1 [...

] the snow-white skin blacked as it was scorched, and broke into blisters as it welled all over, and her beautiful body crackled in the flame (Life of St ar!aret". #$%lore the meanin!s of the body in te$ts we have studied on this course. To the medieval mind, the female body was essentially incompatible with religiosity. While men, like Adam, were representative of the spirit, of logic, and of reason, women were like Eve: steeped in bodily corruption and incapable of higher thought because of a dependence on the bodily senses beings of pure appetite.1 !ecause of this, women were, as

Eli"abeth #obertson writes in her essay on the sub$ect, %perceived as incapable of the transcendence available to men%&. 'n order to be seen as holy or anything but corrupted by fleshly sin, women were instructed to remain virginal, to refrain from yielding to bodily desires. (ure, lifelong chastity was seen as a woman%s only means of accessing )hrist, because by giving into her lustful desires, she lost the opportunity to become a spiritual being, which was a prere*uisite to union with +od. As )aroline Walker !ynum comments, %the weight of the Western tradition had long told women that physicality was particularly their problem . . . they symboli"ed the physical, lustful, material, appetitive part of human nature%,. -ocus on women, especially saints and mystics, in medieval religious writing was primarily focused on the body, because women were purely physical in nature, and thus it was only through the body that a woman could access +od. .owever, the means by which the body is used to access +od is not always clear. To some, a complete denial of the female body is re*uired/ to others, the female body is the greatest possible connection to )hrist. 0ltimately, the female response to the idea that women could not achieve the sanctity men could was embracing the female body and using it as a channel to connect directly with )hrist. The body is so prevalent in the writing of, for, and about medieval religious women
1 Eli"abeth #obertson, %The )orporeality of -emale 1anctity in The Life of Saint Margaret%, in Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe, ed. by #enate !lumfeld23osinski and Timea 1"ell 45ondon: )ornell 0niversity (ress, 16617, pp.&8929: 4p. &:;7. & #obertson, p. &:1. , )aroline Walker !ynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human ody in Medieval Religion, 4<ew =ork: >one !ooks, 16617, pp. 1?821?:.

& because it allows a femini"ed means of both accessing +od on their own terms and escaping the restrictive rule of the male2dominated church. 'n much of the hagiographic writing of the time, female saints were remembered primarily as virgin martyrs, achieving sanctity by relin*uishing their physical bodies to the will of +od, undergoing horrific torture in the name of remaining chaste for )hrist. The male hagiographers of these female saints illustrate that women can be sanctified, $ust as men can, but in order to do so they must shed their femininity @ ridding themselves of all fleshly, bodily desires by remaining virginal @ and embrace masculinity. As 1t. Aerome wrote, %when Ba womanC wants to serve )hrist more than the world, then she shall cease to be called a woman and shall be called a man%?. !y becoming spiritual @ ie., masculine @ and denying the reality of her body and thus her femininity, a woman could transcend her fleshliness to achieve divinity. !ynum notes, %Dale hagiographers sometimes complimented saintly women by describing them as EvirileF%G. Any focus on the women%s body is centered not on the body itself but on the denial of fleshly desire, the absence of feminine *ualities, and the transformation from feminine to masculine. 1aint Dargaret, for eHample, is masculini"ed throughout the story of her life. Ine instance of this is in her defeat of the demon who comes to her in prison: Jet milde meiden Dargarete grap Ket grisliche King, Ket hire ne agras nawiht, and heteueste toc him bi Ket eateliche top ant hef him up ante duste him dunriht to Ker eorLe, ant sette hire riht fot on his ruhe swire...8 Mespite the acknowledgement that she is a %milde meiden%, her physical dominance over the demon is a hyper2virile image, showing her as strong and triumphant, free of any of the soft,
? 1t. Aerome, !ommentarium in Epistolam ad Ephesios" G !ynum, Fragmentation, p. &19. 8 %1aint Dargaret%, in Medieval English #rose for $omen: From the %atherine Group and Ancrene Wisse, ed. And trans. by !ella Dillett and Aocelyn Wogan2!rowne 4IHford 0niversity (ress, 166,7, pp. ??29G 4p. 8,.7 All further references to this edition are given after *uotations in the teHt.

