The “Auxiliaries of the Apostolate” (Auxilium): a 20th-century Network of Belgian Catholic Lay Women and their Role in Societal and Ecclesiastical Change (1940-1977)

The women of the Auxiliaires de l'Apostolat were nowhere and everywhere. These women were part of a previously unknown, but nevertheless broad, network of Catholic lay women who, after their founding by Cardinal Mercier in 1917, strove to live out their Christian vocation discreetly within the Church and society. This project studies the development of this network of lay women from World War II to the long 1960s by (i) mapping the members of the Auxiliaires de l'Apostolat and their network; (ii) studying their ideas as 'travelling concepts' between theological, gender and social contexts; and (iii) studying their influence on social, ecclesial and feminist organisations in the Belgian and international context. Given the confidential nature of this vocation, this social conceptual historiography is complemented by historical network research and oral history.