Whether a house of vowed religious women thrived or failed during the Middle Ages depended largely on the leadership of the sisters entrusted with the community’s welfare. This two-day conference studies the roles and responsibilities these women assumed. It features sixteen scholars, representing multiple disciplines—art history, history, musicology, liturgy, and theology—and covering different time periods, locales, and religious rules across western Europe. Their papers provide rich evidence of the many ways religious women tended to the spiritual and material well-beings of those in their care, from directing the hours of sung prayer to provisioning their communities with books.
This conference will be held both in person at the Notre Dame London campus and over Zoom. The Zoom link will be made available to registered participants. For more information and to register, go to the conference page.
Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.