Table Of ContentTHE WORLDS OF CATHOLIC LAYWOMEN
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: BELIEF AND BEHAVIOR
by
Sandra Strohhofer Pryor
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History
Winter 2014
© 2014 Sandra Strohhofer Pryor
All Rights Reserved
UMI Number: 3617885
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THE WORLDS OF CATHOLIC LAYWOMEN
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: BELIEF AND BEHAVIOR
by
Sandra Strohhofer Pryor
Approved: ___________________________________________________
Arwen Mohun. Ph.D.
Chairperson of the Department of History
Approved: ___________________________________________________
George H. Watson, Ph.D.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Approved: ___________________________________________________
James G. Richards, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies
I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Signed: ___________________________________________________
Anne M. Boylan, Ph.D
Professor in charge of dissertation
I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Signed: _________________________________________________________
Christine Heyrman, Ph.D.
Member of dissertation committee
I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Signed: _________________________________________________________
Rebecca L. Davis, Ph.D.
Member of dissertation committee
I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets
the academic and professional standard required by the University as a
dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Signed: _________________________________________________________
James P. McCartin, Ph.D.
Member of dissertation committee
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The most rewarding and enjoyable aspect of writing a dissertation is the
opportunity at the end of the long process to thank those without whose help the
project would never have come to fruition. My greatest debt is to my advisor, Anne
M. Boylan. From the beginning of the project to the final stages, she has been the best
possible advisor, from offering suggestions on even the most unfocused drafts to
helping me refine my writing and arguments, offering the ideal balance of
encouragement and constructive criticism at every step of the way. With any other
advisor, I doubt that I would have completed this degree. She epitomizes the ideal of
the scholar-teacher.
Of course, I am also very grateful to the other members of my dissertation
committee. Christine Heyrman provided valuable suggestions from the earliest stages
of the project; her comments encouraged me to focus on gender, identity, and
respectability. As the dissertation neared completion, Rebecca L. Davis commented
and critiqued my work in depth. Her time and effort enabled me to greatly refine my
arguments and improve my writing in the final draft. My outside reader, James P.
McCartin, generously offered his expertise in Catholic history and beliefs; I will be
referring to his comments in the future. Sadly, Tamara Hareven, originally a member
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of my committee, did not live to see the dissertation completed, but the influence and
example of her scholarship in family history, and her faith in me and in my work,
continue to inspire.
Through the long process of research and writing, members of my dissertation
group provided valuable comments, criticisms, and suggestions: Jalynn Olsen Padilla,
Marie Laberge, Adrienne Berney, Jan Davidson, Katina Manko, Katie Leonard-
Turner, Bob Schoone-Jongen, Megan Jones, Hannah Kim, Hillary Murtha, and
especially my dear friend Patricia Dockman Anderson. To our community of
scholars, my deepest thanks. Outside of the group, I would like to thank others who
read and commented on parts of this work in its various stages, especially Ann
Kirschner, Carolyn J. Lawes, Jake Murray, and Joseph Mannard. I am greatly
indebted to Jennifer Grindle Dolde, who generously shared her transcriptions of the
letters of Julia Compton. Participants at conferences at the Society for the History of
Childhood and Youth, the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association,
the Society for the History of the Early Republic, and the Conference on the History of
Women Religious gave me valuable comments and criticisms.
The University of Delaware provided an ideal community for study and
research, as well as generous financial support for which I am very grateful. In
addition, I would like to thank the staff of the Department of History, especially Pat
Orendorf, who welcomed me to the department, Diane Susan Clark, and Karen Kraul
of Information Technology, who guided me through the use of formatting macros with
v
preternatural patience. I would also like to thank colleagues at Old Dominion
University, especially Carolyn Lawes, Jane Merritt, Maura Hametz, and Michael
Hucles, for their continued support. Librarians and archivists at the Library of
Congress, Kent County Historical Society, the Maryland Historical Society, the
Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Special Collections at the University of Delaware, were
very patient and helpful. The Interlibrary Loan department at Old Dominion
University processed my numerous requests quickly and efficiently and forgave my
late fees.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family, without whose support
and encouragement this dissertation would never have been completed: Michelene
Murawski, Anne Marie Landrineau, Annessa Babic, Elizabeth Hoag-Carhart,
Catharyna Vail Britt, Kimberley Reed, Ruth Snow, Andrew Gold, Bill Sturman, Jake
Murray, Meri Axinn, Anne Williams, Cate Crow, Shirley Haddad McGurr, Russell
Scott Donda, Douglas Fredericks, Arielle Cunnea, Janet Dlugos, Lolen Wendy
Daugherty, Lisa Carratini Rapp, May Britton, Carrie Newman, and others too
numerous to mention. You know who you are, and you know that I love you all.
