rules, and Resistance. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Winner of the Hagiography Society Best Book Prize.
Mayan Ixil women of Chajul, Voces e imágenes: Mujeres maya ixiles de Chajul [Voices and images: Mayan Ixil women of Chajul], ed. Brinton M. Lykes (Chajul, El Quiché, Guatemala: ADMI, 2000). Editor of the Spanish translation; and Translator of the Spanish into English.
Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999). Editor; and author of two chapters: “Voice, Gender, and the Portrayal of Sanctity,” and “Imitatio Christi or Imitatio Mariae? Clare of Assisi and Her Interpreters.”
Philippine Duchesne: A Woman with the Poor (1990; Wipf & Stock, 2007). Translated also into Japanese (2000), Bahasa Indonesia (2012), and Korean (2015).
Selected Essays
"Clare of Assisi and the Song of Songs." In “Non enim fuerat Evangelii surdus auditor …" (1 Celano 22): Essays in Honor of Michael W. Blastic, O.F.M., ed. Michael F. Cusato and Steven J. McMichael (Brill, 2020).
"Sanctity and Slavery: A Journey with Philippine Duchesne." In A Life Given in Love: Reflections on Philippine Duchesne, ed. Juliet Mousseau (Society of the Sacred Heart, 2018).
“Medieval Writers: Women, Men, and the Holy Spirit.” In The Holy Spirit: Setting the World on Fire, ed. Richard Lennan and Nancy Pineda-Madrid (Paulist, 2017).
“Teresa of Avila, Monastic Founder and Master of Prayer.” In All Holy Men and Women: A Paulist Litany of Saints, ed. Thomas A. Kane (Paulist Press, 2014).
“Wondrous Words: Catherine of Siena’s Miraculous Reading and Writing According to the Early Sources.” In Catherine of Siena: The Creation of a Cult, ed. Jeffrey Hamburger & Gabriela Signori (Brepols 2013).
“The ‘Lesser Sisters” in Jacques de Vitry’s 1216 Letter,” Franciscan Studies 69 (2011): 1-29.
“Ignatian Spirituality, A Spirituality for Mission,” Mission Studies 26 (2009): 192-213.
“The Changing Fortunes of Angela of Foligno, Daughter, Mother and Wife.” In History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person, ed. Rachel Fulton & Bruce W. Holsinger (Columbia University Press, 2007).
“Interdisciplinarity in Teaching Medieval Mysticism: The Case of Angela of Foligno,” Horizons 34.1 (2007): 54-77.
“Nuns, Tertiaries, and Quasi-Religious: The Religious Identities of Late Medieval Italian Holy Women,” Medieval Feminist Forum 42 (2006): 68-92.
“Francis of Assisi as Mother, Father and Androgynous Figure in Some Early Sources.” In The Boswell Thesis: Essays on Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, ed. Mathew Kuefler (University of Chicago Press, 2006).