Consecrated lives and identities within a religious order : a study of the Ursuline Order in Malta

Abstract

The purposes of this dissertation, as well as my main motivation in pursuing this topic, involved an interest in the nature of what Diane Margolis (1998) refers to as the 'called self, pertaining to the following of a vocation within a religious Order. The process by which a young woman relinquishes motherhood and a family life in the pursuit of a life which is identified as sacred was one which I wished to understand, particularly in relation to the Ursuline nuns, who intrigued me in their vocational adoption of certain responsibilities (such as motherhood) which are rarely equated with life within a religious Order (due to the vows of chastity taken upon entering). This dissertation aims to achieve a clearer understanding and conceptualisation as to the elements which shape the life of an Ursuline nun. In what is to follow, I attempt an interpretation as to how an Ursuline nun comes to understand her life and her world in making a commitment to join a religious Order. In the forthcoming chapters, I inquire into the Ursuline Order, and its subsequent religious identity, in order to clearly identify the various stages which an Ursuline nun goes through upon joining the convent. These stages are in turn regarded in terms of the prominent importance of the element of time as it structures their everyday lives and as it is conceptualised by the nuns in relation to their daily tasks (Chapter 2). Following this, I move to a consideration of how the process of joining the order is played out internally, particularly in relation to the adoration of the Eucharist and the way in which this weekly event provides an institutionally-recognised outlet for individual expression and for an increased understanding of the self (Chapter 3). These points will be taken up by means of constant reference towards the ethnographic material collected during my few months of fieldwork, which pays tribute both to my own reflections arising as a result of fieldwork, as well as to the interpretations which the nuns themselves offered in explaining the ethnographic evidence which I chanced to observe.