medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
St. Francis' name was given to him by his father, shortly after Francis was born. It was not a change of name on entering religious life.
Cyprian Rosen
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> From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
> culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Christof
> Rolker
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 6:50 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [M-R]
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> Dear all,
>
> currently I am working on medieval name-changes, and have been thinking
> about religious names in this context, i.e. names taken/imposed after
> entering religious life. About the only specialised study I have found
> is a splendid article by Sharon Strocchia (see below). I also
> understand that the constitutiones say nothing about this practice, and
> all in all it seems to be a modern thing. However, name changes (more
> precisely: the acquisition of a new name in life) are not that rare in
> the Middle Ages, and at least sometimes they occured in the context of
> entering religious life. A few examples:
>
> Orderic Vitalis famously acquired his name when he entered St Evroul,
> according to his own report because his "English name ... sounded
> harsh to the Normans". In the HE also reports how a five year old son
> fo Ernald d’Echauffour entering the monastery „was given the name of
> Benedict by the abbot because of his sweet nature“. St Theodora of
> Thessalonike was baptised Agape, and only called Theodora when she
> became a nun. (Other name changes of monks one could think of are St
> Francis and St Bonaventura, but then again, these names are not
> "religious names", are they?)
>
> Does anyone have a guess how common "religious names" were in the
> Middle Ages? And can anyone think of medieval comments of this
> practice?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Christof Rolker
>
>
> Sharon T. Strocchia: Naming a nun. Spiritual exemplars and corporate
> identity in Florentine convents, 1450–1530, in: Society and individual
> in Renaissance Florence, hg. von William J. Connell, Berkeley 2002,
> 215–40.
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