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62
63
altogether?
The regrettable state of the historical record duly noted, there neverthe
less remain sources which help in the construction of a partial portrait of
women's experience of virginity and asceticism in the early centuries of
Christianity, andwhich suggest certain interpretationsof thatportrait.With
a few notable exceptions,10 the sources for the history of the idea and
practice of virginity and asceticism amongwomen are literary sources. One
of the earliest sources is probably the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, a
collection of narrativeswhich provides evidence for the attraction of Chris
tian asceticism forwomen in the second and third centuries. 1 Treatises and
5
Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae/Vie de Sainte Macrine, text established and French
trans. Pierre Maraval. Sources Chretiennes no. 178 (Paris:Cerf, 1971). Hereafter cited as
Vita Macrinae.
6 Ibid., 5, 6ff.
7 Ibid., cf. Maraval's introduction, 23-29, 92 on the text as a
philosophical, theios
aner-type work.
8 J.-P.Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, series graeco-latina (= PG), pp. 29-32; cf.
Maraval's introduction, 43.
9 Cf. Cuthbert Butler, The Lausiac History
of Palladius, 2 vols. Texts and Studies:
Contributions to Biblical and Patristic Literature no. 6:1-2 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University, 1904), 2: 219, n. 78: 'The other holy women mentioned [inHistoria Lausiaca
41, on gynaikes andreiai: Veneria, Theodora, Hosia, Idolia, Basianna, Photina, and
Sabiniana (deaconness and aunt of John Chysostom)] are not otherwise known to history."
Butler ismistaken with respect to Sabiniana, who ismentioned in JohnChrysostom, Ep.
6, ld (Malingrey, 130, 1. 1), though his point remains well-taken.
10These
exceptions are papyrus documents which lend credence to the fact that literary
sources do not tell the whole story of women's experience of the ascetic life. The
documents are BGU 13897, P.Oxy. 1774 and 3203; cf. A. M. Emmett, "Female Ascetics
in the Greek Papyri," Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzantinistik 32 (1982).
11Wilhelm Schneemelcher and
Edgar Hennecke, eds. New Testament Apocrypha, 2
64
homilies on virginity and renunciation had their origins in the third century
inAfrica and seem to have become a favoriteofwriters in the fourth century
and afterwards.'2 The lives of certain exceptional women remain, notably
13
Macrina, Syncletica, Olympias, andMelania the Younger. As noted above,
there is a one-sided epistolary tradition involvingvirgins and asceticwomen,
women who received the carefully preserved letters of such important
church fathers as Jerome, Paulinus of Nola, JohnChrysostom, and Basil.14
The monastic movement in the east, a particularmanifestation of the ascetic
ideal, produced two anecdotalworks which include informationon women's
experience of asceticism, Palladius'Historia Lausiaca and the anonymous
Historia Monachorum inAegypto.15 Finally, the monastic desert also pre
served a handful of sayings attributed to the holywomen Theodora, Sara, and
Syncletica in the collection Apophthegmata Patrum.16
vors. English translation edited by R. McL. Wilson (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966);
Kraemer, 298-307; Davies, passim. There are references to female virginity in the
Apostolic Fathers: Clement of Rome, Epistola 1 ad Corinthios 38, 2; Ignatius Epistola ad
Smyrnaeos 13, 1; Ignatius, Epistola ad Polycarpum 5, 2; Polycarp, Epistola ad Philip
penses 5, 3.
12Tertullian, De Virginibus Velandis (PL 2, 887-914), dated between 200 and 206;
Cyprian, De Habitu Virginum (PL 4, 439-464), dated to themiddle of the third century, c.
249. The most important treatises on virginity are the following: Ambrose, De Virginibus
(PL 16, 187-232); Athanasius, De Virginitate Sive Ascesi (PG 28, 251-282); Augustine, De
Sancta Virginitate (PL 40, 395-428); Basil of Ancyra, De Vera Virginitate (PL 30, 669-810);
Pseudo-Clement, Epistolae 1-2 ad Virgines (PG 1, 379-452); Eusebius of Emesa, Homi
liae VI et VII, in E. M. Buytaert, ed. Eusebe d'Emese: Discours conserves en Latin,
Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense no. 26 (Louvain: Universite catholique et colleges the
ologiques 0. P. et S. J. de Louvain, 1953); Gregory of Nyssa, De Virginitate/Traite de la
VirginitY, text established and French trans. Michel Aubineau. Sources Chretiennes no.
