The late antique figure of the female monk has been commented upon within the spheres of socio-history, theology, and literary analysis, but no comprehensive study has focused on the contemporary historical and gendered context. This thesis therefore reexamines female transvestite monk hagiographies, revealing that the female protagonists are portrayed as possessing a holy womanhood regardless of having layers of masculinity applied to them. Three layers of masculinity, namely outward, social, and inward, are identified in the characterizations of the female monks. Each masculine layer is scrutinized separately to explore its purpose in the plot structures and to show plausible motivations for the utilization of transvestite figures in religious literature. The use of an intertextual method reveals gendered intertexts, or literary motifs, in the hagiographies which serve as familiar ideological vehicles carrying the intended inspirational, instructional, and theological messages of the writers. Through the removal of these holy women’s masculine layers, this thesis reveals that outward and social masculinity are superficial and heavily relied upon as a means of concealment, but inward masculinity, considered akin to genuine expressions of self in these literary characters, is essentially non-existent. Hagiographers had no intention of transforming their religious protagonists into anything but determined, holy women who are forced to act drastically to sustain ascetic dreams begun while mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters. Masculinities and intertexts located in these Vitae contextualize praise for a holy womanhood within acceptable gendered language, which seems to support a belief in the spiritual potential of women. In comprehending the intertexts’ function in these legends, this thesis highlights the potential for complex irony to develop around the figure of a female transvestite, which supplies religious tales with intrigue and interest, the ability to instruct or chastise mixed audiences, and the potential to portray the reversal inherent in the human drama of salvation.

My PhD offers a reassessment of the representation of English bishops within episcopal vitae composed between 1093 and 1214. It argues that the depiction of episcopal sanctity was shaped by the expectations of the community for which these texts were written and the hagiographer’s specific causa scribendi (reasons for writing). Through an investigation of four distinct Latin episcopal saints’ lives, I investigate the relationship between hagiographical function, episcopal identity and patronage by setting each text within its specific institutional and historical context. The vitae I have selected are: Faricius of Arezzo’s life of Aldhelm (c.1093-1099), William Wycombe’s life of Robert Bethune (c.1148-1150) and Gerald of Wales’s lives of Remigius (c.1198-1199) and Hugh of Avalon (c.1210-1214).

This thesis focuses on the startling ways in which a significant number of early Christian hagiographies feature saints with rotting flesh and suppurative wounds. It explores this phenomenon first by considering ancient medical understandings of diseases such as phagedenic ulcers, gangrene, and the production of pus as evidence of humoural imbalances requiring medical intervention. Then it considers reasons why early Christians developed more positive attitudes regarding these conditions. These include associating rotting flesh with superior spiritual fortitude. They also include non-theological reasons for this phenomenon. This thesis hypothesizes that early Christians also enjoyed looking at rotting saints out of a voyeuristic desire to gaze upon otherwise hidden bodies. Furthermore, it argues that Christians enjoyed exposing themselves to feelings of fear and anxiety because of the neurochemical dimensions the experience stimulated. / May 2017

Woman monks are not uncommon to find in Coptic and other hagiographic literature. They were described to dress into male attire and travel to anchoritic monasteries where they would get a single cell to devote their lives to God through seclusion, prayers, fasting, meditation, studies, and other daily chores, all the while not being known as women by most of the men in their brethren. It was a tough life for a man and it would have been a tough life for a woman. In this study, five hagiographies about woman monks will be examined: three Coptic, one Christian, and one found in both traditions. These women performed miracles and went through changes in both body and mind. The woman Hilaria is one of the most popular saints in Coptic belief and her story is the corner stone of this thesis. Her legend is also considered to be one of the oldest and might be the origin of these kinds of stories, which makes it remarkable on its own. Nonetheless, four other female saints