Modern studies of the religious reform movement of the central Middle Ages have often relied on contemporary accounts penned by Cistercian monks, who routinely exaggerated the importance of their own institutions while paying scant attention to the remarkable expansion of abbeys of Cistercian women. Yet by the end of the thirteenth century, Constance Hoffman Berman contends, there were more houses of Cistercian nuns across Europe than of monks. In The White Nuns, she charts the stages in the nuns' gradual acceptance by the abbots of the Cistercian Order's General Chapter and describes the expansion of the nuns' communities and their adaptation to a variety of economic circumstances in France and throughout Europe. While some sought contemplative lives of prayer, the ambition of many of these religious women was to serve the poor, the sick, and the elderly. Focusing in particular on Cistercian nuns' abbeys founded between 1190 and 1250 in the northern French archdiocese of Sens, Berman reveals the frequency with which communities of Cistercian nuns were founded by rich and powerful women, including Queen Blanche of Castile, heiresses Countess Matilda of Courtenay and Countess Isabelle of Chartres, and esteemed ladies such as Agnes of Cressonessart. She shows how these founders and early patrons assisted early abbesses, nuns, and lay sisters by using written documents to secure rights and create endowments, and it is on the records of their considerable economic achievements that she centers her analysis. The White Nuns considers Cistercian women and the women who were their patrons in a clear-eyed reading of narrative texts in their contexts. It challenges conventional scholarship that accepts the words of medieval monastic writers as literal truth, as if they were written without rhetorical skill, bias, or self-interest. In its identification of long-accepted misogynies, its search for their origins, and its struggle to reject such misreadings, The White Nuns provides a robust model for historians writing against received traditions.

The White Nuns considers Cistercian women and the women who were their patrons in a clear-eyed reading of narrative texts and administrative records. In rejecting long-accepted misogynies and misreadings, Constance Hoffman Berman offers a robust model for historians writing against received traditions.

In the 1960s, a number of Catholic women religious in the United States abandoned traditional apostolic works to experiment with new and often unprecedented forms of service among non-Catholics. Amy Koehlinger explores the phenomenon of the "new nun" through close examination of one of its most visible forms--the experience of white sisters working in African-American communities. In a complex network of programs and activities Koehlinger describes as the "racial apostolate," sisters taught at African-American colleges in the South, held racial sensitivity sessions in integrating neighborhoods, and created programs for children of color in public housing projects. Engaging with issues of race and justice allowed the sisters to see themselves, their vocation, and the Church in dramatically different terms. In this book, Koehlinger captures the confusion and frustration, as well as the exuberance and delight, they experienced in their new Christian mission. Their increasing autonomy and frequent critiques of institutional misogyny shaped reforms within their institute and sharpened a post-Vatican II crisis of authority. From the Selma march to Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project, Amy Koehlinger illuminates the transformative nature of the nexus of race, religion, and gender in American society.

Curiosity about nuns and their distinctive clothing is almost as old as Catholicism itself. The habit intrigues the religious and the nonreligious alike, from medieval maidens to contemporary schoolboys, to feminists and other social critics. The first book to explore the symbolism of this attire, The Habit presents a visual gallery of the diverse forms of religious clothing and explains the principles and traditions that inspired them. More than just an eye-opening study of the symbolic significance of starched wimples, dark dresses, and flowing veils, The Habit is an incisive, engaging portrait of the roles nuns have and do play in the Catholic Church and in ministering to the needs of society. From the clothing seen in an eleventh-century monastery to the garb worn by nuns on picket lines during the 1960s, habits have always been designed to convey a specific image or ideal. The habits of the Benedictines and the Dominicans, for example, were specifically created to distinguish women who consecrated their lives to God; other habits reflected the sisters’ desire to blend in among the people they served. The brown Carmelite habit was rarely seen outside the monastery wall, while the Flying Nun turned the white winged cornette of the Daughters of Charity into a universally recognized icon. And when many religious abandoned habits in the 1960s and ’70s, it stirred a debate that continues today. Drawing on archival research and personal interviews with nuns all over the United States, Elizabeth Kuhns examines some of the gender and identity issues behind the controversy and brings to light the paradoxes the habit represents. For some, it epitomizes oppression and obsolescence; for others, it embodies the ultimate beauty and dignity of the vocation. Complete with extraordinary photographs, including images of the nineteenth century nuns’ silk bonnets to the simple gray dresses of the Sisters of Social Service, this evocative narrative explores the timeless symbolism of the habit and traces its evolution as a visual reflection of the changes in society.