119 (Paris: Cerf, 1966) [hereafter cited as De Virginitate]; Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum
(PL 23, 211-388); Jerome Ep. 22; John Chrysostom, De Virginitate/La Virginit, text
established by Herbert Musurillo, French trans. Bernard Grillet. Sources Chretiennes
no. 125 (Paris: Cerf, 1966) [hereafter cited as De Virginitate]; Methodius, Symposium
Decem Virginem/Le Banquet, text established and French trans. Victor-Henry Debidour.
Sources Chretiennes no. 95 (Paris:Cerf, 1963). For a summary of the development of the
arguments of fourth-century treatises, cf. Thomas Camelot, "Les traits De Virginitate au
IVe sicle," Etudes Carmelitaines 13 (1952): 273-292. Also, on general content of treatises,
cf. Francois Bourassa, "Excellence de la virginity: Arguments patristiques," Sciences
ecclesiastiques 5 (1953): 29-41.
13Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae; Pseudo-Athanasius, Vita et Gesta Sanctae Beataeque
Magistrae Syncleticae (PG 28, 1487-1558), hereafter cited as Vita Syncleticae; Vita Olym
piadis; Vita Melaniae/Vie de Sainte Melanie, text established and French trans. Denys
Gorce. Sources Chr6tiennes no. 90 (Paris:Cerf, 1962), hereafter cited as Vita Melaniae.
14For
Jerome and Chrysostom, see notes 2 and 3 above. Basil of Caesarea, Epistolae/
Lettres, 3 vols. Text established and French trans. Yves Courtonne (Paris: Soci6te d'edi
tion "Belles Lettres, 1957-1966). Paulinus of Nola, Epistolae/Letters, 2 vols., trans. P. G.
Walsh. Ancient Christian Writers nos. 35, 36 (Westminster, Md.: Newman, 1967).
15
Palladius, Historia Lausiaca (PG 34, 995-1262); critical ed., Butler, vol. 2; Historia
Monachorum in Aegypto, text established and French trans. A.-J. Festugiere. Subsidia
Hagiographica no. 53. Brussels: Soci6t6 de Bollandistes, 1971.
16
Apophthegmata Patrum (PG 65, 71-440); sayings of Theodora (PG 65, 201A-204B);
65
The question then is how to use these texts to understand and interpret
the experience and meaning of asceticism and virginity forwomen, and for
the culture as awhole. Of course, as Butler, Rousseau, andMoine have ably
shown, to act under the assumption that these texts portray history as
twentieth-century scholars understand that concept would be naive.17 Nar
ratives and discourses full ofmiraculous healings, demons (realor imagined),
hagiographical fervor, and a desire to recreate-through example and dog
matic definition both-an ideal of Christian perfection and the angelic life,
are not historically accurate in themodern sense, nor do theymean to be.
Rather, they are orthodox attempts to frame and order experience and
doctrine into a single, monolithic image of Christian existence. In aChristo
centric, ecclesiocentric world order, each act and its motivation must be
adapted to the dominant set of categories or be lost or called heretical. Thus,
true virgins remained chaste for love of Christ, in a desire to perfect them
selves for an angelic future, foran ideal of humility and self-effacement. They
did not do so to escape disagreeable home lives, to avoid painful sex, or to
have access to a different set of possibilities than the limited ones offered
them by a constricting social order. The texts offer a glimpse of women's
experience of virginity, and a clear and well-developed picture of the frame
which envelops the image, the frame comprised of the categories which
constructed and attempted to appropriateand subsume the experience. The
question becomes this: where did women's experience of virginity and
asceticism coincide with the orthodox line andwhere did it rupture that line?
