Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazan

Emilia Pardo Bazan (1851-1921), the most important female author of Spain’s nineteenth century, was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, critical articles, chronicles of modern life, and plays. Active in the age of Catholic social teaching inaugurated by Pope Leo XIII, Pardo Bazan imagined religion as an underpinning for personal and social organization. She addressed the individual experience of faith and culture, and focused on the tension between individualism and the social aspects of religious practice. As a talented literary artist herself, Pardo Bazan was no stranger to the challenges faced by gifted, privileged members of society, particularly in the form of temptations offered by modernity and its widespread encouragement of self-seeking. She wrote repeatedly about the change of heart that may be experienced by intellectually and materially advantaged individuals, and shared details of her own spiritual journey, arguing that once the creative person redefines herself as Franciscan instrument, she is able to contribute through her art and actions to the realization of a personalist society rich in sacramentality. Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazan, then, is an analysis of how this early feminist put her unique talents to work for her nation, and blended into the worshipping body of Spain by creating for her compatriots a sacramental vision that enriched and commemorated their daily lives.