This thesis analyzes the experiences of Roman Catholic women who joined the Sisters
of Loretto, a community of women religious in rural Washington and Nelson Counties,
Kentucky, between the 1790s and 1826. It argues that the Sisters of Loretto used faith to
interpret and respond to unfolding events in the early nation. The women sought to
combat moral slippage and restore providential favor in the face of local Catholic
institutional instability, global Protestant evangelical movements, war and economic
crisis, and a tuberculosis outbreak. The Lorettines faced financial, social, and cultural
pressures-including an economic depression, a culture that celebrated family formation
and reproduction, and race-based slavery-that shaped how they executed their
benevolent and educational missions over time. The Sisters pursued benevolent and
educational missions to serve God and uphold the economic, racial, and gendered social
order of the Border South.