Did women use the Christian categories to try to break the severely limiting
conventions of the social order? Was such a rupture possible, given the
shared notion of patriarchal dualism which created the material and ide
ological realities of both late antiquity in general and early Christianity in
particular? And the final, specific question which motivates this entire
inquiry:what did the movement towardvirginity and ascetic renunciation
mean forwomen's sexuality?
The Roots Of Asceticism And The Idea Of Virginity
The roots of asceticism lie at the very heart of the Christian tradition, in
Jesus'more radical exhortations on the requirements of discipleship and in
Paul's advice to early Christian communities to follow his example of the
celibate life so as not to detract from preparation for the coming kingdom of
God.18 How did these early roots bring forth such a flourishing of radical
sayings of Sara (PG 65, 419B-422A); sayings of Syncletica (PG 65, 421A-428A). English
translation inOwen Chadwick, ed., Western Asceticism (Philadelphia:Westminster, 1958),
33-189.
17Butler, 1: 178-196;
Philip Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority and theChurch in theAges of
Cassian
and
Jerome
(Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1978), 11-18; Moine, "Melaniana,"
passim.
18Mk 8:34-9:1
(par.);Lk 9:1-6 (par.);etc; 1Cor 7.
66
to be a
67
36).
23Cf. Methodius, Symposium, Discourse 7, 3, 157-158, where virgins are called the
legitimate brides of Christ, while all other women in the church are concubines, young
girls, or daughters; virgins are unique, elect, most honored in Jesus' eyes. Another familiar
motif in the literature of the fourth century is excessively high praise for the exceptional
virgins: Macrina is called "the common object of great boasting in our family" (Gregory of
Nyssa, Vita Macrinae 22, 28); Eustochium is called the first among the nobles of Rome
(Jerome, Ep. 22, 15); Melania the elder was "the true pride of Christians of our time"
(Jerome, Ep. 39, 5); Melania the younger was "the first among the senatorial class of
Romans" (VitaMelaniae 1), and Olympias' virtues are the object of especially abundant
rhetoric (VitaOlympiadis 13ff).
68
69
70
Chrysostom,
during her entire life, does the virgin endure what the married
woman endures almost every year, the one who is split apart by labor
pains and wailings? For the tyranny of this suffering is such that,
Cyprian, earlier, used the same Genesis text (3:16) to show the liberating
aspect of virginity. "Youvirgins are free from this sentence," he wrote;
you do not fear the sorrows of women and their groans; you have no
fear about the birth of children, nor is your husband your master, but
your Master and Head isChrist in the likeness of and in the place of a
man; your lot and condition are the same (as that of men).32
71
72
He will come behind and put His hand through the hole of the door,
and your heart shall be moved for Him; and you will awake and rise
up and say: "I am sick with love." Then he will reply: "A garden
sealed. "42
73
brides.46 Others describe the engendering of the son of God in the spirit of
the virgin, thusmaking it possible for her to imitateMary.47
The underside of thesemetaphors of spiritualizedmarriage and sexuality
is a persistent suspicion of the flesh and its passions, a suspicion not solely
Christian in origin, but found throughout the Stoic philosophical tradition
which influencedmuch Christian thinking about virginity.48The Stoic sys
tem is based on the precept that passion and reason are natural adversaries
and that the goal of human life should be to become logikos and apathes,
reasonable/logical andwithout passions; to do so is to live life in accordance
with nature.49Clement of Alexandria, one of the church fathersparticularly
influenced by Stoicism, based his notion of sin on this Stoic idea; for
Clement, sin was defined as the passion of the spirit against nature.50The
tyranny of sensation and the passions as an obstacle in the pathway to the
Christian ideal is a common notion in early Christian writings, especially
from the third century on, and especially in the writings on virginity and
continence. Evagrius Ponticus describes a chain whose links are sensation
leading to desire which leads to pleasure; the goal of Christian perfection
must be towipe out sensation in order to break themenacing chain.51 Saint
Syncletica, in her attempts to achieve perfection, closed off her senses to
everything except the Bridegroom.52 Eusebius of Emesa preaches:
Among the virginswhom the ardentdesire ofGod has touched,lust
isdead, passionkilled.Nailed to the crosswith itsvices anddesires,
the body is like a stranger to them; it does not feel what you feel, it is
have spurned the pleasures of the body and desire no mortal offspring but those immortal
children which only the soul that is dear toGod can bring to the birth unaided because the
Father has sown in her spiritual rays enabling her to behold the verities of wisdom." Cf.
also Legum allegoriae 3, 180-181 and De cherubim 42, 43, 48f for similar imagery.
