Stephen J. Nagle and Sara L. Sanders

The population of women religious is aging. With a decreasing number of new sisters to carry on their ministries, women religious are seeking new ways to continue their work. These issues are the theme of the documentary “Crossroads” produced by Clemson University in conjunction with the Sisters of Charity Foundation. For the past four years the Sisters of Charity Foundation has supported the work of women religious in South Carolina through grants, regional, and statewide meetings. At the most recent annual meeting of the group, the focus was on sharing their stories of faith and ministry. At the end of the meeting they had written some fifty stories which serve as a rich, new corpus. We are examining these stories for themes using grounded theory (following Charmaz, Glaser, and Strauss). We are also using a cognitive linguistics framework (following Lakoff, Johnson, Kovecses) to investigate the metaphors that these sisters seem to “live by.” The 130 sisters serving in 27 counties in South Carolina come from 26 different religious orders. Their motherhouses are in 17 different states. Being in South Carolina alone or with a small group has led them to consider themselves part of a larger body of women religious, beyond the bounds of their own religious orders. The study of the themes and metaphors in their stories will reveal linguistic elements that are seminal to the individual and group identity of women religious in South Carolina in the context of their work and their communities.