Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100

Description

In this remarkable study of over 2,200 female and male saints, Jane Schulenburg explores women's status and experience in early medieval society and in the Church by examining factors such as family wealth and power, patronage, monasticism, virginity, and motherhood. The result is a unique depiction of the lives of these strong, creative, independent-minded women who achieved a visibility in their society that led to recognition of sanctity.

"A tremendous piece of scholarship. . . . This journey through more than 2,000 saints is anything but dull. Along the way, Schulenburg informs our ideas regarding the role of saints in the medieval psyche, gender-specific identification, and the heroics of virginity." — Library Journal

"[This book] will be a kind of 'roots' experience for some readers. They will hear the voices, haunted and haunting, of their distant ancestors and understand more about themselves." — Christian Science Monitor

"This fascinating book reaches far beyond the history of Christianity to recreate the 'herstory' of a whole gender." —Kate Saunders, The Independent

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ch. 3 "At What Cost Virginity? Sanctity and the Heroics of Virginity"

ch. 7 "Gender Relationships and Circles of Friendship among the Mulieres Sanctæ "

ref:22.91 on gifting books in opposite-sex friendships: «In praising the queen’s intelligence and her wonderful zeal in “divine reading,” he [Turgot] observes that “she [Queen-St. Margaret of Scotland] had in fact great religious greed for holy volumes, and her intimate friendship and friendly intimacy with me compelled me to exert myself very much in procuring them for her.”»

ref:22.101: "Although we can find notable cases of close spiritual friendships among the holy elite throughout the Middle Ages, it appears that many of the prominent examples, particularly involving abbesses and abbots, are again concentrated in the north of Europe and England, and date to the early years of Christianization."