Tales of adventure, romance and nuns join the manuscript volumes Lauinger Library in its new exhibit, “Portraits in Piety: Women Saints and Women Religious from the John Thatcher Collection.”

Opened last week, the collection pores over the lives of religious women since the 16th century – lives that often defy stereotypes.

“You definitely have some really interesting characters [in the collection],” said Barbara Mujica, a professor in the Spanish department and curator of the exhibit.

Featuring some highlights from the John Thatcher Collection, the exhibit features a grouping of more than 1,500 religious manuscripts that Georgetown purchased last year.

“After seeing the collection, I knew – we wanted it for Georgetown,” said John Buchtel, head of the library’s special collections. “Some of these books are rare, some are very rare.”

The purchase was funded in large part by a $50,000 grant from the B. H. Breslauer Foundation.
Mujica began curating the acquisitions in the spring, sorting through the books to pick the final 103 documents that are now on display.

“It was a very slow process,” she said. “You really have to look very closely at them. People have written in them, people have used them.”

The books present different aspects of women’s spirituality, are written in several languages and date back to the 16th century. What unites the artifacts in “Portraits in Piety,” Mujica said, is that they all contain spiritual portraits – whether visual or verbal.

“I chose that title because books are portraits in many ways,” Mujica said.

And for many students, the characters have been the biggest draw to the exhibit.

The portraits paint pictures of women who, besides their religious devotion, were also brave, intelligent and even sensual. Colby Howard (SFS ’12) said his favorite piece in the exhibit was a collection of love letters (now widely considered fictional) from a Portuguese nun to a French naval officer.

“It was that side of it that I didn’t expect, and I found really interesting,” he said.

The depictions evolve over time, from images of nuns kneeling at the cross, to women spinning and doing everyday tasks to the eventual portrayal of women performing courageous deeds.
One of the portraits shows a woman attacking soldiers who persecuted her father.

“It really challenges our perception of what religious women were, and even are today,” said Jovana Zujevic, a graduate student in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. “They were religious women, but they were also women.”

Mujica said she was surprised by the enthusiastic student response, but added that between the historical, religious and artistic aspects of the collection, there is something for everyone.

“Different students will get different things out of it,” she said. The collection will remain at Georgetown permanently, and Mujica said she hopes to put the exhibit up again during the summer. She also hopes to create other exhibitions focusing on other aspects of the Thatcher manuscripts.

“It’s just a tremendous collection,” she said.

“Portraits in Piety” will be on display at the Howard W. Gunlocke Rare Book and Special Collections Room in Lauinger Library until Oct. 22.”