This thesis examines the visionary writings of Elisabeth of Schönau, a nun of Schönau monastery, which was a double house in the diocese of Trier between 1152 and 1165. I argue that Elisabeth’s works dynamically engaged various religious audiences (monastic and clerical) in order to provide spiritual guidance to diverse types of people (monks, nuns, abbots, abbesses, and clerics). Elisabeth’s writings not only represent the self-reflection of a twelfth-century woman visionary, but also demonstrate the ways in which Elisabeth forged her spiritual authority by reacting to, and at times anticipating, the reception of her visions by her community. While Elisabeth rhetorically described herself as a passive receptor of divine knowledge, she actively worked to shape the practice of worship first within her monastic community and then, once her authority grew beyond Schönau, amongst a wider audience.

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.

This thesis explores the relationship between hagiography and history, with a particular focus on the cult of the little-studied sixth-century Antiochene holy man Symeon Stylites the Younger. It argues that any hagiographic text can only be understood through an appreciation of both its particular historical context and of developments in the genre over time. The first chapter thus addresses the economy, society and culture of the Antiochene area, arguing, against some recent archaeological interpretations, that sixth-century natural and military disasters did have a significant impact on the region. The second chapter turns to the first text associated with Symeon's cult, the sermon collection attributed to the stylite, which reveals how a holy man could construct his own spiritual authority through powerful rhetoric. Starkly polarised in his thought, Symeon eschews the compromises adopted by many clerical preachers, focusing on the opposition of demon and monk, rich and poor, and heaven and hell. The third chapter addresses the Life of Symeon, arguing that it can be read as an extended apology for Symeon's failure to protect the Antiochene from the disasters of the sixth century. The fourth chapter looks at the Life of Martha, Symeon's mother, which contains an original and inclusive vision of holiness, focusing not on asceticism or celibacy but on the redemptive powers of liturgy and the sacraments. The fifth chapter takes a step back, arguing that both Lives reflect broader developments in hagiography in the late sixth and seventh centuries: Symeon's hagiographer's struggle to justify disasters are echoed in other near-contemporary saints' Lives, while Martha's Life resembles in many respects the posthumous miracle collections which flourished in this period and were, in their relatively narrow focus, very suitable for a time of crisis.

Souvent méconnues, les beatas de la Couronne de Castille, réunies en petites communautésappelées beaterios, ont jusqu’à présent très peu attiré l’attention de l’historiographie. Considérées commedes femmes laïques se livrant, au milieu du XVe siècle, à des formes de dévotions populaires et à despratiques mystiques jugées hétérodoxes, les beatas recouvrent pourtant une réalité plurielle et complexeque cette thèse entend approfondir. Un dépouillement minutieux de sources inédites dispersées enEspagne et au Vatican a permis de bâtir une vaste enquête prosopographique sur 195 beaterios et354 beatas, dont l’objectif est de mieux définir et appréhender la naissance, l’implantation géographiqueet la répartition de ces foyers dans les royaumes et les villes de Castille, entre 1450 et 1600. Notrerecherche se propose donc d’appréhender les modes de vie et les pratiques spirituelles de cescommunautés féminines dans leur diversité, en insistant sur leur engagement caritatif et leur intégrationdans la société et la vie religieuse castillanes des XVe et XVIe sièclesement le nombre et la répartition de ces foyers, et d’autre part, pour connaître et comprendre leur intégration, leur mode de vie, et définir de la sorte les conditions d’existence éphémère de ces communautés. L’étude de la singularité des pratiques, de l’entourage et des parcours des beatas analysées tout au long de ce travail, permettra, selons nous, de proposer une réflexion mûrie et nuancée sur l’implication de la beata dans la vie sociale et religieuse castillane des XVe et XVIe siècles. / The little-known beatas from the Crown of Castile, who often lived together in smallcommunities called beaterios, have so far drawn little attention from historians. They are usuallyconsidered, in fairly general terms, as mid-15th century lay women who practised popular forms ofdevotion and a form of mysticism which fell foul of the Catholic orthodoxy. Actually, the beatasconstituted a plural, complex phenomenon that this thesis endeavours to explore. Indeed, the carefulanalysis of original sources from various locations in Spain as well as in the Vatican City leads to awide-randing prosopographical survey of 195 beaterios and 354 beatas, in order to better understand thecreation, geography and distribution of these communities in the kingdom and towns of Castile,between 1450 and 1600. This thesis offers to consider the diversity of lifestyles and spiritual practicesof these female communities, with a focus on their charitable work and their integration in Castiliansociety and religious life in the 15th and 16th centuries

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abstract: In this study, I explore to what extent an erotic orientation toward others’ spiritual characteristics, specifically with regard to “clean” souls, was strongly idealized in at least two medieval English locales, the central Midlands and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Where a hetero-genital orientation was pervasively considered proper with regard to erotic attraction then as today, I propose that, additionally, a desire to associate on a spiritual level with not only those of the same religion but also of like spiritual purity governed desire. As I will argue, this orientation to a spiritual sameness stemmed from a meme of preferred association in life with other Christians with clean souls. I refer to this desire for association with Christian sameness as a homo-spiritual orientation. As I will argue, this homospirituality was the primary basis of erotic desire portrayed and prescribed in the evidence considered in this study. In sum, I argue that fifteenth-century English ways of knowing and feeling desire, reflected in models of desire in romance poetry in these two locales, evidences an erotic orientation based on homospiritual lines of attraction. Moreover, in each area, the models of lay homospiritual erotics were preceded by and coincided with religious writings on the subject that contributed to an overall intellectual current. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2017