Showing posts with label nuns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuns. Show all posts

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Kin, Cash, and Convent: Providing for Nieces (and Nephews) in 1613 Bludenz

Excerpts of AT-VLA, BludenzStadtA, Charter 10255 of 1613

In Counter-reformation Bludenz in 1613, widow Catharina Zürcherin*, a citizen of the town, prepared her legacy with a special eye toward her female kin. Childless herself, and without the guidance of her late husband (Anton Marks of Braz), she gave all her funds to her siblings’ children.

The family was doing well. The male Zürcher siblings and cousins – Hans, Georg, Dietrich, Gabriel, Adam and Sebastian – had recently been elevated by Emperor Maximillian to the hereditary nobility just a few years before (1610 April 5, Innsbruck, AT-StaAB Urkunde 741). In the document, the emperor names the brothers and cousins alike for “in consideration of their services to the House of Austria.” But, of course, none of the females of the house were named. Such gendered recognition (and gendered absence) was common practice at the time.

So back to Catharina: As she makes her will, she chooses to recognize the children (of both genders) of her sister Anna rcherin by both husbands, and those of her brother Mathias rcher. As for the third sibling, Gabriel rcher, well, Catharina wrote in a special provision for his daughter, her niece, Elsbeth Zürcherin.

For Elsbeth, Catharina set aside 200 Rhenish guilders, and explicitly intended these funds to be used as a convent dowry. This would give Elsbeth access as a choir-sister to an elite Catholic institution of her choice. Given the location, Catharina probably had in mind Elsbeth’s joining St Peter’s in Bludenz, the Dominican women’s convent at the edge of town, though other nearby options included the Clares at Valduna in Rankweil, the Franciscan Tertiaries at Thalbach in Bregenz, or the recently founded Capuchin convent of St Anna’s, also in Bregenz.

Catharina has clearly thought about the situation, for while she is generous, that generosity is conditional. She stipulates that if Elsbeth decided not to enter a convent, the money would come to her only after Catharina’s own death.

If, however, Elsbeth were to predecease her such that the money might revert to her brother Gabriel, well, sorry, then that special legacy would be revoked, and the money be divided evenly.

In these provisions, Catharina is doing several things. She’s supporting the next generation of her natal family. She’s promoting the Catholic faith. She’s making possible a conventual lifestyle for a favored relative. And, given the conditions on her gifts, it seems she just might be thumbing her nose at her brother.

One wonders if niece Elsbeth felt a calling that went unsupported by her father. If so, Auntie Katharina may have been defying male expectations by stepping in here to be sure a favored niece was able to find her way into a religious life.

Either way, it’s clear that one determined woman could shape the lives – and privileges – of the next generation.


One afterwards to this story: while Elsbeth Zürcherin’s future is unknown to us, it seems likely that she was related to the Maria Magdalena Zürcherin of Bludenz, daughter of Adam  Zürcher and Elisabeth Leu – perhaps a cousin or a second cousin of our Elsbeth? – who took up the monastic calling at Thalbach in Bregenz about fifteen years later, in 1627, and took orders there under the name Maria Victoria (Fußenegger, 140). 

NOTES

I honor the early modern Austrian practice of naming women by their patronymics with the feminine “-in” ending. Women of the day did not typically adopt their husband’s surname.

* The name Catharina Zürcherin can also be rendered Katharina Zücherin. Spelling of the period is notoriously inconsistent, and the handwriting itself challenging to read. However, outside of the two documents cited here, the family surname spelled with the interior “R” – Zürcherin – is preferred (102 documents to 2, according to monasterium.net!), and I have adopted it here.

WORKS CITED

Documents, accessed through monasterium.net:

  • Bregenz, Stadtarchiv, Urkunde 741 (5. Apr 1610, Innsbruck)

  • Vorarlberger Landesarchiv - Bludenz, Stadtarchiv Charter 10255 (6. Nov 1613)

Secondary Literature:

  • Fußenegger, Gerold. “Bregenz am Bodensee: Terziarinnenkloster Thalbach.” Alemannia Franciscana antiqua 9 (1963): 93-140.