, feminine emotionality one might e*uate with a women who has $ust been tortured, imprisoned, and then tormented by the devil himself. 1he does not fear/ she does not weep/ she remains stoic as a man might. Even when being tortured, she must re$ect the reality of her own physical body in order to endure the pain and humiliation. 1he speaks through the torment as if the pain inflicted on her body does not even fa"e her. .wil Ket ha spec Khus, me tolec hire swa Ket te luLere reue for Ke stronge rune of Ke blodis tream, ne nan oLer Ket ter wes, ne mahte for muche grure lokin Kiderwardes, ah hudden hare heafden Ke heardeste2iheortet under hare mantles for Ket seorfule sar Ket heo on hire isehen 4p. GG7. The torture is so great that even those torturing her have to look away, and yet she is so detached from her own physical body that it neither impairs her ability to speak nor seems to cause her any pain. -leshly harm cannot hurt her because she has, in the repression of her femininity and desire, ceased to be a fleshly, physical being, and is thus purely spiritual, like a man. Thus, she manages to achieve the same transcendence that men could. )hristina of Darkyate, too, though not a saint, was lauded by her male biographer for her re$ection of femininity. 'n her escape from the home and family that denies her the right to remain chaste in the name of the 5ord, she must not only disguise herself as a man, but act as a man, thus essentially transforming into a man: 1ecretly she took the men%s garments she had got ready beforehand so as to disguise herself, and set out swathed from head to foot in a long cloak . . . and so found her companion and the horses he had got ready. 1he sei"ed one of them, but then hesitated, overcome with embarrassment. Why delay, oh fugitiveN Why respect your femininityN (ut on manly courage and mount the horse like a man. 1o she put aside her fears, and $umped on the horse as if she

? were a man...: To dress as a man, a common theme for religious women attempting to remain chaste despite obligations to be married, is not enough for )hristina. 1he must also behave like a man, eschewing all femininity and riding the horse in a masculine fashion. This performative masculinity allows her to literally escape the feminine sins of the flesh, no longer forced to be married and lose her virginity. .er masculinity is further praised later when she resists the seHual advances of a man who tries to seduce her. 1he is described, in her resistance, as being %more like a man than a woman% and as having %masculine *ualities% 4p. ?87. .er ability to deny fleshly desires is eHplicitly non2feminine/ she becomes like a man by resisting bodily desire, and is praised for it. .er virginity and her denial of the traditionally feminine roles of wife and mother leave her lacking in the bodily sin that all other women are born with/ her ability to become like a man is what enables her sanctity. -or )hristina and other female religious figures of the time, the problem of their femininity is solved, very simply, by ridding them of that femininity. -emale writers, however, understood their own closeness to )hrist differently: through the alignment of their own physical bodies and the humanity of the physical )hrist2 made2man. 'nstead of having to eschew all femininity and become masculini"ed in order to achieve closeness to +od, women found a way to use their own bodies, the very essence of their femininity, to find this unity. !y focusing on )hrist, and his physical nature as a tortured body, an edible body, and a seHual body, women could use their bodies @ the very thing holding them back from transcendence @ to become analogous to )hrist and thus closer to .im than even men could hope to achieve. !ynum notes, %Women did not assume that their religious progress involved Ebecoming male.F Women, of course, described themselves in
: The Life of !hristina of Mar&yate, trans. by ). .. Talbot, 4IHford: IHford 0niversity (ress, &;;97, pp. ,,2 ,?. All further references to this edition are given after *uotations in the teHt.

