ABSTRACT
Throughout her work, Caroline Pichler expressly maintained an Austrian identity in which Catholicism constituted the essential part. Religion, and Catholic faith in particular, was an important part of Pichler's intellectual profile and constitutes a leitmotiv in her work, yet professed Catholics were sorely tried during her lifetime. Austria is acknowledged as a power to be reckoned with in the European political context as a nation with an essentially Catholic identity which had come under pressure from those who had nominated themselves as promotors of Roman Christianity since ancient times. The Catholic religion Pichler evokes is one of personal spiritual experience reminiscent of mysticism, as her references to Francis of Sales, Fenelon and Thomas a Kempis indicate. Nonetheless, in each of the stories, Pichler portrays strong women, whose endurance is underscored by the detailed account of their suffering of shame and injustice on the mysterious road God has set out to salvation.
