Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 6432
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Auzepy , Marie-France.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: La Sainteté et le couvent: libération ou normalisation des femmes? [The author examines the Byzantine female saint, both in saints' lives and accounts of women's monasteries. In the seventh and eight centuries stories of saintly women disguised as men and penitent prostitutes were very popular, but in the ninth century these saints were supplanted by holy empresses (both wives and mothers and then nuns) whose cults were promoted for familial and political reasons. Women entered monasteries for a wide variety of reasons, including punishment for adultery and political incarceration. However, in some situations women had important responsibilities as abbesses or "higoumene" ( ) of double houses. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Femmes et pouvoirs des femmes à Byzance et en Occident (VIe -XIe siècles). Colloque international organisé les 28, 29 et 30 mars 1996 à Bruxelles et Villeneuve d'Ascq.  Edited by Stéphane Lebecq, Alain Dierkens, Régine Le Jan, and Jean-Marie Sansterre.  Centre de Recherche sur l'Histoire de l'Europe du Nord-Ouest, Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille 3, 1999.  Pages 175 - 188.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Byzantium Hagiography Monasticism Nuns Women in Religion
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Eastern Mediterranean
  • Century: 7- 8- 9- 10- 11
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  • Author's Affiliation: Université de Paris VIII
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1999.
  • Language: French
  • ISSN/ISBN: 2905637358