Zusters van liefde voor de verzorging. Hoe de heilige regel van de Congregatie van Zusters van Liefde Moeder van Barmhartigheid uit Tilburg een stempel drukte op de zorgpraktijk in drie Rooms-Katholieke gestichten

Abstract

The history of female Roman Catholic congregations is often regarded from an emancipative point of view. This article focuses on another aspect of convent life. The example of a Dutch congregation, the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of Mercy, shows that there are many traces of religious concepts in everyday life in a care setting. The author compares the Sisters' Holy Rule and - more important - their vows of obedience, celibacy and poverty with the rules that were applied in three old peoples' homes in Amsterdam of which they were in charge. She concludes that the Sisters managed the lives of the elderly the same way they managed their own. According to the author this is to be considered as a deed of ultimate charity, because the Sisters believed that their way of living brought them, and therefore also the people they cared for, closer to God.