'Using the means of such a retreat’: Third order monastic communities in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy (original) (raw)

Abstract

Third order women religious actively participated in the society and economy of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy. Even though scholars have argued that the re-introduction of monastic enclosure for all women religious after the Council of Trent crushed non-enclosed forms of female monasticism in Italy and Europe, the study of women’s third orders reveals that non-enclosed communities not only survived the Tridentine reforms but responded to the specific social and economic needs of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century societies. Third order women religious provided education, care, and companionship to women of all ages and socioeconomic ranks. Moreover, third order women religious actively engaged in local economic lives, where their charitable and economic interests intertwined. Ecclesiastical and secular authorities as well as neighbors considered women’s third order communities an asset to local societies. This talk offers a brief overview of the activities of third order women religious in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy, drawing on examples from Bergamo and Bologna.

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