Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America | Paula M. Kane

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328 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 27 halftones, notes, index

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-2658-1
Published: August 2015
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-0761-0
Published: November 2013
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4238-1
Published: November 2013

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One day in 1917, while cooking dinner at home in Manhattan, Margaret Reilly (1884-1937) felt a sharp pain over her heart and claimed to see a crucifix emerging in blood on her skin. Four years later, Reilly entered the convent of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Peekskill, New York, where, known as Sister Mary of the Crown of Thorns, she spent most of her life gravely ill and possibly exhibiting Christ's wounds. In this portrait of Sister Thorn, Paula M. Kane scrutinizes the responses to this American stigmatic's experiences and illustrates the surprising presence of mystical phenomena in twentieth-century American Catholicism.

Drawing on accounts by clerical authorities, ordinary Catholics, doctors, and journalists--as well as on medicine, anthropology, and gender studies--Kane explores American Catholic mysticism, setting it in the context of life after World War I and showing the war’s impact on American Christianity. Sister Thorn's life, she reveals, marks the beginning of a transition among Catholics from a devotional, Old World piety to a newly confident role in American society.

About the Author

Paula M. Kane is associate professor and John and Lucine O’Brien Marous Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and author of Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900-1920.
For more information about Paula M. Kane, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"To be sure, this is required reading for anyone interested in Catholic studies. But American religious historians of all stripes should read this book, which stands as a paradigm example of how to connect an intensely local topic with broader themes of modernity, ethnicity, gender, urbanization, assimilation, globalization, and the like."--BeforeItsNews.com

"The clarity and accessibility of the writing is exceeded only by Kane's expert analysis. Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers."--Choice

“Sister Thorn is an impressive work of scholarship.”--Catholic Books Review

“[An] innovative approach to anthropologically-informed history. . . . Likely to become standard reading for students of American religious history.”--Religion in American History

"Kane’s book is a noteworthy achievement. It demonstrates a remarkable fluency with a wide body of scholarly literature as well as with archival sources from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean."--Journal of American History

“Full of insight and surprises.”--America

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