Women and Catholic religious culture among Polish landowners and petty gentry in Western Krai in the 19th century.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the role of women coming from nineteenth-century gentry families in strengthening Catholic culture in Western Krai [territories occupied by Russia during the Partitions, excluding the Congress Kingdom of Poland]. It covers religious aspects, including ceremonies and rituals. Moreover, it seeks to analyze the issues of motivation for religious practices carried out by women. Basic questions concern the role of religion in everyday life of gentry women and the role of those women in promoting Catholicism in families and local communities. The issues touched upon are analyzed on the basis of the source material including memories of representatives of borderland gentry. Comparison and juxtaposition of these accounts enables studying women’s religious mentality of the time. They also enable reconstructing characteristic types of women’s religious involvement, as well as the way in which women used religion to shape life styles and instill particular values, including the patriotic ones. The results of the aforementioned studies show specific features of Polish women’s religiousness.