Siblings and the sexes within the medieval religious life

Church History, March, 2008 by Fiona J. Griffiths

IN 1156, the German visionary Elisabeth of Schonau received a series of revelations concerning Saint Ursula, whose body, together with some of the eleven thousand virgins supposedly martyred alongside her, had allegedly been discovered in a cemetery just outside the city walls of Cologne. Elisabeth's revelations, which were prompted by the arrival at Schonau of two bodies from Cologne (one male and one female), resulted in one of her most controversial and certainly most popular works, the Liber revelationum. Prompted to investigate the Cologne discovery by "certain men of good repute," Elisabeth reports that she was visited first by Saint Verena and then by Saint Caesarius, cousins whose bodies had come to rest at Schonau. The two regaled her with stories of the martyrs' journey from Britain to Cologne and confirmed for her the authenticity of their relics. Such confirmation was necessary: Elisabeth admits that she had initially been skeptical of the association with Ursula, since male as well as female bones had been discovered in the Cologne cemetery. "Like others who read the history of the British virgins," she confesses, "I thought that that blessed society made their pilgrimage without the escort of any men." (2) The bones of men, intermingled with those of women whose very sanctity depended on their virginity, caused Elisabeth no small discomfort. Pressing her saintly visitors on this point, Elisabeth nevertheless received assurance that although many men had indeed accompanied the women, they had done so licitly, primarily as members of the women's families.

Elisabeth's willingness to accept that the companionship of male relatives had not compromised the purity of the virgin martyrs has important implications for the study of medieval monasticism and, above all, for our understanding of relations between the sexes within the religious life of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. During Elisabeth's lifetime, the involvement of women in the monastic life increased dramatically--indeed, the number of monasteries for women in western Europe alone grew four-fold in the century leading up to her death in the 1160s, with some decades witnessing as many as 50 new foundations. (3) And yet, despite the obvious attraction of women to the religious life and the dramatic upsurge in houses for women during this period, there is a sense that this was a difficult time for religious women, a time when the church reform movement--with its increased attention to the enforcement of clerical celibacy--brought about creeping limitations on women's autonomy and spiritual opportunity. (4) One measure of the challenges facing religious women lies in the increased anxiety that surrounded contact between the sexes within the religious life. According to the prevailing rhetoric of the period, the separation of the sexes was essential for individual spiritual advancement; religious men in particular were encouraged to maintain their distance from women, who often appear as temptresses in monastic literature. As a result, male monastic orders appear to have limited their contact with women, withdrawing from women or denying them the crucial spiritual and material services (the cura monialium) that only a priest could provide. (5)

It is against this backdrop that the visions of Elisabeth of Schonau are so important. As Elisabeth's visions demonstrate, alongside the drive toward sexual segregation within the religious life there was an alternate spiritual possibility, one in which contact between the sexes was not only acceptable, but could even be mutually advantageous. (6) As we have seen, Elisabeth's saintly visitor Verena confirmed that men as well as women had been martyred at Cologne. Moreover, the men had benefited from their proximity to women, drawing inspiration from their courage and devotion, and ultimately earning sainthood alongside them. (7) Nevertheless, the men's chief purpose in accompanying the women had been to provide spiritual care for them. (8) In several cases, the male martyrs were also bishops, who furnished the women with the sacraments during the course of their travels. In every case, however, the male-female relationship--admittedly treacherous spiritual territory--was legitimized through blood ties: the men were brothers, cousins, and uncles of the saintly women. (9)

I. SPIRITUAL AND BIOLOGICAL FAMILY IN EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

The presence of men among the company of virgin martyrs and the centrality of family ties to Elisabeth's explanation for their presence raise important questions concerning the role of biological families within the overarching spiritual "family" that the Christian community--and above all the monastery--was thought to constitute. While contact between men and women within the medieval religious life was never easy, Elisabeth's account of the martyrs of Cologne suggests that it could be acceptable, provided that the men and women concerned were biological kin. Of course, Elisabeth herself may have had more than a passing interest in the legitimizing quality of kinship ties: she maintained a close relationship with her brother Ekbert throughout her life, even prompting him to join her in the religious life at the double monastery of Schonau, where he served as her secretary and aide until her death. (10)