Serving the ‘Divine Economy’: St Joseph’s Asylum for Aged and Virtuous Females, Dublin, 1836–1922

Abstract

St Joseph’s Asylum for Aged and Virtuous Females catered for Catholic aged, single women from 1836 to 1993, with the focus of this article on the period 1836–1922. Founded prior to the 1838 advent of poor law, St Joseph’s embodied an alternative miniature welfare system for its inmates, which served the wider ‘divine economy’. Operating at a time of limited labour market opportunities for females, functional age and inability to earn serve as important factors for considering why individuals might enter, particularly younger inmates. Chronological and cultural definitions of age also remain significant. This article discusses St Joseph’s management, financing, model of life, values and provides a sense of life within, to demonstrate how this system functioned. Despite a paucity of source material documenting lived experience, inmate emotional responses are tentatively probed. It argues that Catholicism is an important lens for understanding not solely the ethos and funding of St Joseph’s but the rhythm of daily life and death.