medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Sorry for the long delay. I put this aside and it got lost in the shuffle.
From: Ms B.M. Cook <[log in to unmask]>
te: Monday, September 24, 2001 1:32 PM
Subject: [M-R] Deaconnesses (Was Re: [M-R] Radegund)
>> > > A deaconess, on the other hand, is a religiously consecrated woman
but
>may be married and is not expected to withdraw from the world. <<
>
>Does this throw any light on the fact that in the early years of the
>Paraclete, Heloise (a married woman tho' one whose husband had also taken
>Religious vows ) is referred to as "Deaconness" and not as "Abbess" ?
It may. But if so, he was being anachronistic since the consecration of
women to the office of deaconess had long been forbidden by the 12th c. (It
was only marginally acceptable in the sixth, when St. Medard did it). As
you no doubt know, Abelard was unwilling to give abbatial status to women
in pointed contrast to Fontevrault where the subordination of the monks to
the abbess was a major aspect of the community charism.
>
>Not that the future abbesses of the P. were expected to be elected from the
>"deo sacrata" = nuns consecrated to God = virgins. On the contrary, I seem
>to recall that the Institutes of the Paraclete lay down that the elected
>jobs in the abbey (abbess, cellerer, wardrober, portress, infirmarian &c
had
>to be drawn from the "moniales", that is the nuns who were widows or the
>equivalent. The only exception was the precentor whose duties kept her
>within the cloister. The thinking seems to have been that the virgins had
to
>be kept unspotted from the world while the nuns who had responsibilities
>that might bring them into contact with men had to be those who had the
>appropriate worldly experience.
>
This thinking is patterned on Fontevrault where the virgins were strictly
cloistered while the "Penitents" (noble matrons for the most part) were
assigned the active roles. Abelard wanted to give them different head
dresses, to designate their sexual status. Christopher is right in saying
that general parlance assigned the title "moniales" to all consecrated women
but there was this abortive move in the early twelfth century to make a
distinction between the pure, unsullied virgins and the more weather beaten
widows (or women separated from their husbands). Sentiment shifted in the
later part of the century in favor of cloistering all consecrated women,
which made further discussion of the distinction irrelevant.
>
Jo Ann
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