Women in the Celtic Church Ireland c. 450-1150 [Hardcover]

This work is a groundbreaking study of the varieties of holy life available to, and pursued by, early medieval Irish women. The author explores a wide range of source material from legal texts, saints' lives, litanies, penitentials, canons, and poetry in order to illuminate female religious life and changes in attitudes towards it over time.

Introduction: The Irish Holy Woman and Her Inquisitors
Conversion Period: The Fifth and Sixth Centuries
1. Religious Women in the Conversion Period c. AD 400-600
2. Chrisitan Virgins and their Churches in the Sixth Centuries: The View from the Seventh
The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Centuries
Introduction
3. Nuns in the Large Women's Monasteries
4. Nuns in Other Settings
5. Women of God in the Seventh to Ninth Centuries
6. Abbesses and other High-Ranking Holy Women
The Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Centuries
Introduction
7. Nuns, Abbesses, Saints, and their Monasteries
8. Proximities and Boundaries: Sexual Anxiety and the Monastery
9. The Virgin Consort in Hagiography
10. 'Generous Eve' and the Echoes of Reform
Abbreviations
Bibliography