Siblings and the sexes within the medieval religious life

Church History, March, 2008 by Fiona J. Griffiths

IV. BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY

My purpose in detailing the early history of the sibling bond within Christian thought is to demonstrate that, by the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the idea was firmly in place that a male saint should have an intimate and exclusive relationship with one woman in particular: his sister. Despite a prevailing clerical rhetoric that emphasized the separation of the sexes, relationships between brothers and sisters, like Elisabeth and Ekbert, persisted with little apparent scrutiny. Brothers and sisters continued to maintain contact, often living in close proximity and not infrequently engaging in intimate spiritual relationships. In the first place, then, the continued prominence of these sibling relationships reveals that contact between the sexes within the religious life was not only possible, but could be actively encouraged and even celebrated by medieval Christians, despite escalating fears of sexual pollution. Indeed, the First Lateran Council, while forbidding priests to live with wives or concubines, nevertheless allowed that they could live with female kin, explicitly invoking the precedent set at Nicaea. (51)

At the same time, sibling relationships demonstrate the essential mutuality of men's and women's spiritual lives. As we have seen, men contributed to the spiritual lives of their sisters, providing not only material support but sometimes also priestly services. The ultimately controversial practice of pairing male and female monasteries had its origins in the very real concern that male monastic founders like Pachomius and Caesarius had in ensuring the spiritual welfare of their kinswomen. This concern persisted in the central Middle Ages and provided the basis for such monastic foundations as Marcigny and Jully--paired with the male houses at Cluny and Citeaux, respectively. In many cases, brothers also engaged their sisters spiritually in writing, composing letters for their edification, rules for their monastic observance, and even their Vitae after their deaths. Above all, a brother could ensure the viability of his sister's religious life, providing crucial pastoral support, which other men, although theoretically also spiritual "siblings," could scarcely afford to risk. In stun, while familial relations provided a natural way in which men and women could establish contact in the religious life, they also provided a means through which women could claim--and receive--the care of a priest. (52)

The benefits of the sibling relationship were not one-sided; men too derived significant benefits from their interactions with their sisters. (53) Like mothers, who often exerted a powerful spiritual influence over their sons' spiritual vocations, sisters too are depicted as playing an important role in the spiritual lives of their brothers. (54) Although in most cases the brother was at least nominally superior--especially if he was ordained--spiritual influence flowed in both directions. Sisters provided their brothers with spiritual encouragement, often serving as the spiritual leader in the relationship--as Scholastica appears in Gregory's brief account, or Macrina in Gregory's Life. Men in turn recognized deep piety in their sisters, often admitting a spiritual imbalance in the relationship from which they felt that they stood to benefit. Their devotion to their sisters was thus not entirely altruistic; men clearly expected to profit from their relationships with pious female siblings.