The Life of Christina of Markyate A Twelfth Century Recluse [Hardcover]

Christina of Markyate was born of well-to-do burgesses of Huntingdon, England, at the dawn of the 12th century. Her parents betrothed her to a local nobleman, but the marriage was not consummated. Christina eventually escaped, became a recluse and a nun, and then the prioress of a small community at Markyate in Hertfordshire, under the patronage of the abbot and monks of St. Albans. Written by one of her chaplains largely from her own reminiscences, this classic biography gives an exceptionally vivid account of the struggles of a young medieval girl and provides invaluable insight into 12th-century ecclesiastical and social history.

Through this reissue of the 1959 edition and translation, readers can enjoy a bit of first-rate detective work by C.H. Talbot, who published the life from a single badly damaged manuscript. They will also gain substantial insight into social and religious customs within the twelfth-century Anglo-Saxon community. --Church History