During the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, women religious in the Low Countries played a significant role in the production and use of vernacular sermon collections. Before 1550, over 200 codices containing sermons were created for or used in female religious institutions. Some 30 manuscripts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries preserve original sermons preached for and recorded by women religious. The surviving collections predating 1520 originated within the context of the devotio moderna. After the Council of Trent (1545–1563), sermon writing by women religious became more widespread, notably in the Catholic southern Low Countries. Several collections feature colophons, prologues, and epilogues that provide insights into the motivations and methods employed by women religious, who wrote out of deep respect for priests. They aimed to preserve their teachings and to foster their own personal spiritual growth and that of the other members of the community.