Liberating Sanctuary: 100 Years of Women’s Education at the College of St. Catherine

One hundred years ago, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded a college designed to unite women’s intellectual and spiritual development: The College of St. Catherine, now St. Catherine’s University. Is such an institution, a women-built and women-led Catholic college, an anachronism today? How has a century of changes in the Catholic Church and women’s roles affected St. Catherine’s?
Addressing these and other questions in a scholarly and engaging manner, Liberating Sanctuary: 100 Years of Women’s Education at the College of St. Catherine challenges prevailing assumptions about the history of women’s education. The essays in this book, edited by Jane Lamm Carroll, Joanne Cavallaro, and Sharon Doherty, examine key figures, decisions, and ideas over the College’s 100 year history, linking the story through a central theme: the paradox of institutional goals that seek both to liberate and constrain women. Since its founding, St. Catherine’s has promoted women’s leadership and autonomy, sometimes by design, sometimes by accident, sometimes despite stated aims.