Welcome back to Maidenwell, where the Christmas snow is falling—but so are the bodies. Hired as the eyes and ears of eccentric billionaire Matthias Loneskum, Gina Biletti thought she’d signed up for a tranquil life in Maidenwell, enjoying cozy tea shops, quaint cottages, and harmless village gossip. Little did she know that the holiday season would bring a chilling turn to the village’s idyllic charms. As Christmas approaches, an engagement party for Matthias’ overachieving sister, Beatrix, sets the stage for murder and mystery. And everyone on the guest list has their own agenda: a bewitching young nun, a suspiciously suave ex-con, an enigmatic foreign businessman, and a group of ambitious young tech entrepreneurs competing for a $5 million start-up prize. Just as Gina decides maybe, just maybe, she can relax and enjoy her mulled wine, a gunshot rings out, disrupting a Christmas outing in Maidenwell’s snowy forest. Before you can say “figgy pudding,” tragedy strikes again with a jaw-dropping “suicide,” flipping Gina’s cozy world on its head. As if on cue, a massive winter storm seals the village up like a snow globe, and Gina faces a dreadful realization. She is trapped with a cunning and cold-blooded killer. Can she unravel the truth before another body falls, or will this be her first and last Christmas in Maidenwell? Book Two in the Murderwell Mysteries series, AND THEN THERE WAS NUN, is a suspenseful Christmas romp, garnished with humor, unexpected twists, and a dash—or maybe a blizzard—of holiday charm. About the Sleuth Gina Biletti is a spunky ex-New Yorker, ex-market researcher, and ex-wife with a talent for asking questions and uncovering secrets. Armed with a cat-like curiosity and a passion for telling it like it is, Gina becomes billionaire Matthias Loneskum’s trusted eyes and ears in Maidenwell. With each case, she fearlessly unravels mysteries, deciphering cryptic clues and untangling motives with a razor wit and a big heart.

According to the received history, the Cistercian order was founded in Cîteaux, France, in 1098 by a group of Benedictine monks who wished for a stricter community. They sought a monastic life that called for extreme asceticism, rejection of feudal revenues, and manual labor for monks. Their third leader, Stephen Harding, issued a constitution, the Carta Caritatis, that called for the uniformity of custom in all Cistercian monasteries and the establishment of an annual general chapter meeting at Cîteaux. The Cistercian order grew phenomenally in the mid-twelfth century, reaching beyond France to Portugal in the west, Sweden in the north, and the eastern Mediterranean, ostensibly through a process of apostolic gestation, whereby members of a motherhouse would go forth to establish a new house. The abbey at Clairvaux, founded by Bernard in 1115, was alone responsible for founding 68 of the 338 Cistercian abbeys in existence by 1153. But this well-established view of a centrally organized order whose founders envisioned the shape and form of a religious order at its prime is not borne out in the historical record. Through an investigation of early Cistercian documents, Constance Hoffman Berman proves that no reliable reference to Stephen's Carta Caritatis appears before the mid-twelfth century, and that the document is more likely to date from 1165 than from 1119. The implications of this fact are profound. Instead of being a charter by which more than 300 Cistercian houses were set up by a central authority, the document becomes a means of bringing under centralized administrative control a large number of loosely affiliated and already existing monastic houses of monks as well as nuns who shared Cistercian customs. The likely reason for this administrative structuring was to check the influence of the overdominant house of Clairvaux, which threatened the authority of Cîteaux through Bernard's highly successful creation of new monastic communities. For centuries the growth of the Cistercian order has been presented as a spontaneous spirituality that swept western Europe through the power of the first house at Cîteaux. Berman suggests instead that the creation of the religious order was a collaborative activity, less driven by centralized institutions; its formation was intended to solve practical problems about monastic administration. With the publication of The Cistercian Evolution, for the first time the mechanisms are revealed by which the monks of Cîteaux reshaped fact to build and administer one of the most powerful and influential religious orders of the Middle Ages.

"Within the Dominican Order, whose motto is Truth and whose mission is the proclamation of that Truth, some proclaim primarily through their contemplative 'tryst' with that Truth. Here some of these women of the Dominican monasteries tell of how they came to embrace this way of life which to many is such a mystery. Each is a story as unique and human as its author." -Suzanne Noffke, O.P., Translator of the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena "The life of the cloistered contemplative nun is one of the most hidden but also one of the most important treasures of the Church. The prayers and sacrifices of these holy women are so crucial to the Church's well-being that it behooves all of us to know them better. The stories in this splendid book help us to do just that, since they are authentic vignettes from the personal lives of 23 different Dominican cloistered nuns." -Father Michael Monshau, O.P., Prior, Dominican House of Studies, Saint Louis, Missouri "These remarkable personal testimonies demonstrate the power of God's fruitful invitation to a contemplative and cloistered life in the Dominican tradition. Though each testimony is unique, there is a common link among them that recalls Elizabeth's words to Mary: 'Blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Luke 1:45).' These testimonies, then, are not a history of the past rather they give confidence to all in the present who have the courage to accept God's invitation to Himself. Indeed, God has done great things. This book reminds all of us that God is still doing great things." -Father Dominic Izzo, O.P., Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph