Sister Dolores Liptak, RSM, will deliver a lecture, "‘To Bind Up the Wounds’: Sisters in the U.S. Civil War,” on Wednesday, November 2, 7:30pm, at the Aquinas Student Center, 46 North Eagleville Road on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs. All are welcome.
Sister Dolores earned her Ph.D. in history from UConn and is the author several books on Catholic minorities, especially immigrants and women religious. Her lecture will recount how, during the U.S Civil War, more than 640 Catholic Sisters from 21 congregations volunteered to care for the wounded and dying in both Union and Confederate battlefields or hospitals. These nuns became the largest band of women (1/5 of the entire numbers of nurses who enlisted) and rapidly gained deep respect from the President, generals, officers, and civic leaders. They especially earned the gratitude of the soldiers they served. It may even be said that the care given by these sister-nurses became the most potent reason why the American Catholic minority was never again treated with the degree of prejudice that typified the prewar era.
For more information, contact: Tom Deans at tom.deans@uconn.edu