History Commons^™

Gendered Language In The Catalogues Of Saint Mary’S Academy, 1860-1871, Kylie Hamm

Masters Theses

This research builds upon studies that explore Catholic women’s and girls’ educational institutions in the nineteenth century. This case study focuses on one girls’ academy, Saint Mary’s Academy, precursor to Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1844. The research provided here analyzes the gendered language utilized by school leaders in the academy’s public catalogues during the decade of the Civil War, from 1860 through 1871. The language in these catalogues subtly changed over the course of the decade, reflecting changing white, middle-class gender norms surrounding women’s work and education. Leaders of …

A Comparative Analysis Of Bohemian And Irish Immigration During The Antebellum Period, Emily Suchan

Honors Projects

Compare and Contrast the immigration experience of an Irish and Bohemian (Czech) immigrant. This essay describes the history of both regions and analyzes the political and economic stressors for immigration during the second half of the nineteenth century. This essay specifically follows the Irish Famine immigrants and the Czechs who settled in Cleveland, OH

The Jewish “Other” In Argentina: Antisemitism, Exclusion, And The Formation Of Argentine Nationalism And Identity In The 20th Century And During Military Rule (1976-1983), Marcus Helble

Honors Projects

Throughout the 20th century, Argentine leaders and social actors attempted to shape distinct national identities and a sense of nationalism that corresponded to their respective political ideologies. Beginning in the first couple decades of the 20th century, the formation of a Jewish “other” would be central to the construction of both Argentine national identity and nationalism. This thesis argues that the military dictatorship that led the country from 1976 to 1983 built on this othering of the Jewish community as military leaders sought to forge a national identity linked to Catholicism. It focuses first on three separate periods of the …

"Treading On The Footprints Of History": American Catholic Pilgrimage As Public History, Charlotte Vester

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this thesis, I demonstrate how Catholic pilgrimage is a public history phenomenon. I define public history as public engagement, understanding, and use of the past. While I assert that pilgrimage is a public history phenomenon both in the past and in the present, my thesis will focus on American Catholic pilgrimage at the turn of the twentieth century. Each individual chapter will demonstrate that through pilgrimage, the faithful are engaged in public history in its various forms. Catholics actively took part in past-making and identity-construction in their roles as pilgrims. Through pilgrimage, Catholics were involved in the preservation and …

Breaking Habits: Identity And The Dissolution Of Convents In France, 1789-1808, Corinne Gressang

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation uses the concept of identity to investigate the ways religious women navigated the French Revolution. Even as their religious identities were thrown into question, these women’s religious commitments remained important to them. As the French revolutionaries began to reform aspects of the ancien régime, the Catholic Church came under attack. The fate of priests, monks, and nuns came into question. Traditionally, religious women cared for orphans, the sick, and the poor, educated young girls, housed widows, rehabilitated prostitutes, and provided a respectable alternative community for aristocratic women. Despite every effort by the revolutionaries to dissolve their patterns of …

The Saintly Indian: American Catholic Identity In The Indian Sentinel, 1902-1922, Abigail Clare Joranger

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how Catholics writing about Native Americans in the early twentieth century used the popular and political discourse surrounding Native Americans to Americanize the image of American Catholics. It also examines the ambiguity that many Catholic authors displayed towards becoming full participants in American culture, and how that ambiguity was expressed through these writings even while the authors expressed their wish to be accepted as American citizens. The pieces analyzed in this study consist of articles from The Indian Sentinel, a magazine published by the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions for the purpose of raising funds for Catholic …

Walking On A Chessboard: Ohio Catholicism And The Challenges Of Slavery And Immigration, Corrigan M. Irwin

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Thriving Against All Odds: How The Writing Of Catherine Of Siena Shaped Christianity In Europe In The 14th Century, Emily Harden

History Theses

This paper examines how Catherine of Siena's partnership with Raymond of Capua and her letters allowed her to access spaces that she wouldn't have otherwise been able to access due to her gender. By looking closely at her letters and secondary scholars works, I was able to determine that her determination to focus peoples' attention on God's Will, she was able to enter into big political and religious discussions to which other women were not privy.

Harrowing The Church: Gregory Vii, Manasses Of Reims, And The Eleventh-Century Ecclesiastical Revolution In France, John Schechtman-Marko

Honors Papers

This thesis examines the deposition of French bishops from office during the pontificate of Gregory VII (1073-1085). By comparing the various cases of deposition, I analyze how the ideologies of papal supremacy which were then being developed in Rome were actually put into practice by the Gregorian reformers. Based on this analysis, I conclude that the establishment of Roman supremacy in France, although revolutionary in character, was achieved through the manipulation of existing ecclesiastical institutions and through an alliance between the papacy and a variety of low-level church officials.

Mercy Vs. Justice - Blood Of The Lamb, Ryan Murphy

Honors Projects

How did Christ's death save us? The Atonement is a Christian doctrine which has been heavily debated in how it should be understood since the beginnings of Christianity. This analysis covers the theological theories of the Atonement, narrates a Catholic layman's personal understanding that is based on scholarly research and is kept within the bounds of Catholic doctrine, and summarizes the thoughts and feelings of surveyed college-age Christians on the subject.

