medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> > A deaconess is not the same as a nun, though Radegund certainly retired
to a convent. A married person could not legally break her/his marriage
vows in order to enter religious life unless the spouse also undertook vows
of future chastity.
[snip]
> > 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" ?
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.
Any comments ?
Any parallel instances ?
Brenda M. C.
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