Cyprian, De Habitu Virginum 3; Methodius, Symposium, Discourse 3, 8, 70-71; 75
(church as the receptacle of the fertile seed of doctrine); Discourse 8, 11, 197 (the virile/
potent logos). Cf. also Crouzel, 15-44, on Origen's development of the notion of the
mystical union of the church and Christ. Also cf. Ambrose, De Virginibus 1, 5, 31 (PL 16,
197);Augustine De Sancta Virginitate 2, 5, 6, 12 (PL 40, 397; 401).
46Methodius,Symposium,
Discourse3, 7, 74.
47
74
75
Many of the ascetic women whose stories remain are considered lauda
ble because they escaped the bonds of their feminine nature: thus,Olympias
and Melania are both called he anthropos (the [feminine article] hu/man
[generic, masculine noun]). Gregory says ofMacrina at the beginning of her
story, "Awoman is the starting-point of the narrative, if indeed awoman; for I
do not know if it isproper to name her who is above nature out of [the terms]
of nature." Likewise, John Chrysostom is said to have responded to a
question concerning Olympias by saying, "Don't say 'woman'but 'what a
man!' because this is aman, despite her physical appearance."62In addition,
in one of the few sayings attributed to women in the monastic tradition,
Mother Sara says of herself, "I am awoman by nature but not in reason."63
Athanasius advises virgins to abandon feminine mentality, because women
who please God will be elevated tomale ranks.4
The idea of virgins transcendingor rising above nature is a point atwhich
Stoicism and Christianity part ways, though in the case of the Christian
ideal, nature is apparently not meant in the sense of the nature-reason
equation but rather as thatwhich has to do with thematerial, female realm.
JohnChrysostom understands virginity as a struggle against the tyranny of
nature as does Melania the Younger's biographer. Eusebius of Emesa por
trays the Christian ideal as thatwhich negates or transcendsnature and calls
fallen virgins thosewho "fall to the level of nature."65Jerome is alone among
the church fathers in seeing virginity itself as the natural state, though here
he seems to be using the term "natural"as part of the nature-reason equa
tion, since he makes the point in the context of arguing that sexuality itself is
the product of the fall.6
The notion of ascetic women evading their female nature arises in an
interesting narrativemotif which appears early in the traditionand remains a
controversial sign of female renunciation and spiritualitywell into the ninth
century-the motif of women cutting their hair or disguising themselves as
monks.67 Thecla, who remains the model of virginity for generations of
Edouard des Places (Paris: Societe d'Edition "Belles Lettres," 1982), 33. For the same use
of thelunomenon, cf. Porphyry, De Abstentia IV, 20 in Porphyrii, Opuscula Selecta, ed.
Augustus Nauck (Leipzig: Teubner, 1886) 262, 1. 25. Cf. Methodius, Symposium, Dis
course
8,
13, 205:
". . . make
your
soul male
..
."
62Vita
Olympiadis 3; Palladius, Historia Lausiaca 9 (onMelania); Gregory of Nyssa, Vita
Macrinae 1; Palladius, Dialogus de vita S. loannis Chrysostomi (PG 47, 56).
63 PG 65, 420D. The same theme occurs also in Gregory of Nyssa, De Virginitate 20, 4
and Vita Melaniae 39.
64
Athanasius, De Virginitate 10-12 (PG 28, 261C-266B).
65
John Chrysostom, Ep. 8, 6d; Vita Melaniae 12, Eusebius of Emesa, Homilia 7, 6; 7, 8
(cf.Amand de Mendieta, 780-781); Amand de Mendieta, 819.
