An introduction to the investigation into the mental health of female medieval mystics
While the Medieval ascription to madness is known, in the light of recent psychological and medical insights, I will explore alternative explanations for the extreme behaviour of devout women in the Middle Ages.
The female body, animal imagery, and authoritarian discourse in the Ancrene Riwle
Through close reading and rhetorical analysis of numerous passages in the guide, this dissertation re-examines the importance of the body and authority in this work and notes the points at which the discourse of the Ancrene Riwle tends to place restrictions on its audience of medieval women religious.
VAGANTES: Necessary Imperfection: The Body of Sainte Marie l’Egyptienne
This paper seeks to examine the role of the body and its relationship to the world around it in the “vie de sainte” of Marie l’Egyptienne, who is an excellent example of a female saint who begins life as a sinner and transforms her body into something holy. This presentation will focus on the version of Marie l’Egyptienne’s life written by Rutebeuf in the 13th century, but will also bring in elements of other versions and of the stories of other female saints who transform their bodies for comparison.
Convents, Courts and Colleges: The Prioress and the Second Nun
Pilgrimage, after Whitby, and before Vatican II, was a secular activity, a performance of piety by the laity, not by the clergy; although there were a few exceptions.7 Chaucer’s Monk, Friar, Prioress, Nun, Priest, Summoner, Pardoner and Parson ought not to be here. Their presence is outrageous comedy. Inns were forbidden to the cloistered clergy who, if they had to travel, were enjoined to stay in other monastic establishments along their route.
Englishwomen as Pilgrims to Jerusalem: Isolda Parewastell, 1365
Isolda Parewastell from Somerset, who was in Jerusalem in 1365, fitted into this fourteenth-century pattern. Despite the risks involved, women pilgrims were inspired by an instinct for travel and change, as well as by a sense of religious obligation and the hope of spiritual reward.
St. Birgitta: The Disjunction Between Women and Ecclesiastical Power
However, if one theoretically unseats the primacy of the Papal cause and instead places its importance within the context of Birgitta’s life as a woman, a more sympathetic portrait emerges. When I re-examine her visions and her life in this light, I find that Birgitta was divided in her allegiance to the Papal Father in her concern for women.
The Paradox of Evil: a Study of Elevation Through Oppression
For medieval mystical women, the ability to maintain two opposite concepts simultaneously seems to be requisite for spiritual development. Not only were women asked to comprehend humanity’s otherness from God, as women, they were assumed subservient to men and, paradoxically, as able to receive redemption as their male counterparts; women understood their nature as both inferior and worthy, lesser than and equal to.
“The World on the End of a Reed”: Marguerite Porete and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations – a reassessment
Central to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete „fit‟ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not „fit‟ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period.
Love, Marriage, and Happiness: Changing Systems of Desire in Fourteenth-Century England
It is my intention not only to explore the discourse of love and desire in the fourteenth century, but also to examine how the ideas have been altered from those present in the Anglo-Norman and Latin material that was written or widely read in twelfth-century England and what pressures and influences may have brought about these changes.
Writers in religious orders and their lay patrons in late medieval England
Critics have long recognized that the religious orders played an important part in the production of vernacular devotional literature in late medieval England. The orders were well suited to this task. Reading and writing were an important part of the life of those who lived under a rule.
Producing the Middle English Corpus: Confession and Medieval Bodies
In Producing the Middle English Corpus: Confession and Medieval Bodies, I argue that confessional discourse played an important role in the creation of the Middle English canon.
Mystics, Demoniacs, and the Physiology of Spirit Possession in Medieval Europe
Casting aside even the simple clothes she now wore, Ida wrapped herself in a dirty rag and draped a mat over her shoulders for warmth. Aggressively seeking out the most crowded plazas and market places, she preened and ‘strutted about if mad or a fool, offering a monstrous spectacle of herself to the people.’
Blood and body : women’s religious practices in late medieval Europe
Blood and body : women’s religious practices in late medieval Europe Tudesko, Jenny L. Thesis: M.A., History, California State University, Sacramento (2009) Abstract…
A history of women religious in the early Irish Church : the hagiographical evidence
A history of women religious in the early Irish Church : the hagiographical evidence Anderson, Jill J. Thesis: Doctor of Philosophy, University…
Breaking Through the Stained Glass Barrier: The Voices of Etheldreda,
Breaking Through the Stained Glass Barrier: The Voices of Etheldreda, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch Delsigne, Jill Scripps College (2004) Abstract…
Connections Between Body and Soul: The Asceticism of Medieval Saints
Connections Between Body and Soul: The Asceticism of Medieval Saints Hanson, Sarah E. UCI Undergraduate Research Journal, Vol.12 (2009) Abstract The relationship between…
Kingdoms and Beasts: The Early Prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen
Kingdoms and Beasts: The Early Prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen Czarski, Charles M. JOURNAL OF MILLENNIAL STUDIES, VOLUME I, ISSUE 2, Winter (1998) Abstract The…
Sisters Between Gender and the Medieval Beguines
Sisters Between Gender and the Medieval Beguines Stoner, Abby Ex Post Facto: Journal of the History Students at San Francisco State University, Vol.5:2 (1995)…
Birgitta of Sweden and the Divine Mysteries of Motherhood
Birgitta of Sweden and the Divine Mysteries of Motherhood Stjerna, Kirsi Feminist Forum, 24, no. 1 (1997) Abstract St. Birgitta of Sweden is…