G female images%9, and we can see in the stories of both Aulian of <orwich and Dargery 3empe, who while never canoni"ed as saints were able to record their own lives, that their femininity is not suppressed in order to become close enough to )hrist to literally speak with him, but emphasi"ed. As !ynum writes, %these women found physicality, as they understood it, redeemed and eHpressed by a human +od%6. 1he continues: Thirteenth century women seem to have concluded from their physicality an intense conviction of their a'ility to imitate )hrist without role of gender inversion. To soar towards )hrist as lover and bride, to sing into the stench and torment of the )rucifiHion, to eat +od, was for the woman only to give religious significance to what she already was.1; Through the redirection of fleshly desire onto the seHual body of )hrist, the imitation of the tortured body of )hrist on the cross, and the consumption of the sanctifying body of )hrist in holy eucharist, women could achieve a kind of divinity that was unavailable in the purely spiritual connection that men had to +od. While these acts themselves were not uncommon to the female saints whose lives were recorded by men @ 1aint Dargaret%s tortured body served as an imitation of )hrist on the cross, and the Ancrene Wisse advised women to think of )hrist as a husband and lover @ the difference lies in the way these acts are performed. Aulian of <orwich%s physical suffering with )hrist on the cross does not end, as Dargaret%s torture does, with her death and silencing/ instead it bestows her with a mystic revelation that allows her to speak the Word of )hrist. 1imilarly, Dargery 3empe%s erotic desire for )hrist does not keep her locked up, like an anchoress, but allows her the mobility to travel the world and speak on behalf of )hrist in many places. The self2recorded acts of these female mystics do not only represent women %implicitly responding to their own gender as a positive route to
9 !ynum, Fragmentation, p. 18:. 6 !ynum, Fragmentation, p. 1?6. 1; !ynum, Fragmentation, p. 1?6.

8 union with +od%11, as !ynum argues, but also serve to give them an authority that women were incapable of otherwise achieving. !y using their bodies as a means of finding unity with the human, bodily )hrist, Aulian and Dargery, along with other female mystics, %seem to have felt that they (ua women were not only also but even espe)ially saved in the 'ncarnation%1&. Their physical union with the physical )hrist, who took on flesh to save humanity from the sins of the flesh, allows them as women a connection to +od and a means of challenging patriarchal authority. As a self2authored teHt, The She*ings of +ulian of ,or*i)h provides a female perspective on the mystical revelation of )hrist%s passion to Aulian. .er closeness to )hrist comes directly from the suffering of her physical body, through an illness bestowed upon her by +od that leaves her on the edge of death for several days before allowing her to share in the suffering of )hrist%s passion. 1he prays for a revelation of )hrist, to better understand his suffering: ' desired a bodily sight wherein ' might have more knowledge of the bodily peynes of our 1aviour, and of the compassion our 5ady and of all .is trew lovers that seene that time .is peynes, for ' would be one of them and suffer with .im.1, .er focus, as a woman, is specifically on the %bodily peynes% of )hrist, and she re*uests a %bodily sight%, which allows her a connection with )hrist that only she, as a woman, could eHperience. .er body, in its illness, must suffer alongside )hrist, and in her suffering she acts as a mirror to .is crucified body. 1he says, %' would that his peynes were my peynes . . . ' desired to suffer with .im% 41;6211,7. Aulian%s fascination with feeling the pain that )hrist felt
11 !ynum, Fragmentation, p. 1:;. 1& !ynum, Fragmentation, p. 1G;. 1, The She*ings of +ulian of ,or*i)h, ed. +eorgia #onon )rampton 43alama"oo, D': Dedieval 'nstitute (ublications, 166?7 lines ?92G1. All further references to this edition are given after *uotations in the teHt.

: is %an effort to plumb the depths of )hrist%s humanity at the moment of his most insistent and terrifying humanness @ the moment of his dying%1?. .er eHploration of )hrist%s bodily humanity allows her to eHperience her revelation in a uni*uely physical way: she feels both .is actual pain, and the pain of watching .im, her beloved, suffer. This unity with the physical, suffering body of )hrist is utmost to her, because it is the only way she has to escape or subvert the marginality of the female body. %While femaleness was still coded as marginal and dangerous, the margin and danger were now mapped onto )hrist%s bodily humanity%1G. Through the imitation of )hrist, or imitato !hristi, Aulian directly links her own female fleshliness to the incarnation of )hrist the saviour, portraying the female body as analogous to )hrist. -or Aulian, and other female mystics, imitato !hristi is less of a literal imitation of )hrist%s suffering on the cross, through actual stigmata, starvation and fasting, or other physical disciplinary punishment, like it was for many of the female saints and anchorites, but instead is an alignment of )hrist%s physical body, which saves, and the female body, which supposedly corrupts. 't works not only as a self2inflicted punishment for the inherent sin of fleshliness, but as a redemption of the sin scripted in female flesh by the original sin of Eve. With her physical body and illness, she imitates the passion of )hrist, feels .is suffering, and instead of dying as a martyr, she lives on to record her eHperience, a privilege not granted to many earlier religious women. Dargery 3empe, too, utili"es a traditional idea @ that of )hrist as lover and husband @ in an untraditional way. 5ike many virgins and anchoresses, who saw themselves as brides of )hrist, Dargery finds bodily connection to )hrist through fleshly desire for oneness with .im. .owever, for Dargery this marriage to )hrist is not merely a redirection of carnal

