A new heaven and a new earth, the vitae of the mulieres religiosae of liège

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis examines a corpus of twelve innovative Latin vitae and the twelve thirteenth-century women from the southern Low Counties, the mulieres religiosae, whose pioneering mystical sanctity they celebrate. The corpus comprises the vitae of Marie d'Oignies, Lutgard of Aywieres, Christina Mirabilis, Juette of Huy, Ida of Nivelles, Margaret of Ypres, Ida of Louvain, Alice of Schaerbeek, Ida of Gorsleeuw, Juliana of Cornillon, Beatrice of Nazareth and Elizabeth of Spalbeek. The first chapter provides historical and literary context for the vitae of the mulieres religiosae by tracing the development of Christian biography of women from the Gospel texts to the fifth century. Particular attention is given to the role of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, the passiones of the female martyrs and the literature of Egyptian monasticism in establishing women's place within hagiography, and to the development of sex-specific themes in the narration of female sanctity. The second chapter argues that the re-emergence of mysticism in high-medieval religious life brought profound changes to female biography by placing new importance on women's self-reporting of their inner experience, and on the male spiritual friend who recorded the interior life of his saintly friend. These changes are traced in the vitae of the mulieres religiosae, which represent some of the earliest examples of mystical biography. The third chapter considers the mulieres religiosae as dedicated early witnesses of the arresting spiritual practice of vicarious suffering. The mulieres religiosae acted on the supremely confident conviction that their own penance, in the form of physical or sometimes emotional suffering, would be of specific and objective spiritual benefit to others because they could bestow their own meritorious suffering on their neighbours, especially, though not exclusively, those who were in purgatory. Chapter Four investigates the interaction between motherhood and the perfect Christian life by exploring motherliness and sanctity in the life of Juette of Huy, a widow, recluse and mother. The chapter first examines the ideas about saintliness and mothering to which Juette and her biographer were heirs, and then explores the deep ambivalence towards motherhood which the Life of Juette depicts its subject as experiencing.Ph.D