"This study is relevant, not only to understanding religious women and Catholicism in nineteenth-century England and Wales, but also in extending our understanding of the role of women in the public and private sphere. It offers an insight into women's religious belief and practice in the nineteenth century and deals with issues as resonant today as in the past. This analysis of women religious is part of the larger story of the agency of nineteenth-century women and the broader transformation of English society and offers a glimpse into a previously ignored section of English society."--Jacket.