This study examines the attitudes of Belgian hospital sisters towards pain and pain relief in the 19th century, amidst secularisation and the rising influence of medical professionals. While official records show their participation in pain’s medicalisation, indicating a loss of decision-making power to doctors, these sisters simultaneously sought alternative pain relief methods. They emphasised religious beliefs and practices. They also collected and disseminated knowledge, blending scientific insights with traditional remedies. Furthermore, they engaged in entrepreneurial ventures. Case studies reveal sisters embraced medicalisation without abandoning traditional Catholic discourse on suffering and atonement, offering holistic comfort and filling gaps left by medicine.
KU Leuven, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0001-7623-8945
Titolo del capitolo
Negotiating a space in-between. Belgian women religious and pain (relief) in nineteenth-century public hospitals
Autori
Kristien Suenens
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0.05
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Pain fragments
Sottotitolo del libro
Practising Catholicism in the 19th and 20th centuries
Curatori
Tine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi, Kristof Smeyers, Maria Heidegger
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
184
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1071-3
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1072-0
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-1073-7
Collana
Fragmentaria. Studi di storia culturale e antropologia religiosa
ISSN della collana
2975-1217
e-ISSN della collana
2975-1225