Dr. Peggy Delmas recently published a qualitative account of three early scientific pioneers, all of them women religious. She found their experience in scientific research to be marked by marginalization and religious discrimination, but they also enjoyed remarkable support from their congregations and often saw their work as extension of their life as vowed religious.
The sisters saw science as deepening their relationship with God. They did not see a divide between their spiritual life and their work life. In the academic community, there’s been a tendency to make distinctions between the two worlds. But the sisters didn’t see it that way.
Read an interview about the research at Global Sisters Report.
Read Dr. Delmas’s article here.
The image is of Sr. Veronica Maher (from the IHM Archives) and Sr. Monica Asman (from the Santa Maria Times).