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Postulant, Novice, Professed: Initiation into Monastic Life (4/2/25)

Last night I used movie clips to help my students understand a bit more about monastic life. I did, in fact, use a clip from Sister Act (1992) as a set-up for a discussion of Vatican 2. (None of the seminar students are Catholic, but all of them are able to discuss cogently the differences of the staid presentation at the front end of “Hail Holy Queen” and the more animated popularized version with clapping and jazzy riffing at the back end). That example also gave me an excuse to bring in a quick discussion of Salve services.

But the core of our discussion was on vocation and discernment, and for that, I offered several longer clips, mostly from the amazingly beautiful film In This House of Brede (1975) starring Diana Rigg as Philippa Talbott. To me, the novel and the movie are compelling in different ways -- and the movie is easier to teach with! 

I recently discussed age at entry and at profession at Thalbach in Bregenz, and I shared those data with my students. But I suspect they appreciated the movie clips more since they bring the sights and sounds of monastic ceremony to life.

1. From secular space to sacred: Postulancy (7:08-16:46)

How do you leave the world you have inhabited? I love the film’s many details, but for my students chose to start with Philippa’s arrangements for her cat. This act of providing caring for the life she’s lived is important, as are the visual symbols of the luxuries she’s foregoing. But then, she arrives at Brede Abbey, a (fictional) Benedictine community, and has to ask permission to enter:

“What do you ask?” “To try my vocation as Benedictine in this house of Brede”

With her, we follow the thread of music into the heart of the convent, where the sisters are gathered in choir… 


 

2. Joining the novitiate (29:07-31:10 and 48:10-51:18)

Different stages are marked by different clothing, as people of different life backgrounds merge into a community. I showed two clips of the Reception of the Habit (aka Investiture), one for Philippa, and then one for Joanna, a much younger sister. In both clips, we hear chants from the ceremonies; Philippa’s is accompanied by the “Veni Creator Spiritus” and Joanna by “Jesu corona virginum” and “Te Deum laudamus.”

In this male celebrant-led ceremony, a Benedictine sister receives the white veil and habit that marker her as a dedicated and committed learner, and some, like Joanna, take on a new name.

“What do you ask? “The mercy of God, and the grace of the Holy Habit”

Joanna’s ceremony contrasts visually, since she dresses as the bride of Christ, but both go through the process of petition, and both have locks of hair shorn, a symbol of renunciation and transformation.

Philippa’s Investiture (29:07-31:10):


 

Joanna’s Investiture (48:10-51:18):


3. Making Solemn Vows: Profession (52:21-53:50)

Taking permanent vows is the final stage in making a lifelong commitment to religious life. As depicted here, the professed prostrates herself as prayers are said over her, a symbol of dying to the world and rising to new life within the monastic order. My students were uncomfortable with the element of prostration – it isn’t used in their personal faith practices – so it sparked a conversation about the humbling of self before God and visual signals of a choice to serve.


4. Death of the Abbess (17:02-19:56)

One more clip for today, and that is the death of the abbess. This depiction is compressed (obviously) and lacks the full gathering and prayers of the sisters at her final bedside, but the movie version uses the moment to show Philippa’s farewell and foreshadow some of the later elements of the film's story-line. And I do like the glimpse of the funeral we get. The death of an abbess is a deeply significant moment for a convent, and that this one comes so early in the story will drive some of the “afterwards” of Philippa’s personal narrative.


 

CONCLUSION

Sometimes it’s helpful to visualize (and audiate) the ceremonial events which serve as such significant markers in women’s monastic lives. These rituals – whether the quiet renunciation of the postulant, the symbolic transformation of investiture, or the solemnity of final vows – embody a deep and deliberate commitment to the religious path. 

By engaging with these depictions in In This House of Brede, I think my students were able to see (and hear) not only the formality of the monastic life, but also the personal, spiritual, and communal dimensions of vocation. Their reactions, particularly to the act of prostration, reveal how physical expressions of devotion vary across traditions, sparking valuable discussions about embodiment, humility, and dedication in religious practice.


Works Consulted

The North Wall of Brand’s Parish Church: Challenges of Interpretation

The church of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven in Brand, Vorarlberg has a significant set of frescoes dating to the early 16 th century. The...