Dedicated to God: An Oral History of Cloistered Nuns

As a subculture, cloistered monastic nuns live hidden from public view by choice. Once a woman joins the cloister and makes final vows, she is almost never seen and her voice is not heard; her story is essentially nonexistent in the historical record and collective, public history.

From interviews conducted over six years, Abbie Reese tells the stories of the Poor Clare Colettine Order, a cloistered contemplative order at the Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, Illinois. Seldom leaving their 25,000-square-foot gated enclosure, members of this community embrace an extreme
version of poverty and anonymity-a separation that enables them to withdraw from the world to devote their lives to prayer. This removal, they contend, allows them to have a greater impact on humanity than if they maintained direct contact with loved ones and strangers.

Dedicated to God explores individual and cultural identity through oral history interviews with several generations of nuns, focusing on the origins and life stories of the women who have chosen to become members of one of the strictest religious orders. But the narrative is also one of a collective
memory and struggle against extinction and modernity, a determination to create community within the framework of ancient rules.

The author's stunning photographs of their dual worlds, religious and quotidian, add texture to the narrative. This artistic and ethnographic work highlights the countercultural values and dedication of individuals who, at incredible personal cost, live for love of God and humanity, out of faith in
what cannot be seen, and with the belief that they will be rewarded in the afterlife.


Author: Abbie Reese
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/07/2014
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780199947935

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 12/01/2013 pg. 4
Library Journal 12/01/2013 pg. 104
Choice 06/01/2014

About the Author

Abbie Reese is an independent scholar and interdisciplinary artist who utilizes oral history and ethnographic methodologies to explore individual and cultural identity. She received an MFA in visual arts from the University of Chicago and was a fellow at the Columbia University Oral History Research
Office Summer Institute. Her multimedia exhibit, Erased from the Landscape: The Hidden Lives of Cloistered Nuns, has been shown in galleries and museums and she has presented her work at academic conferences internationally.

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