JISCMail - MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives

Not to toot my own horn too loudy, but I discuss some aspects of this in a recent paper: “Secret Bodies and Passionate Souls: Transgressive Sexuality among the Carolingians,” in Danijela Kambaskovic, ed., Conjunctions of Mind, Body and Soul from Plato to the Enlightenment, Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind 15 (Dordrecht: Springer, 2014), pp. 173-199.

Bill Schipper

From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Morris
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 1:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Monks being naughty

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Kurt -- I have a lengthy discussion of just these kind of questions in my forthcoming (mid-November) book, WHEN BROTHERS DWELL IN UNITY. I think your friend will enjoy it.

Stephen

"When Brothers Dwell in Unity:" Byzantine Christianity and Homosexuality

www.whenbrothersdwellinunity.com

Coming out in November 2015!

From: Kurt Sherry <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 10:56 AM
Subject: [M-R] Monks being naughty

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

First, I apologize for the cross-posting, but I wanted to cast a wide net for this. I have a friend (a non-scholar) who was reading the Life of St. Euphrosyne the Nun and raised some questions that I'm not sure I have the answers to. St. Euphrosyne disguised herself as a eunuch named Izmaragdus and joined a male monastery. In the Life, it mentions that the monks were scandalized and tempted sexually by this young eunuch's beauty.

Among the questions my friend posed were:

At what point did monasteries put a stop to this kind of thing by requiring that a monk be able to grow a beard?
Have you heard stories (probably not going to be in the Lives of the Saints) where a woman disguises herself to enter a monastery but then she fell into temptation with another monk and was kicked out?

I gave the answers I could from memory, but I don't have a lot of my resources handy here at work. I seem to remember the beard requirement appearing as early as the Rule of St. Pachomios, but I could be wrong.

On the other question, such issues (not just of a woman disguised as a man, but even monks engaging in homosexual behaviors) must have arisen or there wouldn't have been explicit prohibitions in monastic Rules and in the aphorisms of the Desert Fathers and that sort of thing, but I couldn't come up with any specific stories off the top of my head.

Anyone have anything?

- Kurt

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