Modern historical research of women and nursing has largely defaulted the role of religious arranges particularly in the American frontier. The image of women at the close of the 19th century was individual of submission to male authority and confinement to the domestic sphere. However, in the pluralistic West, a variety of organized religious women built and administered hospitals, initiated professional nursing, and provided effective health care services. This article compares cases of Catholic nun and Mormon women as exemplars in a conceptual words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of religious devotion,
