Labour, Love, and Prayer: Female Piety in Ulster Religious Literature, 1850-1914

Lynn Szabo is an assistant professor of English at Trinity Western
University in Langley, B.C.

Andrea Ebel Brozyna offers a thorough exploration of religious
literature of the period 1850–1914 in order to explore her thesis that
“Catholics and Protestants shared very similar views of Christian
womanhood.” Her book is methodically organized around her scholarly
study of the roles of women as they were cultivated in religious
writings and education by both traditions. The focus of her study
includes Maryology, women’s missionary literature, models from
Christian scriptures, and sociopolitical gender constructions as they
appeared in articles, poems, and stories that appeared in denominational
magazines and newspapers. The manner in which these aspects of religious
heritage were mediated to women in the latter half of the 19th century
does much to inform readers about the rigid boundaries that constrained
women’s experience during that period.

Brozyna’s examination fulfils the expectations of academic research
and rhetoric. She has examined the evidence with care and insight, as is
made clear by the presentation of her argument. A clear introduction
grounds her study and the curiosity that aroused her commitment to her
subject. The following seven chapters uncover the central roles that
Ulster women played in establishing the faith of their children and
their communities. That they were expected by all in power to do so was
relentlessly articulated. Other roles for women were acceptable only in
relation to the conventional understanding that femaleness was
particularly spiritual, and valuable primarily for its religious and
communal influences.

Although the religious literature of this period demonstrates that
Catholics and Protestants shared their vision of, and desires for,
women’s piety, they viewed each other as fundamentally different. The
tragedy that abounds in present-day conflicts in Ireland can be seen as
integrally related to the misunderstandings that were already deeply
embedded in the ethos of the preceding century’s religious writings.

Brozyna’s book will have a marginal and limited audience, but it will
provide those readers with a valuable and worthwhile research tool. Her
conclusion is followed with meticulous and ample footnotes that enhance
the study of her subject.