The+Medieval+Nun

The Medieval Nun

By: Sabrena Lanette Johnson

Inroduction According to metmuseum.org, Monasticism appeared around the late third to fourth century. The Byzantine Capital of Constantinople had about seventy monasteries by the early sixth century. Monasteries were places that offered protection for unwed women and their property. Some young were probably fascinated with the fact of becoming a nun because it meant servitude to God ( Life of Medieval Nun ). Hildegard of Bingen is an example of an intellectual nun. She was an “author, composer, physician, and consultant to popes and kings.” Nuns were to stay in prayer, assist the sick, teach the young, and assist the poor. They were forbidden to preach as the priest did. Medieval nuns were distinguished by their dress. Any woman could enter into a nunnery, convent, or monastery, but some were selective of the young women that they chose. “Wealthier” nunneries required a dowry from the young women as if they were getting married. Some young women left the nunneries, convents, and monastery when they got older. However, some were fascinated with the fact of becoming a nun and took the vow of servitude to God ( Medieval History ). ​

Miri Rubin, “The Ritual for the Ordination of Nun”//, Medieval Christianity in Practice,// //pp .318-322 // //Focus: //The ordination of a nun is a process that takes about a year to be completed. A woman’s “petition” to be a nun must be accepted. The “postulant” is handed over to a mistress. The mistress is to teach the postulant the three very important things that govern the life of a nun. The postulant will become a nun after a year and only then if she is deem to be ready of a life of servitude to God.
 * || The role of the novice || The role of the mistress ||
 * The beginning of a life of servitude || The female most made a petition. Her petition must be received by the prioress and convent (Rubin, 318).

The postulant is dressed in the attire that she was expected to wear until she is ordained as a nun (Rubin, 318).

The prioress ask the novice of her wish and the postulant should reply, “The mercy of God and your mercy” (Rubin, 318). || The postulant is handed over to a mistress (Rubin, 318).

The mistress is to teach the postulant the three things that were mentioned by the prioress (Rubin, 318). ||
 * Expectations || The novice is required to “forsake” her own and live under complete obedience to the prioress and elder sisters of the convent, own no property, and live a life of celibacy. The novice agrees to the terms (Rubin, 318). || “When two months has passed, the mistress shall expound to the novice the rule and all the points and the strictness of religion” (Rubin, 318).

The mistress will expound the rules again in six months (Rubin, 319). ||
 * The chapter || After the rule has been expounded to the novice for the second time, she shall be “examined” by the chapter. The novice will be examined four times (Rubin, 319). || Until the end of the year of proof, the mistress shall bring the novice to the chapter. On the day of profession, the mistress will give the novice a pen with ink to “make a cross on her profession” (Rubin, 319). ||
 * The transformation || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; text-align: center;">The novice will lay “prostrated “while the priest says four collections over her. She will stand while her veil is consecrated.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">The novice will make her profession to the prioress (Rubin, 320). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">The mistress and three or four sisters will stand around the novice and place her veil upon her head (Rubin, 320). || //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Implications: //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The ordination of a nun was not an overnight process. The postulant’s petition had to be received, and she had to go through a year of teaching. The Church wanted to make sure that the young woman understood what servitude really meant to a nun. This ritual has probably weeded out a lot of young women from the nun profession. The author called the life of a nun “hard”.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">Felicity Riddy, “Nunneries, Community and the Revaluation of Domesticity”, //Gender & History,// pp.755-762 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Focus: //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The woman was a defining factor in many homes during medieval time. Even when women entered into nunneries, they found themselves perform the same duties that their mothers had. Nunneries were considered unattractive because most were impoverished.
 * || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The role of the woman || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The role of the nun ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">

Was the role of the wife any different from the role of the nun || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">The woman was the defining factor in the home (755).

The husband knew that his wife would be waiting for him when he arrived home (Riddy, 756).

In her collection of essays, Rosalynn Voaden highlights that fact that women were “far more likely than men to be kept inside by domestic chores” (Riddy, 756). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">Penelope Galloway discusses the “neglected northern French beguine” in an essay. She states that the first beguinage was founded by daughters of bourgeois families; they rejected their families.” However, they performed the same duties as most women did (Riddy, 756). || //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Implications: //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Riddy’s mission was to give a glimpse of the life of the nun. She highlights the importance of the woman in the home. Most women welcomed the impoverish life of the nun because this meant they did not have to marry, yet they performed some of the same domestic duties that a married woman would. <span style="background-color: #800000; display: block; font-size: 200%; text-align: center; vertical-align: super;">
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The Home || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">Women were continually “associated” with the home. Home takes many forms in these essays and monographs. A home could be a “convent, town house, anchorhold, beguinage, and or country manor” (Riddy, 756). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">Nuns did not have the contact with the outside world that preachers had, but they did have contact. Nuns spent a lot of time in prayer and meditation (Riddy, 756). ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The Religious Order || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">Jane Cartwright highlights the fact that there were not very many provisions made for a medieval woman of Wales to enter into the religious order. This meant that most women had to marry and performing the duties of a wife (Riddy, 757). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">The Dominican nun’s duty was to pray. Writing was considered a “domestic activity.” There was no use for a Dominican nun to learn Latin theology. The Dominican nun “read translations and wrote original works in the vernacular, developing with their convents a prayer life of intense, mystically influenced spirituality” (Riddy, 757). ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">Marriage or Nunnery || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; text-align: center;">East Anglian nuns were said to have entered into nunneries to get away from the domestication of marriage (Riddy, 759). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">Nunneries were perceived as being poor. However, Roberta Gilchrist highlights the fact that some nuns welcomed poverty (Riddy, 759). ||