Sí, Me Afectó: The Women Of Bracero Families In Michoacán, 1942-1964, Eleanor Inez Lindberg

Honors Papers

Between 1942 and 1964, the U.S. and Mexico made a series of labor agreements collectively referred to as the Bracero Program. The Mexican men, Braceros, contracted through this program worked temporarily in agriculture and industry across the U.S. This paper examines the lives of ten women in the Mexican state of Michoacan whose male family members worked as Braceros. The mens' absences disrupted the family in an economic sense, requiring women to take on labor that was non-traditional for women at the time, as well as in a social sense, as the stability and respectability of their household came into …

Since The Time Of Eve : La Leche League And Communities Of Mothers Throughout History., Joanna Paxton Federico

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

La Leche League International (LLL) is the oldest and largest breastfeeding support group in the world. This thesis examines how, beginning in 1956, seven Catholic housewives from suburban Chicago built up the institutional knowledge to sustain a cohesive global network of breastfeeding mothers. It also explores how LLL managed this knowledge over time in response to developments in scholarship and changing social conditions. Based on a narrative analysis of LLL publications, this thesis argues that the League’s founders drew selectively from existing bodies of knowledge and from their own cultural perspectives to establish a sense of community among breastfeeding women. …

A Legion Of Legacy: Tyrolean Militarism, Catholicism, And The Heimwehr Movement, Jason Engle

Dissertations

This study of the origins of the Heimwehr (Home Guard) movement offers insight into the conditions under which such groups gained their following. As such, its story is a valuable one that shows a society groping with the problem of a complex, multi-faceted identity that was, at the same time, wracked with substantial economic privation and politically polarized. The paramilitary Heimwehr movement that began in 1920 was the creation of Austria’s conservative provincial governments. It was intended to preserve the existing social and political order—that of the hegemonic social groups of the Habsburg Monarchy—against the growing threat of Marxist revolution, …

The Function Of Liturgical Music Within The History Of The Catholic Church, Christopher Cuzzupe

Honors Theses

Within the Catholic Church, there has always been a need and a strong presence for music. The need for music has changed from being simply something listened to by all and sung by a few to involving everyone to sing together and participate in liturgical celebrations. There is great richness to be gained from an increased awareness of music in the Church, and many important lessons can be learned from the historical progression of liturgical music. The effect music has had on the liturgy has directly affected the congregation based upon their needs. The central questions addressed within this thesis …

Lost Boys And Girls: Navigating Experience And Identity During Operation Pedro Pan, Caleb M. Still

Honors College Theses

Over 14,000 unaccompanied children came from Cuba to the United States during Operation Pedro Pan. Once they arrived they were faced with an entirely new living situation and were forced to adapt. One of the remaining similarities to their Cuban home was the Catholic Church. The Church played a significant role in shaping these children’s fluid concept of their ethnic, national, and religious identities. Previous scholarship has not addressed the role of the Church in the program or the issue of the fluidity of identity among these children. This study builds on the existing scholarship and aims to fill in …

La Censura Católica Literaria Durante La Posguerra Española: Traspasando Las Fronteras De La Ideología Franquista., Ángela Pérez Del Puerto

Doctoral Dissertations

My research studies the literary censorship carried out by the Catholic Action Association through the Secretary of Bibliographic Orientation (SBO) in Spain during the 1940s. This secular institution paralleled, and in certain moments questioned, some Francoist values by judging and banning publications that had previously passed the official censorship. In particular, the censorship of the SBO focused, on the one hand, on Modernist Spanish authors who were accused of preaching strong anti-religious ideas and, on the other hand, on new texts published in that period that failed to reproduce the Catholic discourse. Through the analysis of this censorship activity, my …

New England’S God: Anti-Catholicism And Colonial New England, Matthew J. Nowak

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Civilizing Settlers: Catholic Missionaries And The Colonial State In French Algeria, 1830-1914, Kyle Francis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that between 1830 and 1914, with increasing intensity over time, French Catholic missionaries sowed divisions among the European population of French Algeria. The French government initially welcomed missionaries to cater to religiously devout Spanish, Italian, and Maltese settlers in Algeria and to foster their loyalty to the colonial state. Missionaries, however, incited the professional jealousy and personal animosity of the territory's generally less devout French population, who saw Catholicism and missionaries as little different from Islam and the "fanatical" Muslim population. Throughout this period, missionaries thus occupied a liminal space in the racialized hierarchy of colonial rule. …

Reforming Christianity By Reforming Christians: Devotional Writings Of The Late Medieval And Reformation Era, Christopher J. Quail

History Theses

During the late medieval and Reformation era in Europe, a series of Christian devotional works were created that stressed a deeper personal relationship with Christ, rather than ritual and public devotion alone. These works span the time period from the early fifteenth century through the early seventeenth century and prepared the way for and shaped the Protestant and Roman Catholic reformations alike. The devotional works addressed here were created in the quest for reform, of both the individual and the Church. This occurred as the importance of developing a better relationship with Jesus was taking on a new urgency for …

