Women in the past with a vocation

Women in the past

with a vocation to the priesthood

We can be sure that there have been many women in the past who had a vocation to the priesthood. But on account of the social and cultural climate of the day, these vocations were nipped in the bud and their record wiped from history.

It is all the more remarkable that the vocation to the priesthood of a few key figures has, to some extent, survived the relentless anti-feminine censorship of history.

Women Priests in the South of Italy and in Sicily 150 - 550		St. Clare of Assisi 1194 - 1253	St. Catherine of Siena 1347 - 1380
Sister Caroline Clément 1825 - 1887	Saint Magdalena Sofia Barat foundress of the Nuns of the Sacred Heart 1779 – 1865	Saint Thérèse of Lisieux 1873-1897	Sister Isabel of Trinidad Spanish mystic 1880-1906	Mother Ignacia Nazaria, foundress of Missionaries of the Papal Crusade 1889 – 1943	Gertrud Heinzelmann 1914 - 1999