Nuns in Prayer



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">James A. Parente, Jr., “Untitled”, //Renaissance Quarterly,// Vol. 57, No.1 (spring 2004) //pp.231//-232 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Focus: //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The focus of this “Untitled” article about //Sisters in Arms// was to highlight the important facts about women in Christianity. Medieval nuns (sisters) helped to shape the Catholic culture. Their voices were often over-shaded by the feminist movement, but it was well known that the foundation of Christianity was root in the nun. Nuns, as well as, monks were known for their celibacy and power of prayer. However, women of the Catholic Church were not equal to the male laity of the Church. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Sisters in Arms” //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">asserts persuasively that religious communities of women were the most effective female group in the European past” (Parente, 231). <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;"> The voices of “secular women” tried to cover the voices of the religious woman, but it is known that the religious woman was the foundation of Christianity (Parente, 231). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">McNamara highlights that celibate communities that were made up of men and women “co-operating in various combinations of prayer and service”- formed monasticism. She labels this as "syneisactism"-this was mainly a forceful ingredient in the church from its earliest centuries onward (Parente, 232). || (Parente, 232). || //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Implications: //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Parente sought others to notice that women were the foundation of the Catholic Church. They were dominated by the males of the Church, yet they possessed a spiritual power that was unsurpassed. The women of the Church continuously challenged the males of the Church which resulted in the Catholic culture that we know of today.
 * || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">Women and the Catholic Community || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">Celibacy and the Church ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The shaping of Christianity || //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Sisters in Arms //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">highlights that the women’s “regular religious life reflected with unique clarity the fundamental realities of all gendered experiences shaped by Catholic Christianity (Parente, 231). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">“Celibacy has generally supported the spiritual authority and social status” of the nun” (Parente, 232 ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">The make-up of the community || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">The “women's monasticism thus at once built Catholic culture and framed a counterculture” (Parente, 231).
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The power of the woman || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">Because of nun houses, there has been “counterbalance of sacramental authority wielded by clerical males with the power of women’s prayer” (Parente, 231). || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">“Single-sex communities are not, in McNamara's reading of the Catholic past, the only or necessarily the most powerful context for the self-assertion of women religious”
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">Social domination || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;">Holy women have rallied against “men’s social domination and increasing misogynist” (Parente, 231). || ** “ **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">The interest and practices of women religious infiltrated normative spirituality and cultic practice while challenging priests', bishops', and canonists' control of Catholic Europe's belief and action” (Parente, 231-232). ||

__ Argument __ The sisters (nuns) of the medieval period helped to shape the foundation of the Catholic Church. The sisters took their vow of servitude very seriously which was put through the test a year before being ordained a nun. Nuns were not considered equal to their counterparts (the monks and priest), yet their power lay within their spirituality. They were expected to pray and were unable to preach, yet they would defend their beliefs and actions when the need aroused ( Parente, 231-232 ). The Dominician nuns did more than pray. They read translations and then wrote “original works in the vernacular” ( Riddy, 757 ). Hildegard of Bingen is an example of a powerful sister of the Church. The roots of the medieval nun can be seen in Catholic Church around the world.

References

1. A Tale of Two Converts: Nuns and Anabaptist in Munster, 1533-1535 D. Jonathan Grieser //__The Sixteenth Century Journal__//, Vol.26, No. 1 (spring, 1995), pp.31-47 Published by: __//The Sixteenth Century Journal//__

2. Were There Twelfth-Century Cistercian Nuns? Constance H. Berman __//Church History//__, Vol.68, No.4 (Dec., 1999), pp.824-864 Published by: //Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History//

3. Nunneries, Communities and the Revaluation of Domesticity Felicity Riddy //__Gender & History__//, Vol. 12, No.3 (November 2000), pp.755-762 Retrieved from History Reference Center Database

4. The Ritual for the Ordination of Nuns Nancy Bradley Warren //__Medieval Christianity in Practice__//, (2009), pp.318-322 Published by: //Princeton University Press

5. h[|ttp://www.middle-ages.org.uk/medieval-nuns.htm]//

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7.h[|ttp://medievalhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/life_in_a_medieval_nunnery]