Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 14646
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Power , Kim E.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: From Ecclesiology to Mariology: Patristic Traces and Innovation in the "Speculum virginum"
  • Source: Listen, Daughter: The "Speculum virginum" and the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages.  Edited by Constant J. Mews.  The New Middle Ages Series. Palgrave, 2001.  Pages 85 - 110.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Ambrose, Bishop of Milan and Saint Bride of Christ, Image of Handbooks Mary, Virgin, Saint in Literature Monasticism Patristics Sources Speculum Virginum, Latin Handbook for Nuns Theology Virginity Wisdom, Theological Virtue Women in Religion
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 12
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  • Abstract: This chapter explores the influence of patristic teaching about the Virgin Bride, particularly that of Ambrose of Milan, on the ascetic teaching and theology of the "Speculum virginum." It also identifies the influence of Paschasius Radbertus, a ninth-century theologian, whose treatise on the Assumption of the Virgin always circulated under the name of Jerome, as responsible for shaping a far "higher" view of the status of the Virgin, as preexisting at the beginning of time, than anything imagined by any of the Latin Fathers. The "Speculum" author develops Paschasius' teaching about the Virgin Bride into an extended reflection on the moral virtues of humility and charity that all virgins of Christ should imitate. The esteem attached to a life of virginity in the "Speculum" cannot be understood outside the context of this understanding of the Virgin as a cosmic presence pervading human history. [Reproduced by permission of Palgrave].
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  • Year of Publication: 2001.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0312240082