Elizabeth Schoffen

author

Elizabeth Schoffen

b. 1861

A former Sister of Charity, she wrote a firsthand memoir about 31 years in religious life and her break from the order. Her book offers a personal, forceful account of convent discipline, labor, and belief in the early 1900s.

1 Audiobook

The Demands of Rome Her Own Story of Thirty-One Years as a Sister of Charity in the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence of the Roman Catholic Church

The Demands of Rome Her Own Story of Thirty-One Years as a Sister of Charity in the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence of the Roman Catholic Church

by Elizabeth Schoffen

About the author

Elizabeth Schoffen, born in 1861, is known for The Demands of Rome: Her Own Story of Thirty-One Years as a Sister of Charity in the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence of the Roman Catholic Church. The book is presented as her own life story and traces her years in the convent under the religious name Sister Lucretia.

In that memoir, Schoffen describes entering religious life, working for many years within the order, and eventually leaving. The work is direct and deeply personal, centered on obedience, hardship, and the costs she believed that convent life demanded of women.

Because so little biographical information is readily confirmed beyond her own book and bibliographic records, she remains a somewhat elusive figure today. What endures is the vivid voice of her memoir, which gives readers a rare personal perspective on Catholic sisterhood, institutional life, and religious controversy in the early 20th century.