1? !ynum, Fragmentation, p. 1,1. 1G -rederick )hristian !auerschmidt, +ulian of ,or*i)h and the Mysti)al ody of !hrist 4<otre Mame, '<: 0niversity of <otre Mame (ress, 16667, p. :8.

9 desire, but an honest desire for seHual unity. .er visitations from .im are %eHplicitly seHual%18, and he is, to her, a literal lover. .e tells her, %' nedys be homly wyth the and lyn in thi bed wyth the . . . thu mayst boldly take me in the armys of thi sowle and kyssen my mowth, myn hed and my fete as swetly as thow wylt.1:Aust as a %wyf . . . wyth hir husbond% 4&6??7, they must lie together in her bed, embrace, kiss sweetly, and have intercourse. 1he receives )hrist physically, as a husband, in order to receive him spiritually as her saviour and be given his message. As an illiterate woman, Dargery can not initially find the same spiritual relationship that men could with +od, so instead must focus on a physical relationship. To receive sanctity she %wants not the E+odhedeF but the EmanhodeF of +od . . . her preference BisC for embodied relationships rather than heavenly transcendence%19. .er physical closeness to )hrist in turn allows her to become a mouthpiece for .im. 0nlike )hristina, who is loved by her society and martyred for )hrist, Dargery refuses to remain silent, even if it earns her hatred. 'n her preaching, weeping, and doing as )hrist has personally told her to do, she is scorned, abused, and threatened with death by a society that sees women%s voices as sinful. 1he is directly told, after defending her beliefs to the Archbishop and his clerks, that %no woman schulde precyn% 4?&117, and that because she, a woman, is speaking of the +ospel, %sche hath a devyl wythinne hir% 4?&;62?&1;7. !ecause she does not submit to the conventional role of the silent anchoress or nun, her very voice is a cause for contempt. 1he creates her own role, approved by the authority of )hrist her husband, that does not force her to remain *uiet or hidden away. 0nlike many of the virgin martyrs who were locked away in prisons and towers as punishment for their chastity, or anchoresses who were isolated from society to protect their
18 <ancy -. (artner, %Mid Dystics .ave 1eHN,% in -esire and -is)ipline: Se. and Se.uality in the #remodern $est, ed. Aac*ueline Durray and 3onrad Eisenbichler 4Toronto: 0niversity of Toronto (ress, 16687, pp. &682 ,11, 4p. ,;17. 1: The oo& of Margery %empe, ed. !arry Windeatt 4)ambridge: M. 1. !rewer, &;;?7, lines &6?62&6G:. All further references to this edition are given after *uotations in the teHt. 19 1arah !eckwith, !hrist/s ody: Identity, !ulture, and So)iety in Late Medieval $ritings 45ondon: #outledge, 16687, p. :9.

6 chastity, Dargery%s union with )hrist also gives her the ability to travel not $ust outside of her home and parish, but outside of her country, a mobility that few religious women at this time would have had. 1he leaves 5ynn for )anterbury, Wilsnack, #ome, and the .oly 5and, among others, on pilgrimages, at )hrist%s instruction. Mavid Wallace observes that Dargery %has adventures that tend to the picares*ue . . . yet DargeryOs core spiritual eHperience, one2 on2one encounters with Aesus, shows a narrowed2down seriousness normally associated with enclosed female religious.%16 1he is able to achieve a personal spiritual relationship that only the most closely supervised women were seen as able to reach, and yet the only supervision she re*uires to do so is that of )hrist. The oneness with )hrist that women like Aulian and Dargery were able to find is not only in stark contrast to the strict denial of femininity that male writers implied, but also works as a subversive maneuver to supersede the eHclusive male clergy. The chaste, *uiet anchoresses of male2authored teHts were easy to supervise, controlled by the men they lived under/ however mystics like Aulian and Dargery who could connect to )hrist without this supervision were problematic. !ynum comments that we must remember %the pain and frustration, the isolation and feelings of helplessness, that accompanied the *uest of religious women . . . often silenced, even more fre*uently ignored%&;. Women did not have the clerical authority to speak. .owever, women like Aulian and Dargery, who spoke with the direct authority and Word of +od, usurped this authority and spoke anyway, because their physical unity with )hrist had given them the power to be heard. 1arah !eckwith notes how, despite the fact that Dargery is illiterate and thus %dependent on the clergy for any access to spiritual teHts,% she can %supersede the desires of the clergy . . . because +od speaks through BherC%&1.

