Renunciar al siglodel claustro familiar al monástico. La funcionalidad social de los conventos femeninos

Abstract

Apart from compensating the female surplus, the main cause of monastic foundations can be found in the need to maintain the family fortune —the foundation of social position—, without fragmenting it in legacies and marriage dowries. An unequal marriage or a suitor that was unworthy in the eyes of his potential parents-in-law could end up with the daughter in a convent. Devoted to a life of prayer from the cradle, girls entered the convent at a very early age, almost always entrusted to the care of a close relative. The convent played the role of the family home —with sisters, aunts and nieces living together in a relationship in which a series of typified behaviour patterns can be observed— and school for the daughters of the leading families. They entered the convent as pupils or apprentices, in order to learn the basics of everyday courtesy. Apart from being a shelter for children and an orphanage, the convent was also the ideal place to take in orphans, foundlings, bastard girls and the daughters of unknown parents; a home where widows could spend their final days honestly; a solution for the victims of domestic violence and a refuge for separated women fleeing from unhappy marriages.