will be examined to find what this essay seeks to answer: What are these women, as women, doing and why? What is the meaning of these stories? Why do they go to anchoritic monasteries? Are we dealing with portraying ideals on Coptic and Christian women? These are some of the questions that this essay is based upon. It combines Egyptological, Christian, literary, as well as gender research for a relevant and fresh view on these texts and their meaning. / Kvinnliga munkar är inte ovanliga att hitta i koptisk och annan hagiografisk litteratur. De klädde sig i manliga kläder och reste till anakoretiska kloster där de fick en cell för att viga sitt liv åt Gud genom avskildhet, böner, fastande, meditation, studier och andra vardagliga sysslor, allt medan de flesta av männen i deras brödraskap inte visste att de var kvinnor. Det var ett hårt liv för en man och det var ett hårt liv för en kvinna. I den här studien kommer fem hagiografier om kvinnomunkar att undersökas: tre koptiska, en kristen och en som återfinns i både traditioner. Dessa kvinnor utfärdade mirakel och gick igenom förändringar i både kropp och sinne. Kvinnan Hilaria är ett av de mest populära helgonen inom koptiskt trosväsende, och hennes historia är hörnpelaren i denna uppsats. Hennes legend anses också vara en av de äldsta och kanske ursprunget till dessa sorts historier, vilket gör den enastående i sig själv. Trots det kommer fyra andra kvinnliga helgon att undersökas för att hitta de svar som denna uppsats söker: Vad gör dessa kvinnor som kvinnor, och varför? Vad betyder dessa historier? Varför går de till anakoretiska kloster? Har vi att göra med porträtterande av ideal för koptiska och kristna kvinnor? Dessa är några av de frågor som denna uppsats bygger på. Den kombinerar egyptologiska, kristna, litteratur- och genusstudier för ett relevant och färskt perspektiv på dessa texter och deras betydelse.

Judean hagiographies are unusual. Some are unexpectedly structured: a saint’s life in the form of a history text. Others offer surprising content. Expected hagiographic stylizations, for example, often depict moments in which the saint is offered money for a miracle. In such cases the saint invariably refuses. Judean saints, however, accept gratitude willingly – often with cash amounts recorded. The peculiarities of these works have regularly been examined on literary and theological grounds. In this dissertation I propose a different approach: socio-economic context. The monasteries that produced these texts were utterly dominated by the environment of Christian Jerusalem. Although often commented upon, the unmined implications of this reality hold the key to understanding these hagiographies. It is only by examining these monasteries’ ties to – and embeddedness within – their peculiar context that we can perceive the mindset that produced such baffling texts. Lengthy historical, literary, and archaeological analysis force Judean hagiography to give up its secrets. These works were in fact not odd at all. Rather, they were hyper-specialized, a unique adaptation to a unique environment. True, we do not see their like in other eastern regions over the span of late antiquity. Yet this is to be expected. Nowhere else can we find the particular conditions that brought these works into being. Nor can we understand the Judean works absent their milieu. It is only upon the foundation of layers of context that these hagiographies stand high enough to view. They were, most accurately, Holy Land hagiographies: a label as unique as the land that produced them.

Forme littéraire développée dès les débuts du IVe siècle, l’hagiographie, plus tard sanctionnée par l’Église catholique romaine, se déploie avec tout le rituel et le décorum requis par le genre institué, dévoilant les modalités du savoir et du croire qui la distingue. Cette forme fixe fut réactivée, contre toute attente, dans une somme étoffée durant la seconde moitié du XXe siècle par le Collège de ‘Pataphysique, aréopage de philosophes, littérateurs et plasticiens, qui n’est pas un conclave d’excentriques, pas davantage qu’un nouvel « isme », mais une institution qui résolument emblématise la Science. Ce réemploi générique de l’hagiographie est caractérisé par une hétérogénéité bien peu canonique s’inscrivant dans une continuité problématique par rapport au sous-texte. Une première traversée du Calendrier inviterait à croire à une entreprise parodique et iconoclaste. La parodie, qui est aussi une imitation, pose un problème de visée. Le second degré de Gérard Genette implique deux grands régimes discursifs : le sérieux (le sérieux proprement dit et le satirique) et le ludique. Ces régimes nous ont été utiles pour arrimer la question de l’humour. Il y a là en somme deux possibilités, soit la parodie sérieuse conduisant à ridiculiser l’hagiographie et le Calendrier des Saints qui seraient