66 Jerome, Ep. 22, 19. Cf. John Chrysostom, De Virginitate 14 and elsewhere; cf. Grillet,
142, n. 3; Gregory of Nyssa, De Virginitate 4; Crouzel, 26. By contrast, note that
Augustine claimed thatAdam and Eve had physical needs even in paradise: De Nuptiis I,
9, 24 (PL 44, 418-419; 427-428).
67
Evelyne Patlagean, "L'histoire de la femme deguis6e en moine et l'evolution de la
76
ascetic women,68 both cuts her hair andwears men's clothing in the Acts of
Paul andThecla while, inother Apocryphal Acts, Mygdonia cuts her hair and
Charitine wears men's clothing. 69Syncletica is said to cut her hair as a sign of
her renunciation of the world.70 Transvestism among virgins is said to be
accompanied by loss of female bodily characteristics, and to be followed by
the negation of sexuality altogether:
But there ismore: the fundamentalnegationof femininity,where the
physical spoiling is a manifestation
77
andreia.74 The term is associated with virgins from very early on in the
tradition;one of Hermas' similitudes in the Shepherd includes a description
of virgins whose delicacy was contrasted with their andreia.75The term is
most often used in relation to particular exceptionalwomen: Macrina teaches
her mother patience and andreia; JohnChrysostom speaksmany times of the
andreia of Olympias, and theword also appears once in her biography, and
Paulinus describes Melania the Elder's andreia on the occasion of her son's
death. Palladius describes all of the virgins of whom he will speak as
possessing andreia and there is a chapter of theHistoria Lausiaca dedicated
particularly to gynaikes andreiai.76 The important question here is the
nuance of this word, andreia, which refers to one of the Stoic virtues, and
which also is related to the Greek root, aner, meaning "man/male." Are
women who are designated by this term being called "manly"?Musonius
Rufus discusses in two of his discourses, firstwhether women should study
philosophy77 and secondly, whether daughters should receive the same
education as sons. In the first discourse, Musonius states thatwomen have
the same inclinationasmen towardvirtue, and in the second, he asserts that
women are endowed with andreia aswell asmen; if it appears thatandreia is
absent fromwomen, it is only for lackof use and practice, and not for lackof
the attribute.78 Cora Lutz, in her edition and translation of Musonius'
writings, argues thatMusonius goes to great lengths to defend the use of the
word andreia in reference towomen, not simply out of rhetorical zeal, but
because theword actually means "manliness." She points out, further, that
Plutarch's treatiseOn the Bravery of Women avoids the term, replacing it
with the more general arete.7 Whether this argument alone is strong
enough to support the assertion that andreia, when attributed to women
means "manliness" is not clear;what is clear, nevertheless, is that the nuance
ispresent in theword, even if it is not its only meaning.
This brings to a close the overview of the idea of virginity and asceticism
as it can be deduced from the sourceswhich exist. It is a complex notion,
weighted by both theological concerns and contemporary philosophical no
tions, and it is not easily synthesized. Marital and sexualmetaphors are
found alongside demands for the absolute renunciation of sexuality and
feminine nature. Virginity is called liberationfrom the physical exigencies of
74
Clark, "Ascetic Renunciation," 245, n. 38; Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom and Friends:
Essays and Translations (New York:Mellen, 1979), 15, 19, 55-56; Rousselle, Porneia, 237.
75Hernnas, Pastor 79, 5 = Sim. 9, 2, 5.
76Gregory ofNyssa, Vita Macrinae 10; JohnChrysostom, Ep. 3, 1; 11, 1; 12, 1 (twice); 16,
1 (twice); Vita Olympiadis 15; Paulinus, Ep. 45, 2; 3; Palladius, Historia Lausiaca,
Preamble (Butler, 3-4), 41.
77Musonius
Rufus, 3, 4, Reliquiae, ed. O. Hense (Leipzig: Teubner, 1905) 8-19; 38-43;
Lutz 40, 42-49.
78 Ibid., 4 (Hense, 15, 11. 17ff;Lutz, 44, 11. 33ff).
79
Lutz, 44, note on 1. 22.
