Since the Middle Ages, women including Hildegard of Bingen and Vittoria Aleotti have been composing music for the church.
American, Australian,Filipino and English Catholic hymn collections dating from the first half of the 20th century included hymns and service music by women religious living in convents. Because of their vows of humility, authorship of their compositions was identified only by the composer's first name, initials, or the city where her convent was located.
While much of the Catholic liturgical music published today is still composed by men, the number of liturgical compositions by women is growing. Some of the women who compose music for the Church are Carol Browning, Jeanne Cotter, Dolores Dufner, Bernadette Farrell, Dolores Hruby, Donna Peña, Anne Quigley, M.D. Ridge, Gigi de Jesus, Suzanne Toolan, Lori True, and Janèt Sullivan Whitaker.
One of the earliest hymns published by a woman composer in the United States was "I Am the Bread of Life" by Catholic nun Suzanne Toolan, in 1966.