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 InquisitorsConversion Period: The Fifth and Sixth Centuries1. Religious Women in the Conversion Period c. AD 400-6002. Chrisitan Virgins and their Churches in the Sixth Centuries: The View from the SeventhThe Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth CenturiesIntroduction3. Nuns in the Large Women's Monasteries4. Nuns in Other Settings5. Women of God in the Seventh to Ninth Centuries6. Abbesses and other High-Ranking Holy WomenThe Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth CenturiesIntroduction7. Nuns, Abbesses, Saints, and their Monasteries8. Proximities and Boundaries: Sexual Anxiety and the Monastery9. The Virgin Consort in Hagiography10. 'Generous Eve' and the Echoes of ReformAbbreviationsBibliography