Women’s Congregations as Transnational Social Security Networks

Women’s congregations provide both members and non-members with different forms of social security. However, the charity extended to non-members and the social security arrangements for Catholic sisters are always closely interlinked with and embedded in changing political and historical circumstances. Many women’s congregations were founded in the nineteenth century in Europe. Due to political conflicts, a number of Catholic sisters left their home countries and settled in the US and elsewhere, maintaining social and religious ties with their respective motherhouses in Europe. Although they had been engaging in crossborder activities since the end of the nineteenth century, the sisters only