Nothing Less Than An Activist: Marge Baroni, Catholicism, And The Natchez, Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Eva Elizabeth Walton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a religious and social history of the life of Natchez, Mississippi Catholic activist Marjorie R. Baroni (1924-1986). The study examines Baroni's Catholic faith-driven activism as a counter-narrative to the dominant Protestant narratives of religious motivations in the greater civil rights movement. In analyzing Baroni's story as a lived theological drama, I offer Baroni as a vessel for studying often overlooked Catholic influences in the movement: (1) The activist Catholic faith promoted by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement (2) The effects of the more inclusive decrees of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) on the Catholic Church …

Catholicism And Community: American Political Culture And The Conservative Catholic Social Justice Tradition, 1890-1960, Jayna C. Hoffacker

History Theses

The prevailing trend in the historiography of American Catholicism has been an implicit acceptance of the traditional liberal narrative as formulated by scholars like Louis Hartz. American Catholic historians like Jay Dolan and John McGreevy have incorporated this narrative into their studies and argue that America was inherently liberal and that the conservative Catholics who rejected liberalism were thus fundamentally anti-American. This has simplified nuanced and complex relationships into a story of simple opposition. Further, the social justice doctrine of the Catholic Church, although based on undeniably illiberal foundations, led conservatives to come to the same conclusions about social and …

In The Shadow Of Josephinism: Austria And The Catholic Church In The Restoration, 1815-1848, Scott M. Berg

LSU Master's Theses

In the 1780s, Emperor Joseph II implemented reforms of the Catholic Church in Austria. By the time of his death in 1790, Joseph had cut off the Austrian Church from Rome, dissolved one-third of the monasteries in the Habsburg Empire, made marriage a state matter, granted toleration to Protestants, controlled clerical education, and restricted many religious activities. After the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815), Europe retreated toward conservatism, and reform in Austria ended. Yet most of the religious changes in the 1780s, aptly labeled Josephinism, remained in the Austrian Church. This thesis will examine the persistence of Josephinism in …

You Are In The World: Catholic Campus Life At Loyola University Chicago, Mundelein College, And De Paul University, 1924-1950, Rae Bielakowski

Dissertations

Responding to Vatican concerns and Daniel A. Lord, S.J.'s national Sodality initiatives, in 1927 Loyola University administrators expanded the student Sodality's newly-established Catholic Action program into a hegemonic presence, not only on the Loyola Arts campus, but throughout Chicago's network of Catholic schools. By 1928 Loyola students headed a federation of 52 Chicago-area Catholic universities, colleges, and high schools, initially known as the Chicago Intercollegiate Conference on Religious Activities (CISCORA). Under Vatican pressure to reaffirm the bishop's catechetical role, six years later Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Bernard Sheil adopted the federation--renamed Chicago Inter-Student Catholic Action (CISCA)--as the official student Catholic Action …

African Religious Integration In Florida During The First Spanish Period, Christopher Beats

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the unique conditions for African-descended slaves in St. Augustine, Florida, during the First Spanish Period. St. Augustine was an important garrison at a remote point in the Spanish Empire at the edge of a hostile frontier. As such, economics were less a priority than defense. Slaves, therefore, received different treatment here than in English colonies or even other Spanish colonies. Due to the threat of Protestantism, religious adherence was more important as a test of loyalty than ethnicity and slaves and freed-people were able to integrate better than in other Spanish holdings. In order …

Black Catholicism: Religion And Slavery In Antebellum Louisiana, Lori Renee Pastor

LSU Master's Theses

The practice of Catholicism extended across racial boundaries in colonial Louisiana, and interracial worship continued to characterize the religious experience of Catholics throughout the antebellum period. French and Spanish missionaries baptized natives, settlers, and slaves, and the Catholic Church required Catholic planters to baptize and catechize their slaves. Most slaveholders outside New Orleans, however, were lax in the religious education of slaves. Work holidays did not always correspond to religious holy days, and the number of slave baptisms and confirmations on Catholic plantations often depended on the willingness of the local priest, or the slaves themselves, to attend the parish …

Protestantism In Brazil: A Study Of The Activities And Results Of The Protestant Foreign Missionary Movement In The United States Of Brazil, Robert Martin Farra

Student Work

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of Protestantism in Brazil, in an effort to determine the validity of some of the charges made against Protestant missions in that land by spokesmen for the Roman Catholic Church. The problem will be considered in two different ways. First, the author will seek to demonstrate the inadequacy of religious instruction and leadership provided the people of Brazil by the Roman Catholic Church in the several periods of that country’s history. Secondly, he will endeavor to trace the steps by which various individual Protestants and organized Protestant mission agencies, independently …

A History Of Miracles In New Mexico, Annette Nichols

History ETDs

The intention of this study is to demonstrate the nature of miracles in New Mexico&mdashtheir social significances as related to the cultural background.

Questions of importance are: What is a miracle? Do miracles actually occur? How can the existence of such miraculous intervention be proved? None of these queries can be answered positively, except insofar as they exist in the minds and religions of those who believe in them. Objectively, the social activities of believers is evidenced in their beliefs. Miracles are part of the social customs and institutions. Whatever substantiation of a miracle there is must rest with the …