sérieusement visés, néantisés, tournés en dérision; soit la parodie ludique, à portée nulle, simple jeu, farce farfelue, « pour rire ». Or, nous avons tenté de démontrer dans ce mémoire que, même s’il y a lieu d’avancer des arguments en faveur de l’un et de l’autre type de parodie, le partage ne fonctionne pas, précisément peut-être parce qu’il est possible de montrer à la fois que c’est sérieux et pas sérieux. Dans un troisième temps, on peut aussi faire la démonstration que le pas-sérieux est sérieux. Les jeux de mots, d’homophonie n’engagent-ils pas le Verbe? L’imitation impossible ne réfléchit-elle pas les imitabile de la Sainte Église? La situation énonciatrice tributaire de l’hagiographie pataphysique est non différentiable d’un souci de didactisme qui place la composante moralisatrice au centre des enjeux discursifs. Elle induit de ce fait des attentes en matière d’ethos consistant à mettre au même diapason une représentation sociale de l’énonciateur et une représentation intradiscursive au ton didactique. Elle adjoint un autre ton, savant celui-là, érudit, qui vient défaire la belle convergence et fait disjoncter la rhétorique du genre. Cette rhétoricité problématique de l’hagiographie pataphysique a été abordée sous l’angle de l’ethos. L’ethos est l’instance de validation par laquelle nous renvoyons non pas au caractère de l’orateur, mais, suivant en cela Dominique Maingueneau, au type de parole engendrée par le discours et qui, en retour, rend ce discours crédible. Que devient cette instance lorsque la visée persuasive du discours est remise en question, que l’ethos se démultiplie de façon hétérogène sans véritablement assurer la cohésion du propos ni garantir sa portée? La parodie posant incidemment un problème de visée, est-ce du côté d’un ethos parodique que se trouve la réponse? Il nous a convenu de mesurer, d’articuler, de déplacer cette postulation. Nous nous sommes saisi, pour les besoins de notre argumentation, d’une discipline historiquement lourde d’investissement théorique, soit la rhétorique. Celle-ci constitue à la fois une méthode de composition d’un discours reposant sur des lieux susceptibles de susciter l’adhésion et l’émulation de l’énonciataire et une méthode d’analyse. Guidé par une définition étendue du texte, traversant les littératures non narrative et narrative, il nous a importé enfin de restituer la pratique cymbaliste à partir d’un corpus qui est resté l’apanage du « seul » pataphysicien. Nous nous sommes ainsi situé dans l’horizon plus global de la réceptivité d’un discours qui évacue l’idéologique, qui jamais ne se laisse saisir tout à fait, ni enferrer par le fétiche du sens au profit des potentialités qu’il recèle, et cela à partir d’axiomes arbitraires soumis à l’unique exigence de cohérence interne. / Hagiography, a literary form dating back to the beginnings of fourth century Christianism, and later sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, exhibits itself with all the ritualistic devices and decorum requisite to the genre, displaying the full intricacies of its knowledge and beliefs in the process. It was unexpectedly given new life by an extensive body of work put forth, in the second half of the 20th century, by the Collège de ‘Pataphysique (or ‘Pataphysics), a gathering of philosophical and literary minds. The Collège intended to be an institution dedicated to the emblematization of Science, something other than a conclave of eccentrics or a mere new “ism”. This generic reuse of hagiography exhibits a singular heterogeneity, which, far from being canonical, is part of a continuation, a problematic element vis-à-vis the subtext. Upon reviewing the Calendar of the Saints, one could conclude that this collective work is little more than a parodical and iconoclastic enterprise. But parody, a form of imitation, raises the issue of scope. Gérard Genette’s Second degree refers to two main types of discourse: the serious -what is serious per say and what is satirical-, and the playful. This approach proved useful when tackling the matter of humour. There are, in fact, two alternatives: serious parody, which would deride hagiography and the Calendar of the Saints, or playful parody, a simple game, a farce with no actual scope, “just for fun”. While a valuable argument can be made for either option, we will attempt to demonstrate that a distinction between the two is in fact impossible, precisely because it is possible to prove that it is both serious and not serious. Ultimately, we can also demonstrate that the not-serious is serious. After all, isn’t it true that puns and homophony both involve the Word? And doesn’t the impossible imitation reflect the imitabile of the Holy Church itself? The enunciative situation stemming from pataphysical hagiography is indistinguishable from any didactical endeavour with a moralistic component at its core. It