Church-sect dynamics and the Feast of Corpus Christi

Sociology of Religion, Fall, 2004 by Barbara R. Walters

A significant vignette narrates an encounter between Juliana and the Abess Imene in which Juliana temporarily usurps the temporal authority of the Abbess with her special gifts. At the prompting of the Abbess, Juliana burst out in proclamation of the "honeyed sweetness" she felt toward the canticle "Magnificat" (Delville 1999:51-53). Most likely this is one of several references to Juliana singing. A social ritual of apology, reparation, and deference by Juliana follows the usurpation, which reaffirms the official hierarchical ordering between the two women.

Juliana formed another significant personal friendship with Isabella of Huy, a beguine. Shortly after Juliana received official approbation for the new feast day, she arranged for the highly esteemed Isabella to be received as a sister at Mont-Cornillon. During one of their many conversations [in the language of the vita] Juliana, wishing to know if God had shown Isabella any of the great mysteries regarding the Feast of Corpus Christi, asked her what she would think of a new feast day celebrating the sacrament. Isabella's response clearly indicated that she had no knowledge or understanding of the feast that Juliana mentioned; it paraphrases from the prophecy of Simeon.

    Thus perceiving from this response that nothing of the secret
    knowledge revealed to her had yet been revealed to this person,
    Sister Juliana appeared no differently than had a double-edged sword
    pierced her heart (Delville 1999:132-134; cf. Newman 1988:85).

When Sister Isabella saw the pain and disappointment in Juliana's face she prayed and asked the other sisters to pray that God would open her eyes to understanding. This enlightenment occurred when Isabella visited Eve at Saint-Martin's where she then had a vision of the new feast. Isabella became Juliana's lifelong friend. She fled Mont-Cornillon with her, Agnes, and Ozilia in 1247, and died at Salzinnes in Namur, the last of the monasteries in which Juliana and her companions found refuge. As a beguine, Isabella must have come from a lower social stratum than both Eve and Juliana, who were placed in official church and monastic settings that were enriched by their respective dowries. Isabella functioned in the social networks by linking Juliana's vision to the beguines.

The descriptive accounts of interactions between Juliana and the two close women companions, Eve and Isabella, provide evidence for the subjective and affective nature of much of the initial communication among women regarding the new Feast of Corpus Christi. The pneumatic presence looms large in these communications, aided by basic rules for face-saving. The interactions closely conform to implicit norms of etiquette in face-to-face interaction in ways that facilitate acceptance of religious or mystical phenomena.

Olivier Quenardel (1997) takes up the topic in his application of Goffman to Gertrude of Helfta who, like Juliana, was surrounded by friends. Quenardel analyzes "divina pietas" employing sociologist Goffman's (1967) metaphor of the theater with its emphasis on the play of "face" and the reciprocal nature of social interaction when partners execute their actions in the physical presence of one another. In these face-to-face situations, he notes, civilized individuals are expected to conduct themselves in ways that sustain self-respect and "spontaneously because of emotional identification with others and their feelings" be "disinclined to witness their defacement" (Goffman 1967:10).