16 Mavid Wallace, Strong $omen: Life, Te.t, and Territory 012340526, 4IHford: IHford 0niversity (ress, &;117, p. 1,& Pdoi: 1;.1;6,Qacprof:osoQ6:9;166G?1:1,.;;1.;;;1R &; !ynum, Fragmentation, p. &,G. &1 !eckwith, p. 6G.

1; .er close connection with +od, achieved through a physical relationship with )hrist, allows her access to the holy Word without the intercession of any man but )hrist himself. Mespite needing a male scribe to set down the words of her story for her, Dargery%s very act of recording her life in what is widely considered the first autobiography was, for a woman, incredibly bold. Aulian, an anchoress when Dargery meets her in <orwich and having already set down her revelations in teHt, urges Dargery to %feryth not the langage of the world% 41,:?2 1,:G7 @ that is, not to fear what the world will say about her @ but this could also serve as advice not to fear the world of language, to set her story down even though it was untraditional for women to do so. Through their very femininity and the bodily unity with )hrist that it allowed them, Aulian and Dargery were able to find a voice within their faith and a way of recording their own stories from a female point of view. -or religious women in medieval times, it was not the case that the only way to salvation was through a re$ection of femininity, but instead that the bodily nature of women was the very thing that could save them and bring them to )hrist. Through uni*ue physical relationships with )hrist, Dargery and Aulian were able both to find a way to escape the repression and voicelessness many medieval women faced, and to embrace their own bodily humanity as a positive route through which to access )hrist.

11 !ibliography The oo& of Margery %empe, ed. !arry Windeatt 4)ambridge: M. 1. !rewer, &;;?7 The Life of !hristina of Mar&yate, trans. by ). .. Talbot, 4IHford: IHford 0niversity (ress, &;;97 %1aint Dargaret%, in Medieval English #rose for $omen: From the %atherine Group and Ancrene Wisse, ed. And trans. by !ella Dillett and Aocelyn Wogan2!rowne 4IHford 0niversity (ress, 166,7, pp. ??29G The 1hewings of Aulian of <orwich, ed. +eorgia #onon )rampton 43alama"oo, D': Dedieval 'nstitute (ublications, 166?7 !auerschmidt, -rederick )hristian, Aulian of <orwich and the Dystical !ody of )hrist 4<otre Mame, '<: 0niversity of <otre Mame (ress, 16667 !eckwith, 1arah, !hrist/s ody: Identity, !ulture, and So)iety in Late Medieval $ritings 45ondon: #outledge, 16687 !ynum, )aroline Walker, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human ody in Medieval Religion, 4<ew =ork: >one !ooks, 16617 (artner, <ancy -., %Mid Dystics .ave 1eHN,% in Mesire and Miscipline: 1eH and 1eHuality in the (remodern West, ed. Aac*ueline Durray and 3onrad Eisenbichler 4Toronto: 0niversity of Toronto (ress, 16687, pp. &682,11 #obertson, Eli"abeth, %The )orporeality of -emale 1anctity in The Life of Saint Margaret%, in Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe, ed. by #enate !lumfeld23osinski and Timea 1"ell 45ondon: )ornell 0niversity (ress, 16617, pp. &8929: 1t. Aerome, !ommentarium in Epistolam ad Ephesios Wallace, Mavid, Strong $omen: Life, Te.t, and Territory 012340526, 4IHford: IHford 0niversity (ress, &;117 Pdoi: 1;.1;6,Qacprof:osoQ6:9;166G?1:1,.;;1.;;;1R