"Our Stories Need to Be Told": Memoirs of Former Nuns
Bernadette McCauley
Hunter College of the City University of New York
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Time: 12 - 1pm
Location: 24 Quincy Road, Conference Room
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."
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.
Bennett, Richard. The Truth Set Us Free: Twenty Former Nuns Tell Their Stories. Enumclaw, WA:Winepress Publishing, 1997.
Hogan, Nancy E., and Peter F. Meggison. A Nun’s Journey. Chicago, IL: AssociatedPublishers, 2002.
Kaiser, Robert Blair. “The Nuns that Quit.” Ladies Home Journal (1967).
McGuinness, Margaret M. Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America. New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 2013.
O’Donnell-Gibson, Patricia. The Red Skirt: Memoirs of an Ex Nun. New York: StuartRose Publishing, 2011.
Sullivan, Rebecca. Visual Habits: Nuns, Feminism, and American Postwar Popular Culture. New York: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
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.
Bernadette McCauley interacting with audience members before starting her luncheon colloquium.
Bernadette McCauley delivers her luncheon colloquium titled "Our Stories Need to be Told": Memoirs of Former Nuns.
Dr. Bernadette McCauley offered a thought-provoking presentation about the lives of former nuns. The Hunter College professor emerita shared that her project began because she read a book review about the memoir of an ex-nun. She quickly became intrigued by this genre of storytelling and made it her mission to read one memoir of an ex-nun per week. After many months of research, McCauley has now read over fifty memoirs. As these types of memoirs have grown in popularity in recent years, McCauley noted key distinctions between earlier publications and later publications. She described the context surrounding the exodus from convents in American society. A great deal of nuns left their cloistered homes in the 1960s and 1970s, but some told their story immediately after while others waited decades to write about their experiences. Memoirs from the 20th century often depict a great deal of anger and frustration and focus mostly on religious life, while newer books tend to give a more holistic picture including details about life outside the convent, as well. McCauley emphasized the diversity of events that the authors documented. Some nuns grew up in mixed religious households, and others were raised Catholic without interreligious interaction. Some were extremely anxious about taking vows and others had joyful anticipation. Overall, however, for many women, the decision to write these oral histories came from the desire to set the record straight on what it was like to be a nun and to offer realistic portrayals of religious life, which has often been shrouded in mystery or lore.
McCauley ended the luncheon with an engaging question and answer session. One audience member asked about the social and cultural trends that might have influenced nuns’ decisions to leave. McCauley noted that the most common explanation was that the model of the convent was no longer relevant to the society in which it existed (for example, religious orders do not play as large of a role in hospitals or schools as they did in the past). This question and others demonstrated the audience’s desire for engagement with this project. McCauley and the luncheon attendees seemed to agree that the testimonies are vital for resisting the media’s dramatized and unnuanced portrayals of religious life, and for allowing former nuns to tell their own stories.