During the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, secularization advanced in European nations with a Catholic tradition. The State became the owner of broad areas of social life that had usually been covered by the Church, such as education or health. Catholic women, both secular and religious, played an active role in the fight against this trend, creating women’s associations or congregations that helped maintain Catholic spirituality within society. Also Catholic women, in the Anglo- Saxon sphere, took care of this task, both in the metropolis and in the colonies. Our objective is to present and analyze the historiographical trace that their activities have left in society.Chair: Inmaculada Alva (Universidad de Navarra) Speakers:Mónica Fuster Cancio (Pontificia Università della Santa Croce), The impact of secularisation on the missionary activity of Catholic women religious in the British colonies in AfricaMaría Muñoz Sanz-Agero (Université de La Sorbonne), Catholic women and national regeneration in the Spanish turn of the centuryConcepción Escrig Ferrando (Universidad de Alcalá), Catholic women’s associations in Madrid during the effective reign of Isabel IIUrsula Silber (“Martinushaus Aschaffenburg”, Diocesis of Würzburg), The “Frauenfriedenskirche” at Frankfurt / Main – A Space of Memory and CommitmentHelena Pratas (Sociedade Científica da Universidade Católica Portuguesa (SCUCP)) and Isabel Baltazar (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), A paradigm of care in EuropeFrancisco Glicerio Conde Mora (Salus Infirmorum de Cádiz y Ceuta), Salus Infirmorum. The diffusion of the Social Doctrine of the Church in the healthcare world from its origins to the present day