Domestic violence against women as a reason to sanctification in Byzantine hagiography

Domestic violence against women is a taboo topic, normally silenced or ignored in literature, though socially accepted as a common way of male control over woman in the familiar context. The lives of Matrona of Perge, Mary the Younger and Thomaïs of Lesbos are rare examples of how domestic violence against women could be also interpreted as a reason to sanctify the woman suffered abuses of this sort. This article is aimed at analyzing this phenomenon into the context of Byzantine Hagiography