78
79
80
who
appear
several
times. The
81
the conclusion that itwas a practice towhich many virgins (and brothers)
adhered.Whether virgins broke their vows of chastity in livingwith men, as
some church leaders claimed, cannot be ascertained from the evidence. Yet
it is clear that women found it a desirable arrangement in which they
continued to participate at leastwell into the seventh century.95
The evidence for the ages of women devoting their chastity to God
varies, thoughmany appear to have done so early in life. Palladius tells of
Talis, awoman who followed the ascetic life for eighty years, of Taor,who was
a virgin for sixty years, and another virgin, unnamed, who was ascetic for
sixty years aswell. Macrina was twelvewhen she decided to remain a virgin;
Olympias was widowed at nineteen and refused to remarry;Blesilla, Paula's
daughter and Eustochium's older sister, began her ascetic life at her wid
owhood at twenty; Melania the Elder, widowed at twenty-two, pursued
asceticism, and her granddaughter,Melania the Younger, renounced the
world at twenty, after seven years of marriage.96 Such early marriages and
widowhoods were quite common in the Roman period, asmarriage, within
the aristocracy at least, was the standardmethod of sealing pacts between
families and assuring that a legitimate heir existed for the passing on of
property. The marriage often occurred between an older man and a young
girl, sometimes younger than twelve.97
Despite the fact that girls were considered ready formarriage at such a
young age, theywere by nomeans thought tobe capable ofmaking decisions
for themselves, and the decision to renounce the world and to guard one's
virginity was not often met with encouragement from parents and other
family members. Often the parents were concerned to assure the con
tinuation of their line, as was the case with Syncletica and Melania the
495-514); Quod regulares feminae viris cohabitare non debeant (PG 47, 513-552); ET:
Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Friends.
95 R. Kugelman and F X. Murphy, "Virgines Subintroductae," New Catholic Encyclope
dia (New York:McGraw Hill, 1967), XIV: 698.
96 Palladius, Historia Lausiaca, 46, 56, 59-61; Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae, Mar
aval's introduction, 45; John Chrysostom, Ep. 8, 5c; Vita Olympiadis 2-3. Jerome, Ep. 39,
1; Palladius, Vita Melaniae, 8. Cf. Moine, "Melaniana," 65, for a challenge toMelania the
Elder's age, on the basis of the unreliability of Palladius' dating.
97M. Durry, "Le mariage des filles impuberes dans la Rome antique," Revue interna
tionale des droits de l'antiquitg, 3d ser. 2 (1955): 262-273; cf. also Danielle Gourevitch, Le
mal d'etrefemme: Lafemme et lamedicine dans la Rome antique (Paris: Societe d'Edition
"Belles Lettres," 1984), 109-111; Rousselle, Porneia 122; M. K. Hopkins, "The Age of
Roman Girls at Marriage," Population Studies 18 (1965): 309-327; Evelyne Patlagean,
Recherches sur les pauvres et la pauvrete dans l'empire roman d'orient (IV-Vile siecles),
Civilisations et Socidets no. 48 (Mouton: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales,
1977), 343-351 Cyrille Vogel, "Facere cum virginia (-o) sua(-o) annos .. . L'ge des 6poux
chretiens au moment de contracter mariage d'apres les inscriptions paleochretiennes,"
Revue de droit canonique 16 (1966): 355-366, discusses the age of marriage forChristians
based on grave inscriptions; the median age resulting from this data is nineteen years for
women. Cf. article for the details of the research.
82
Younger.Macrina also faced opposition when, at the death of her fiance, she
decided to remain a virgin. JohnChrysostom speaks of the fact thatOlympias
scandalized many people by her practice of asceticism, and her biography
tells of the emperor confiscating her wealth because she refused to remarry
after being widowed at nineteen. The problem of parental opposition
provokedmuch rhetoric on the part of the church fathers. Paulinus of Nola
describes Melania the Elder's struggle to embrace asceticism after the deaths
of her husband and two of her three children:
Many were her skirmishes down to the very elements in this warfare
against the vengeful dragon. . For the whole force of her noble
83
84
reveal
85
86
87
88