medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> There's this entry for the year 1212 from the annals of Albert, Abbot of Stade written between 1232-40. It comes after his brief description of the German phase of the Children's Crusade and suggests a link, at least in in Albert's mind, between pious enthusiasm and nudity . . . and it's a
nice medieval prototype of streaking: "Also, at this same time naked women saying nothing ran together through the towns and cities." (Nudae etiam mulieres circa idem tempus nichil loquentes per villas et civitates cucurrerunt.) From Annales Alberti Abbatis Stadensis, ed. G. H. Pertz, Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum 16 (Hanover, 1859), p. 355.
This is reminiscent of something far more recent. In my youth in British Columbia in
western Canada, the Doukhobor population there (a Christian sect from western
Russia) was frequently in the news for stripping naked and burning down their
houses, inspired, as they claimed, by voices directly from God. In this case, their
peculiar activities were specifically related to a rejection of church and civil
authority.
I don't believe anyone has yet mentioned Mary Magdalen or St Mary of Egypt, both
of whom renounced clothing and subsequently had their modesty retained by
miraculously growing hair which covered their bodies.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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