calls for ethos, with a social representation of the enunciator as well as a didactical representation from within the discourse itself. It also takes a more scholarly tone, which disrupts the convergence and has a disjunctive effect on the rhetoric of the genre. We chose to approach the “rhetorical problem” raised by pataphysical hagiography through the notion of ethos. The ethos, as a validation premise, takes us beyond the speaker’s character, in the footsteps of the likes of Dominique Maingueneau, to the type of message stemming from the discourse, making it credible. But what becomes of this premise when the discourse’s persuasive scope is put into question? When the ethos multiplies itself, preserving neither the message’s cohesion nor its scope? If parody incidentally raises the issue of scope, does the answer lie in some form of parodical ethos? We saw fit to measure, articulate and analyse this hypothesis from different angles. For the purposes of our analysis, we took on a disciplined, rhetorical approach. Although cumbersome from a theoretical standpoint, this method for creating discourse is based on elements capable of inciting both adherence from (and emulation of) the enunciator, as well as on a method of analysis. Guided by a broader definition of the text, spanning both narrative and non-narrative literary genres, we sought to restore the cymbalistic approach from a body of work belonging solely to the pataphysician. We thus positioned ourselves in the greater setting of a discourse free of ideological considerations, that is never quite fully understood or stuck within the confines of meaning, and therefore has endless potential ; a discourse based on random axioms bound only by the requirement of internal coherence.

Étienne Maleu († 1322), chanoine de Saint-Junien (Haute-Vienne), a rédigé une chronique en latin. Il y raconte l’histoire de son église de l’an 500 jusqu’en 1316, date à laquelle il pose sa plume. L’auteur prend soin de consigner dans son « livre de mémoire », les biens et les droits de son chapitre à une époque où celui-ci voit ses horizons s’élargir considérablement à la suite de la nomination comme prévôt d’un membre de la curie pontificale avignonnaise. Étienne Maleu se distingue, parmi les historiens du début du XIVe siècle, par son profil singulier de chanoine de collégiale séculière ainsi que par la vaste érudition qu’il a mise au service d’une œuvre au caractère très local. Comme son contemporain Bernard Gui, auquel il emprunte sa matière et sa méthode historiques, il est un digne représentant de cette histoire « technicienne », selon le terme de Bernard Guenée, qui s’épanouit dans le royaume de France à la fin du Moyen Âge. En effet, le chanoine de Saint-Junien, qui a exploité des sources de natures très diverses (archéologiques notamment, qu’il a la particularité d’étudier dans une perspective liturgique), offre à son lecteur un récit construit et « documenté », y insérant, outre des analyses, la copie de vingt-sept chartes et bulles ainsi que de documents épigraphiques. La présente étude, qui vise à replacer Étienne Maleu dans la communauté des historiens médiévaux, s’accompagne d’une édition critique de sa chronique, réalisée à partir des différentes copies prises par des érudits des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, accompagnée de sa traduction commentée. / Étienne Maleu († 1322), canon of Saint-Junien (Haute-Vienne), wrote a Latin chronicle. He related the story of his church from 500 to 1316. Indeed, he completed his work in 1316. The author carefully recorded the possessions and rights of his church. At this time, indeed, the pope appointed to the function of provost a member of his familia : it deeply changed the chapter’s composition and organization. Étienne Maleu was quite different from the other historians of the beginning of the fourteenth century. Indeed, he was a secular canon who belonged to a collegiate church. Furthermore, he demonstrated a vast erudition in the writing of a very local chronicle and wrote a scholarly history, as his contemporary Bernard Gui from whom he borrowed his historical knowledge and method. Indeed, the canon of Saint-Junien used a very large range of sources, that is to say chronicles, vitae sanctorum, necrologies, deeds, epigraphic and monumental sources, oral sources and his own memory. He offered a well-structured story. He transcribed twenty-seven deeds in his work and also inserted in his text the summaries of about thirty other deeds. This study aims to place Étienne Maleu in the community of medieval historians. It also offers a critical edition of his chronicle – which publishes the text of copies made from the original manuscript (which was probably burnt during the French Revolution in 1793) during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – and a translation with annotations.

