Aging, Eldercare, and Late Imperial Religious Sensibilities

• In Event: Eldercare and Its Impossibilities

Abstract

Religious Orthodox Christian women in the Russian empire at the turn of the twentieth century were expected to accept with fortitude both their own aging and also the duty of caring for the elderly in their households. These expectations were articulated in such didactic works as sermons, saints’ lives, and popular devotional journals, but these sources acknowledged that aging and eldercare often brought more stress than reward, and written confessions, diaries, and letters described women’s experiences with even more frankness. This paper considers both prescriptive and descriptive non-aestheticizing religious accounts of aging and eldercare.

Author

• Nadieszda Kizenko, SUNY Albany