The chronicles of the Austrian Ursulines in the 18th century

Female convent chronicles of modern era are so far little investigated records of a specifically female monastic culture of memory. Chronicles are the official memory of the convent. They establish identity, but are also used as references on secular and spiritual concerns. Detailed descriptions of religious customs should obligate continuation later generations of nuns. The convent chronicles oft the Ursulines (Wien, Linz, Salzburg, Graz, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck) tell of the difficulties of foundig and establishing their cloisters in town. Since the 1770 years, the daily life of the nuns was dominated by the effects of imperial church reformation laws. Ursuline convents were not dissolved by the Emperor Joseph II since they educated young girls. Convent chronicles always tell about the most important events in a nun`s life: the vesting, the profession and death. The hagiographic narratives of the "last illness" and dying describe the monastic virtues, in particular humility and obedience, in a very stereotypic way. However, we also see the "femme forte", particularly among the Mothers Superiors. The Mother Superior organized the cloister and schools,employed many people and confronted secular and religious authorities. While the Mother Superior and her nuns were the monastery confessor`s "children", they were also his employers. Time and space in monasteries are subject to severe regimentation and control (Michel Foucault). The gap between theological demands and social realities of daily life becomes clear in the handling of enclosure. The social environment of every convent consisted of schoolgirls and women who lived with the nuns, but also of a group of men and women who supported the nuns. Due to enclosure nuns were invisible for the population at large; nevertheless the convent was strongly present in the religious and social public. Convent chronicles do not only reflect the nuns` self image, but also their comprehension of time and history. In particular, reports about catastrophic events such as fire, war, or plagues show the spiritual concepts of the Ursulines. To monks and nuns history always means history of salvation. Intended for practical monastic use, convent chronicles also contain literary elements. The research project proposed here aims to analyze how chronicles differed between Ursuline convents, and how content and writing of nuns` chronicles changed over the course of the 18th century.

The Ursulines, most eminent female school order of the early modern age, were called to Vienna from Liège in 1660. Settlements were founded in Klagenfurt (1670), Linz (1679), Graz (1686), Innsbruck (1691), and Salzburg (1695). In all of the mentioned convents, hand- written chronicles in German have survived. One of the main aims of the research project discussed was to work out the structural and stylistic characteristics as well as those regarding contents of the various convent chronicles, but also their differences. In principle, one has to distinguish between chronicles that were written continuously and those that have been composed retroactively in the course of the 18th century. Here, we encounter two major problems, namely the identification of the writers and as far as the retroactive chronicles are concerned the dating. Other central aspects are the intention and the way of working of the annalists. There is abundant material in the convent archives for the historiography of the own house: decrees of ecclesiastical and profane authorities, convent epistles, dowry contracts, death certificates, visitation files, economic recordings etc. Thus, it was possible at least exemplarily to define the relations between the writers, the sources they used and the text of the respective chronicle as the final product of a writing process. The analysis of the chronicles as far as content is concerned takes into consideration the following questions: What is considered worth remembering as well for the community as also for the writer personally? Which topics are not mentioned at all or only marginally in the chronicles? According to which conventions is female monastic identity represented? How do the different convent chronicles report on the same events and topics? In which way are external events perceived in the Ursuline chronicles? What has changed in the convents between counter-reformation and enlightenment? Convent chronicles pick out very different spiritual and profane aspects of the social environment female convent and the way of life as a nun as central themes. Main topics in all convent chronicles are the founding history and the composition of the convent, the spiritual and profane life within the monastery, the social environment and the perception of external events. Convent chronicles are among the most important monastic written records and can be used as sources for research into different aspects of monastic life. But up to now, they have been little noticed by history at least in the German speaking area.