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Why Relationships Matter: Sisters, Bishops, and the History of Catholicism in the United States
- The Catholic Historical Review
- The Catholic University of America Press
- Volume 100, Number 2, Spring 2014
- pp. vi-242
- 10.1353/cat.2014.0125
- Article
- Additional Information
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Histories of women religious in the United States no longer follow a pattern that extols Superior Generals and presidents while ignoring the collective work of the congregation. In her presidential address to the American Catholic Historical Association, the author offers a reminder that despite this shift in historical research, we still have much to learn about the most well-known American sisters. Focusing on Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, Theodore Guérin, and Katharine Drexel—all of whom have been canonized—she examines their relationships with bishops, both collegial and adversarial, as a way to further understanding about the place of women religious in U.S. Catholic history.