Signadou by Paschala Noonan, O.P.

Manhasset, NY: Brookville Books, 1997, 392 pages.

For a long time there has been a gap in the readily available historical literature of Kentucky: the careful telling of the story of the Dominican Sisters in Washington County. That gap has now been ably filled with the publication of Paschala Noonan's Signadou. (The title derives from French patois that means "sign from God.")

The story is a significant one not only for women's studies, but for Commonwealth history-at-large. The establishment of the Kentucky Dominican Sisters in 1822 represented the first American foundation of a religious community whose European roots go well back into the Middle Ages. Along with the Sisters of Loretto in Marion County and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Nelson County, this sisterhood stands as one of the groups that helped bring faith, education, and traditional civilization to the "first American West."

From the very beginning, with the profession ceremony of Easter Sunday, 1822, Paschala Noonan keeps a steady focus on the vibrant personalities of her story, rather than on organizational, statistical, and institutional details (though these are not neglected.) Consistently and comprehensively in this text the reader is introduced to a community of faithful women who at times were well in advance of their age, and who were pushing outward old barriers of race and creed and gender when it came to being of human service. In this regard the accounts of sisters nursing in the Civil War (and once even being falsely arrested as spies) are particularly engaging. Nor does the narrative blink at the full facts of nineteenth-century life: the Kentucky Dominicans were among many religious groups who owned slaves in antebellum days.

Here is a story of a group of women (a listing of all the 1385 ever professed, down to the present, has been included) who have rebounded from many trials indeed. These include fire, poverty, overtures for their disbandment by clerical superiors, and even the critiques of Cardinal O'Connell of Boston in the 1920's that the Dominican sisters were laughing too much on public streets! In the midst of all their trials the sisters found it not only necessary but imperative for themselves to widen their scope of service, extending their work of compassion and professional care literally across America and eventually internationally as well.

Very helpfully and impressively, when the author reaches more recent times in her narrative, she switches from a chronological account to four final chapters, each of which is derived from the mandates of a 1972 mission statement: to teach, to heal, to serve, and to transform society. This approach provides the opportunity not only to summarize the work of the past, but also to highlight the recent and current work of the sisters that is often extremely creative and shaped by professional expertise and worldwide community need.

This book is a physically handsome piece of work and is filled with several sections of sharp black-and-white photography, along with a few striking color pieces as well. The narrative moves well. The work is comprehensive and thoughtfully wrought. If a second edition is planned, a comprehensive index would make a welcome addition. Altogether, Signadou proves itself to be a fine piece of work on the Kentucky historical scene.

- Clyde F. Crews
Bellarmine College
Louisville, Kentucky
May, 1998