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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Alexander Murray's work on medieval suicides would doubtless be a good place to look for an answer, but my understanding is that suicide is a mortal sin where it indicates lack of faith in God's infinite mercy ie the person considers themselves beyond redemption, and thereby places themselves beyond redemption. It might then be that Pelegia avoided this Catch 22 since she killed herself out of personal faith, rather than due to the lack of it. The Al-Quaida suicide bombers seem to have followed a similar logic of martyrdom. Laura ----- Original Message ----- From: Rosine <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 10:20 PM Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 8. October > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > > > Pelagia of Antioch (c. 283 or perhaps c. 300) Also commemorated on 9. > > > June. Pelagia was a fifteen-year-old girl of Antioch, caught up in > either > > > Numerian's or Diocletian's persecution. The prefect sent soldiers to > > > arrest her, upon which she asked for a few minutes to put on her best > > > clothes. She then when upstairs and threw herself to her death. John > > > Chrysostom praised her courage and faith. > > > > How does *this* square with the usual prohibition on suicide and its > > definition as a mortal sin ? > > > > Brenda M. C. > > It was my understanding that by Roman law, no "innocent" could be guilty > of a death-worthy lawbreaking. Any virgin was considered "innocent before > the law", so it was a common practise to make condemned women (I don't know > about young boys) and girls available for the sexual pleasure of guards and > gladiators, in order to insure that the condemned were no longer in a state > of innocence. Given the choice between loss of virginity followed by loss of > life, or simply loss of life, the church (I believe) took the stand that > staying pure was sufficient reason for self-murder if death was a certainty > in any case. Later virgin saints did not face death following rape (usually > they just wished to avoid marriage), and so they were stuck taking such > measures as self-mutilation or starvation, which, when it resulted in death, > usually did not count as suicide. > > This is a quickie armchair scholar answer. True scholars will soon read > my words and issue much for authoritative and documentably supported views. > Right, Oh Academians? > > > Terri Morgan > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html