Rebel, Reformer,
Religious Extraordinaire
The Life of Sister Irene Farmer

Geraldine Anthony, SC

About the Book

This is the life story of Irene Farmer, feminist and Roman Catholic nun, an Albertan who, as a Sister of Charity, after Vatican II, stepped into the struggle for equal rights for religious women in the Church and came out victorious. Now in her eighties and living in Halifax, Sister Irene Farmer is still a strong supporter of women's rights.

Through the fortuitous conjunction of the women's liberation movement and Vatican II in the 1960s, active orders of Roman Catholic sisters realized that they could break through the barriers of long-standing conservative customs and traditions imposed by a male-dominated Church. They could leave the semi-cloistered atmosphere of their convents and reach out freely to the people in the world who really needed them.

Irene Farmer's life epitomized this breakthrough. A true feminist in the style of fellow Albertan Nellie McClung, who won political equality for women in 1916, Irene Farmer, some fifty years later, faced up to the formidable male hierarchy in Rome and won their confidence and respect.

As General Superior (1962-72) of a Canadian/American Congregation of Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, based in Halifax, she led her community of more than 1,600 dedicated sisters into a new life consonant with the contemporary world of professional women.

Her story is a challenge to all women labouring under injustices to examine their roots and make courageous decisions to preserve what is best, while freeing themselves of the shackles that bind them.

About the Author

Biographer/historian Geraldine Anthony, SC, has published six books on Canadian drama, as well as a history of the federation of thirteen congregations of Sisters of Charity.

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