Agnes, Aimée, Alice: Three Acadian Sisters as Exemplary Twentieth-Century American Catholic Women

In the late nineteenth century, the industrial mill towns of New England drew several thousand francophone Catholic Acadian immigrants from Atlantic Canada. One such Acadian immigrant family—the Bourneufs—established themselves in the greater Boston area, and three daughters of the family became exemplary twentieth-century American Catholics. None of these women ever married and instead committed themselves to intellectual careers within a male-dominated professional world. Agnes Bourneuf wrote for periodicals such as Catholic Digest , and later owned and operated St. Thomas More, an ecumenical Catholic bookstore on the campus of Harvard University. Aimée Bourneuf became a religious sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart, taught French at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in New York, and translated theological treatises during the Vatican II era. Alice Bourneuf studied at Radcliffe College, became a leading American economist, and established an influential career at Boston College. Using documentary evidence, including their respective publications, this article recovers their story.