O objetivo desse trabalho é explorar as múltiplas formas com que os hagiógrafos do franciscanismo conceberam o espaço urbano e quais mecanismos utilizaram para formular tal concepção. Pretendemos também investigar se a noção de espaço urbano estabelecida por eles está ou não concorde com um possível discurso mendicante voltado para as práticas citadinas; por fim, queremos avaliar em que medida esses elementos se conjugaram na práxis pastoral dos franciscanos nas cidades onde atuaram. Para tanto, estudaremos duas compilações hagiográficas acerca da vida de s. Francisco de Assis, produzidas no século XIII: Compilatio Assisiensis e Memoriale in desiderio animae. Ambos os textos foram compostos em território peninsular e ambos procuraram acentuar o esforço missionário do santo de Assis para evangelizar, moralizar e \"converter\" as cidades centro-setentrionais da Itália. Partimos do pressuposto de que a hagiografia, de forma geral, constituiu um recurso retoricamente elaborado e utilizado em larga escala pela instituição eclesiástica para transmitir seus ensinamentos e atuar sobre as condutas dos fiéis. Nesse sentido, esperamos encontrar não a cidade real ou o esboço dela, mas a projeção de uma cidade que se queria implementar mediante a transmissão de certos valores tidos como os mais aptos para a transformação do corpo social. O feito de s. Francisco ter trabalhado na evangelização das cidades e de ter fundado uma ordem religiosa de escopo urbano já é indicativo de que a hagiografia franciscana tem algo a contribuir para o amplo estudo da noção de espaço urbano na baixa Idade Média / The objective of this work is explore the multiple forms which the hagiographers of the Franciscanism conceived the urban space and what mechanisms they utilized to formularize this concept. We pretend to investigate if the notion of the urban space established by them is or not concordant with a possible mendicant discourse turned to the citizen practices. Ultimately we endeavor to evaluate in what proportions this elements conjugated themselves in the pastoral praxis of the Franciscans on the cities where they acted. For so much we have studied two hagiographic compilations about the Saint Francis of Assisi\'s life that was written on XIII century: Compilatio Assisiensis and Memoriale in desiderio animae. Both the texts were composed in peninsular territory and tried to emphasize the missionary work of the Saint of Assisi to evangelize, moralize and \"convert\" the center north of Italy. We begin from the supposal that the hagiography, in general, constituted a rhetoric elaborated recourse that was utilized in large scale by ecclesiastic institution to transmit her teaching and to act on the conduct of the faithful. In this sense we expect not find the real city or her sketch but the projection of a city that had wanted implement itself by the transmission of certain values which were considered as the most apt for the transformation of the social body. The done of Saint Francis, who worked on the evangelization of the cities and founded a religious order of the urban scope, is indicative of that the Franciscan hagiography has something to contribute for the large study of the urban space notion on the late Middle- Ages

Pouco após a morte do jesuíta José de Anchieta, em 1597, na província brasileira da Companhia de Jesus, e durante todo o século seguinte, muitas biografias de caráter hagiográfico sobre o padre foram escritas e publicadas por jesuítas, no Brasil e na Europa. Em paralelo, um processo eclesiástico foi aberto na Santa Sé em princípios do Seiscentos com o fim de canonizar o religioso. A iniciativa partiu dos companheiros do Brasil, e recebeu grande apoio da Cúria Geral da Ordem. Esta, desde a década de 1580, se dedicava a propagar, interna e externamente, uma determinada memória institucional e uma identidade jesuítica comum, representada pelos santos, beatos e membros considerados mais notáveis da Companhia, como José de Anchieta. No presente trabalho, procuramos investigar as principais razões que mobilizaram tanto a Cúria romana da Ordem, quanto jesuítas que viviam em contextos missionários tão distintos, no Novo e no Velho Mundo, a se apropriarem da figura de Anchieta, divulgarem discursos sobre a sua vida e santidade e promoverem a sua canonização. Acreditamos que este estudo oferece uma nova interpretação sobre os sentidos atribuídos e os usos feitos dos discursos hagiográficos produzidos entre 1598 e 1677 sobre José de Anchieta. Tanto no contexto luso-brasileiro quanto em contextos locais na Europa, as biografias devotas do jesuíta foram dotadas de diversos significados políticos e religiosos, e utilizadas para fins que ultrapassavam o seu propósito ordinário de edificação espiritual e religiosa. / Shortly after the death