A Foreign and Wicked Institution?

Description

Many in Victorian England harboured deep suspicion of convent life. In addition to looking at anti-Catholicism and the fear of both Anglican and Catholic sisterhoods that were established during the nineteenth-century, this work explores the prejudice that existed against women in VIctorian England who joined sisterhoods and who were committed to, and engaged in, social work among the urban poor. Women, according to some of these critics, should remain passive in matters of religion. Nuns, however, did play an important role in many areas of life in nineteenth-century England, and faced hostility from many who felt threatened or challenged by members of female religious orders. The accomplishments of these nuns and the opposition they overcame should serve as both an example and encouragement to all men and women committed to the Gospel.