Handmaids of the Lord
Holy Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Handmaids of the Lord
Holy Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
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Paperback / softback
£39.99
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780879077433
Number of Pages: 444
Published: 01/11/1996
Width: 14 cm
Height: 21.6 cm
All around the Roman world—in the Greek East and the Latin West, in Asia Minor, North Africa, Egypt, the Holy Land, Italy, and Gaul—widows, virgins, and sometimes matrons lived ascetic, celibate and devout lives either in community or in their own households. They created a powerful tradition which exerts an influence down to the present time.
We see these women chiefly through the eyes of men who paid them the intended compliment of calling them 'virile', often simultaneously admonishing them to beware the attentions of lecherous men and foolish women. Descriptions of their lives were intended to serve both as a tribute to their 'manly' austerity and as a model to be emulated. In this volume, the only woman's voice is that of a Gallic nun.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations 9
Translator’s Preface 11
Publisher’s Note 13
1. Feminine Monasticism in the First Six Christian Centuries: An Historical Introduction 15
2. Macrina: A Domestic Monastery in Cappadocia 39
Introduction 41
The Life of Saint Macrina by Gregory of Nyssa 51
3. Ancillae Domini in the Roman Empire: Letters of Saint Jerome to Ascetic Women in the Roman Empire 87
Historical Introductoin by S. L. Greenslade 89
Marcella, Lea, Asella, and Principia: Widows and Virgins in Rome 101
Paula the Elder: An Ascetic Pilgrim to Rome and Bethlehem 123
Eustochium: The Theology of Feminine Asceticism 169
Demetrias: An Ascetic Exile in North Africa 219
Paul the Younger and Pacatula: How to Raise Young Virgins 251
4. Melania the Elder and Melania the Younger: Ascetic Matrons in Egypt and Jerusalem 281
Introduction 283
Melania the Elder, by Palladius (The Lausiac History) 299
Melania the Younger, by Palladius 308
The Life of the Holy Melania by Gerontius 311
5. Radegunde: A Royal Foundress in Gaul 363
Introduction 365
The Life of Saint Radegunde 381
Book One, by Venantius Fortuanatus 381
Book Two, by the nun Baudonivia 401
The Death and Funeral of Radegunde, by Gregory of Tours 429
Appendix: The Sisters of Sainte-Croix de Poitiers 433
Suggestions for Further Reading 435
