The following is a bibliography of print materials. Use the links to the right to access items in the online library or the SHCJ Collection at the Villanova Digital Library.


Religious Life (History and Understanding)

Beyond Patching: Faith and Feminism in the Catholic Church. Paulist Press, 2004.

Brewer, Eileen Mary. Nuns and the Education of American Catholic Women, 1860-1920. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987.

Briggs, Kenneth. Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betral of American Nuns. New York: Doubleday, 2006.

Butler, Anne M. Across God’s Frontiers: Catholic Sisters in the American West, 1850-1920. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Coburn, Carol K. and Martha Smith. Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Evangelists, Silvia. Nuns: A History of Convent Life 1450-1700. Oxford University Press, 2007, 2008.

Feister, John, ed. Thank You, Sisters: Stories of Women Religious and How They Enrich Our Lives. Cincinnati, Ohio: Franciscan Media, 2013.

Fialka, John. Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004.

Foley, Nadine, OP, ed. Claiming Our Truth: Reflections on Identity by United States Women Religious. Washington, DC: Leadership Council of Women Religious. 1988.

___________________ Journey in Faith and Fidelity. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1999.

Kaye-Smith, Sheila. Quartet in Heaven. New York: Image Books, a Division of Doubleday & Co., 1962.

Kenneally, James K. The History of American Catholic Women. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1990.

Kuhns, Elizabeth. The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns. New York: Image, a Division of Doubleday & Co., 2005

Leng, Felicity, ed. Consecrated Spirits: A Thousand Years of Spiritual Writings by Women Religious. New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2011.

McGuinness, Margaret M. Called To Serve: A History of Nuns in America. New York: New York University Press, 2013.

McNamara, Jo Ann Kay. Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Merkle, Judith A, SND de Namur. A Different Touch: A Study of Vows in Religious Life. Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998.

Neal, Marie Augusta, SND de Namur. From Nuns to Sisters: An Expanding Vocation. Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications, 1990.

New Wineskins: Re-Imaging Religious Life Today. Paulist Press, 1986.

Rapley, Elizabeth. The Lord as Their Portion: The Story of the Religious Orders and How They Shaped Our World. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011.

Reed, Cheryl L. Unveiled: The Hidden lives of Nuns. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2004.

Rogers, Carole Garibaldi. Habits of Change: An Oral History of American Nuns. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001.

____________________. Poverty, Chastity and Change: Lives of Contemporary American Nuns. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.

Schneiders, Sandra M., IHM. Finding the Treasure: Locating Catholic Religious Life in a New Ecclesial and Cultural Text (Religious Life in a New Millennium). New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2000.

_____________________ Selling All: Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life (Religious Life in a New Millennium V.2). New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2001.

_____________________Buying the Field: Catholic Religious Life in Mission to the World (Religious Life in a New Millennium V.3). New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2013.

Stewart, George C. Jr. "Marvels of Charity: History of American Sisters and Nuns." Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. 1986

Wittberg, Patricia. The Rise and Fall of Catholic Religious Orders: A Social Movement Perspective. New York: State University of New York Press, 1994.