of the jesuit José de Anchieta in 1597 in the brazilian province of the Society of Jesus, and throughout the following century, many biographies of a hagiographic character about the priest were written and published by jesuits in Brazil and Europe. In parallel, an ecclesiastical process was opened in the Holy See in the early seventeenth century in order to canonize the religious. The initiative came from the companions of Brazil, and received great support from the General Curia of the Order. Since the 1580s, the Curia has been dedicated to propagate, internally and externally, a certain institutional memory and a common jesuit identity, represented by the saints, blessed and members of the Company considered most remarkable, such as José de Anchieta. In the present work, we seek to investigate the main reasons that mobilized both the Roman Curia of the Order and jesuits living in such different missionary contexts, in the New and Old World, to appropriate the figure of Anchieta, to make speeches about his life and holiness and to promote his canonization. We believe that this study offers a new interpretation on the attributed meanings and uses made of the hagiographic discourses produced between 1598 and 1677 about José de Anchieta. Both in the portuguese and brazilian context and in local contexts in Europe, the devout biographies of the jesuit were endowed with various political and religious meanings and were used for purposes that went beyond their ordinary purpose of spiritual and religious edification.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Pires Vilela da Silva.pdf: 615859 bytes, checksum: 238dc87ffc85dfae925e2752d596999a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-06 / This dissertation develops on the issue seen as hagiographic literature from the life of Father Gabriel Malagrida which aims to extract an understanding of holiness from the colonial era . Problematizes the subject , with the backdrop of theological reflection , questions such as: What is the cultural context in which the narratives of the life of Malagrida then inserted ? You can establish a hagiographic model of holiness from the investigation of biographies of Malagrida ? What is the relationship that we establish between narrative Matias Rodrigues , Life of Father Gabriel Malagrida and more relevant information about the lives of saints hagiographic work , Legenda Aurea ? The method used is the investigation of literary , biographical and hagiographic literature of life Malagrida and other texts that contribute in understanding the thematic sources. The research aims to contribute to this approach in the valuation of a character of historical importance to Brazil , Jesuit Malagrida . It was found , first, that the current model of holiness has its origins in the medieval conception of Portuguese mother permeates all Brazilian colony . Then proved the hypothesis that an investigation of biographical works Malagrida views from the understanding of hagiographic literature , could provide us sufficient evidence to establish a model of colonial medieval holiness. Finally , we relate this concept to the hagiography contained in Legenda Aurea in order to delineate this paradigm of holiness / Esta dissertação desenvolve-se acerca da questão hagiográfica entendida como literatura a partir da vida do padre Gabriel Malagrida do qual pretende-se extrair a compreensão de santidade da época colonial. Problematiza-se o assunto, tendo como pano de fundo da reflexão teológica, questionamentos como: Qual o contexto cultural em que as narrativas da vida de Malagrida então inseridas? É possível estabelecer um modelo hagiográfico de santidade a partir da investigação das biografias de Malagrida? Qual é a relação que podemos estabelecer entre a narrativa de Matias Rodrigues, Vida do padre Gabriel Malagrida e a obra hagiográfica mais relevante sobre a vida dos santos, Legenda Áurea? O método utilizado é a investigação de fontes literárias, biográficas e da literatura hagiográfica da vida de Malagrida e de outros textos que contribuíssem na compreensão da temática. A pesquisa pretende com essa abordagem contribuir na valorização de um personagem de importância histórica para o Brasil, o jesuíta Malagrida. Verificou-se, primeiramente, que o modelo de santidade vigente tem suas origens na concepção medieval de matriz portuguesa que impregna toda a Colônia brasileira. Em seguida, comprovou-se a hipótese de que uma investigação das obras biográficas de Malagrida vistas a partir da compreensão da literatura hagiográfica, poderia-nos fornecer elementos suficientes para estabelecer um modelo de santidade medieval colonial. E por fim, relacionamos essa concepção com a hagiografia contida em Legenda Áurea de modo a delinear esse paradigma de santidade