There are lots of examples of women dressing as men in the early church. Here
are some examples I have found useful.
Primary sources
Acts of Paul and Thecla ed. and trans. F. Conybeare in ed. Roberts and
Donaldson The Anti-Nicene Fathers, vol 8 (Oxford, 1894) - Thecla dresses as a
man and leaves her family to travel with Paul - apocryphal text
Palladius‘s Lausiac History - lots of women dressing as men in the
Egyptian desert, notably Pelagia.
In Musurillo’s Acts of the Christian Martyrs Perpetua dresses as a man in her
fourth vision - not just a man but a gladiator.
Secondary sources are:
Anson, J. (1974) `The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: the origin and
development of a motif’ Viator Medieval and Renaissance Studies 5 pp.1-32.
Aspegren, K. (1990) The Male Woman: A Feminine Ideal in the Early Church
(Stockholm).
Cloke, G. (1995) `This Female Man of God’: Women and Spiritual Power in the
Patristic Age, AD 350-450 (London).
Waithe, M.E. (1987) A History of Women Philosophers vol 1 Ancient Women
Philosophers 600BC- 500AD (Dordrecht, Boston and Lancaster) - more on the
point
of women behaving like men - see her example of Hipparchia the Cynic
(c.400-300BC) who has ‘manly courage’, a theme developed by women in the early
Church.
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