My family has been an ongoing source of support and encouragement. My
mother, Jane Strohhofer, helped ways too numerous to mention. Without her help
caring for my daughter, I would not have attended graduate school. Over the long
course of this project, my daughter Carla grew from listening to bedtime stories to
sending me texts from the University of Miami encouraging me to keep working on
vi
the dissertation. My father, Anton Strohhofer, M.D., Ph.D., shared his love of history,
philosophy, and literature, and read everything I ever wrote, from kindergarten
through the dissertation prospectus. My greatest regret is that he did not live to see the
completion of this project, but his faith that I would finish, and memories of the times
we shared, sustained me through to the end. It is to my family that this dissertation is
dedicated.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................... x
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 1
Chapter
1 “THE ALMIGHTY HAS SENT THEM TO ME””: RELIGION,
BENEVOLENCE, AND GENDER IN ANTEBELLUM
GEORGETOWN IN THE LETTERS OF JULIA COMPTON ...................... 12
“Ever Your Friend”: Julia as Teacher and Mentor ......................................... 19
“I Have Had Much Fatigue Both of Body and Mind”: Life as a Spinster
Teacher ......................................................................................................... 24
“A League of Friendship”: The Laywoman and Visitation Nuns ................... 26
“My Little Girl”: Julia as Mother .................................................................. 32
“Remember Mr. Mate is Head of Your family”: Julia’s Ideas abut
Courtship and Marriage ................................................................................ 40
“A Candidate for Heaven”: Raising Catholic Children .................................. 51
“A Most Lamentable State of Things”: Julia’s Criticisms of
Protestantism ................................................................................................ 55
“The Homeless Being Must Have a Refuge”: Private Catholic
Benevolence ................................................................................................. 58
“. . . [H]eaven Help wHis Preaching:” Church, Public Piety, and
Sermons ........................................................................................................ 66
“Always Wear Your Medals”: Meanings of Julia’s Private Piety .................. 78
“How Wrong to Defer Our Preparation for Death” ........................................ 89
2 PRIVATE LIVES, PUBLIC DEATHS: OBITUARIES OF WOMEN AS
REPRESENTATIONS OF MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY
CATHOLIC IDENTITY ............................................................................. 100
Early Piety, Early Death ............................................................................. 107
The Domestic Ideal ..................................................................................... 111
Benevolent Women .................................................................................... 119
Unmarried Women ..................................................................................... 126
Genealogies of Respectability ..................................................................... 130
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Those from a “Humbler State” .................................................................... 136
Obituaries as Conversion Narratives ........................................................... 140
Redemptive Suffering and the “Good Death” .............................................. 157
The Obituaries of Women ........................................................................... 163
3 GENDER, ETHNICITY, AND RESPECTABILITY IN NINETEENTH-
CENTURY CATHOLIC NOVELS ............................................................ 165
Catholic and Protestant Sentimentalism ...................................................... 169
The Lives of Mary Sadlier and Anna Dorsey .............................................. 174
Mary Sadlier’s Respectable Irish-Catholic Immigrants................................ 180
The Perils of Ambition and the Lure of Apostasy ........................................ 182
Working-Class Catholic Respectability in a Catholic Captivity Narrative ... 193
Anna Dorsey, German Ethnicity, and Elite Catholic Respectability ............. 203
The Trials of Converts, Holy Contagion, and the Agency of Objects ........... 215
Representing Catholic Respectability .......................................................... 222
4 TRUE MEN, TRUE WOMEN, TRUE RELIGION? GENDER,
RESPECTABILITY, AND NINETEENTH CENTURY CATHOLIC
PRESCRIPTIVE LITERATURE ................................................................ 229
Nostalgia for an “Age of Faith” and the Critique of the Success Ethic ......... 241
Single Women, Respectability, and the Critique of Industrialization ........... 250
Representing Catholic Marriage: Masculine and Feminine Domesticities .... 256
Catholic Motherhood and Gendered Childrearing ....................................... 265
Devotions, Holy Objects, and Feminized Worship ...................................... 272
Home, Family, Church against the Destructive Influences of “the World” .. 280
The [Catholic] “Woman Question”: Remonstrance and Rights .................... 300
5 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 310
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 315
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