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Religious names

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  • 28-01-2021 10:45am
    #1
    p15574
    Registered Users Posts: 753 ✭✭✭


    Hi, does anyone know how people in religious professions tend to write their names to family (as opposed to the "flock")? I'm looking into an inscription signed "Sr M Cecelia Leahy" to try and identify where in the family tree she may have come from. I know that they would have both a birth name and religious name. I'm wondering was there a convention on the order, ie in this case is it likely that the "M" is the birth initial and "Cecelia" the religious moniker or the other way round?


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    #2
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,138 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Some orders call them all M. something, presumably for Mary.
    I think the Leahy bit would be the only bit you could be sure of, family wise.


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    #3
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,623 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Agree with Spurious. I'd say Mary Cecelia was her religious name.

    This is a really difficult area and often until relatively recently deaths were registered in the "nun" name and not the birth name.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #4
    Garlinge
    Registered Users Posts: 591 ✭✭✭Garlinge


    You are lucky to have a surname at all. My experience of Loreto order was odd names and no surnames.


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    #5
    srmf5
    Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    In my great aunt's case, her name on her memorial card was "Sr. M. St. Attracta [Surname]." Her given name was Mary and the name that she took on when she became a nun was Attracta.


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    #6
    p15574
    Registered Users Posts: 753 ✭✭✭p15574


    Garlinge wrote: »
    You are lucky to have a surname at all. My experience of Loreto order was odd names and no surnames.

    It was a personal inscription on a card to a visiting distant cousin so they would have needed the surname to remind who they were


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    #7
    BowWow
    Registered Users Posts: 1,760 ✭✭✭BowWow


    Had a nun in the family many years ago, sometimes known as Sister Monica and other times known as Mother Monica. Maybe the "M" is for Mother?


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    #8
    Earnest
    Registered Users Posts: 106 ✭✭Earnest


    I believe that the M. is always for Mary.


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    #9
    stopthevoting
    Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭stopthevoting


    BowWow wrote: »
    Had a nun in the family many years ago, sometimes known as Sister Monica and other times known as Mother Monica. Maybe the "M" is for Mother?
    When referring to a Reverend Mother, the "Sr." would not be added in front.


    Earnest wrote: »
    I believe that the M. is always for Mary.
    Yes, I agree with this. It certainly is for Mary when preceded with "Sr."


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    #10
    stopthevoting
    Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭stopthevoting


    p15574 wrote: »
    Hi, does anyone know how people in religious professions tend to write their names to family (as opposed to the "flock")? I'm looking into an inscription signed "Sr M Cecelia Leahy" to try and identify where in the family tree she may have come from. I know that they would have both a birth name and religious name. I'm wondering was there a convention on the order, ie in this case is it likely that the "M" is the birth initial and "Cecelia" the religious moniker or the other way round?


    It may be that neither Mary nor Cecelia are a baptismal name. It may be that all nuns in that order were given the name Mary followed by another religious name, and that their original name was no longer used.



    Also, since Mary was a common name, it could happen by coincidence that she was baptised Mary.


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    #11
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,138 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Garlinge wrote: »
    You are lucky to have a surname at all. My experience of Loreto order was odd names and no surnames.

    In a former life I took some kids I was teaching (and who were doing a project on one of their grannies) to Loreto Stephen's green to meet an elderly nun who had taught their granny. She only vaguely remembered her time teaching in the school in question, but anyway....

    While over there, I learned the Loreto (on the Green at least, possibly order-wide) had an extensive archive and a (then) part-time archivist. Always worth firing off an email.


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    #12
    Garlinge
    Registered Users Posts: 591 ✭✭✭Garlinge


    Yes I had good info from Loreto Archivist on a favourite nun who was very elderly by time she taught me. Again it was all about the nun's religious life though I think I got her previous name but no more personal details. Archivist had given a talk in Pearse Library, Dublin.

    archives@loreto.ie

    With the Loreto order, Sisters were the servants about the place so kitchen, cleaning etc and I believe they entered the order without benefit of dowries? The 'Mothers' were the more middle class who did the teaching BUT they did not mean they had a teaching qualification.... Hopefully things improved in later years.


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    #13
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,623 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Yes, we had a talk from her in the IGRS too. She's very helpful.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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