The Ursulines of New Orleans have been serving their beloved community now for just short of 300 years, ever since they arrived from France in 1727. They brought with them long-standing traditions and values from the Old World and innovated in many ways to adapt to the New. One of these traditions was the sending of circular letters that served as eulogies for their deceased sisters. They maintained this tradition in New Orleans but also developed a unique style, creating a <i>livre des décédées</i> (or “book of the dead”) that contains the biographies of the sisters and memorializes them for future generations as models of Ursuline piety and priorities.
This thesis describes the eulogistic tradition as it developed in France among the Ursuline order in general and the obituary circular letter tradition in particular, providing a background for the practice as it was implemented in New Orleans. I will show that the letters not only reveal details about the lives of the individual sisters but also insights as to the values and priorities inherited from France and maintained in New Orleans. Then I will demonstrate how these values and priorities were adapted in the face of unique challenges for life and ministry in Louisiana.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11072014-184156 |
| Date | 09 December 2014 |
| Creators | Allen, Jarrette K. |
| Contributors | Dubois, Sylvie, Brody, Mary J, Jensen, Kate |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11072014-184156/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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