Medieval Women Visionaries: Seven Stages to Power

Author(s): Elizabeth Petroff

Source: Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies , Spring, 1978, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring,
1978), pp. 34-45
Published by: University of Nebraska Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3345990

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Medieval Women Visionaries: Seven Stages to Power

Elizabeth Petroff

In the year 1272, the future saint Margaret of Cor- an active role in a larger world. Because of her
tona came to the Franciscan church in Cortona, bare- visions, she could claim power; and since the visions
foot and with a rope around her neck, seeking admis- were a manifestation of her inner growth, the power
sion into the order as a penitent. For the previous she gained from visions was power she had the
decade she had been the mistress of a nobleman of wisdom to use intelligently and creatively. Her power
Montepulciano; when he was killed by robbers,
wasshe
used to improve the human condition and to en-
courage
and her young son were left without any means of others in their path to selfhood and union
support. Her father refused to allow her to enter withhis
the divine.
house, and only after seriously considering a life The of women visionaries whose biographies we
prostitution and rejecting it, did she decide to appealpossess were all saints;[2] their lives have been col-
to the Franciscans for protection. She knew that lected
she in the Acta Sanctorum, and it is these lives
was a visionary, that her penitence was genuine, andI have utilized to find evidence of the trans-
that
that she was capable of living an exemplary religious formative function that women visionaries had on
life. The Franciscan brothers, as one might have their world. The literary form of the saints' lives wa
expected, were rather dubious, but she seems todesigned have to "honour the saints, to exalt their virtue
argued her case effectively, for she was accepted andas actions,
a and to kindle a more living spirit amon
tertiary. Then one of the brothers asked her, "What lethargic or discouraged Christians." [3] To meet thi
will become of you, Margaret, with your great end, a saint's life told of the growth of an individu
vanity?" soul's relationship with the divine, and provided
Her reply is recorded in her life story in the Acta evidence of how that growth was reflected in th
Sanctorum: "The time will come that you will call me miraculous doings of the saint. The lives of wome
Saint, and I shall be a saint; and you shall visit me saints did more, for they told of a process of person
with the staff of a pilgrim, and your pilgrim's wallet growth and radical transformation in women which
on your shoulder."[1] Of course she was right; the allowed them to transcend cultural limitations on
Franciscans later had to acknowledge that her cult their behavior, self-image, and influence. That
was especially important among women, for whom process, by which they grew from good women to
she functioned as a new kind of role model. women saints, was the mystical process of meditation
Margaret's sense of her own importance derivedand vision. For visions were the only texts these
from her visionary experience; it was the tone ofilliterate women studied, and it was visions that
authority gained from the visions which convinced her revealed them to themselves. Visions-as the above
critics that she was a spiritual force with which to beexample of Margaret of Cortona illustrates-told th
reckoned. She was representative of a sizeable group women who they were, what they must do, wh
of medieval women with religious vocations, for others were thinking, what would happen in th
whom their fantasies-their visions-were the signal
future, and what Christ and the Virgin Mary felt f
to others that they were women of power. Visions them and for all humanity. Visions gave these wom
were the necessary credentials for a medieval womandirection and the freedom to act, for the transform
whose abilities and strengths demanded that she taketive process mediated by visions created a trans

Elizabeth Petroff is a medievalist in the department of Comparative Literature at the University

setts in Amherst. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at B
doctoral thesis discussed spiritual landscape in fourteenth century poetry and painting. She is prese
on a book on medieval women saints and visionaries in Italy, and translating a group of represent
lives of Italian women. One outcome of this research is that she now thinks of herself as a mystical
focusses much of her teaching on questions about women and the spiritual life.
FRONTIERS Vol. II, No. 1 @1978 Women Studies Program, University of Colorado

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 Petroff 35

formed self that was not vulnerable to social women visionaries were viewed with a great dea
structures and conventional behavior. The texts of the
ambivalence by male clerics, an ambivalence which
visions point to seven distinct stages, each dominated
derived from the mistrust and awe that all religions
feel toward their mystics, combined with the deep
by a specific content and attitude: Purgative, Psychic,
Doctrinal, Devotional, Participatory, Unitive, andfear of a female power-a power that the medieval
Ordering.[4] Each of these stages is explored below. world always strove to contain. In women mystics,
Saints and mystics are almost always rule breakers:the recognition of the ambivalence with which they
unconventional and unpredictable people. But women were viewed produced a consciousness of the power
saints in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in they wielded, and more responsibility and tact in
Italy did not begin that way. Most of their biogra- their use of that power. Here, as in many other areas
phies suggest that their path to visionary selfhood of their lives, women visionaries refused to be vic-
began with their total internalization of the cultural timized by the spiritual gifts they possessed.[9]
stereotype of the good woman; they accepted the In the medieval world, the only form of religious
limitations on female behavior and even embraced life open to women was contemplative.[10] The
them, to become invisible for a time as nuns or limitation was based on two widely held assumptions.
recluses. But by the time they reached their middle One was that women did not have the ability to pro-
years,[5] they had transcended fully both the stereo- tect themselves in the world, so the active religious
types and the limitations of being female. Thankslife to was impossible for them. Secondly, it was be-
their visions, they had grown from quiet, sad little lieved that women's religious impulses were naturally
girls into happy, laughing, wise women. And they contemplative and visionary. The medievals had a
had to do so on their own. In most cases, they were kind of check list of the qualities which they expected
without books, deprived of literacy, superviseda by woman of great spiritual gifts to possess. These
confessors who had not themselves experienced included mind reading, prophecy, and visionary
visions; and often they were without the guidance of experiences of several kinds, both within and beyond
an understanding abbess or sister.[6] the body. While expected, these gifts were disturb-
Although the church always has believed that there ing. To one who mistrusted women, female spiritu-
have been many invisible saints, whose virtue and ality seemed to manipulate the world in an under-
heroism never became publicly recognized, the handed way, causing male clerics (the men who
women saints of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- wrote down all the saint's lives) to view saintly
turies did become visible. This in itself would seem to women with caution and suspicion. Because of its
be paradoxical, for according to medieval ecclesias- ambivalence toward female religiosity, medieval
tics, the best women were absolutely invisible. society restricted the area in which women might
Although the late medieval worship of the Virgin had develop their spirituality.
tempered somewhat the horror felt toward the Women therefore developed their spirituality in an
daughters of Eve, the medieval doctrine of the good intense, rigorous, contemplative community of
woman held as paramount the Christian virtues of women. Such an environment forced religious im-
patience, submissiveness, chastity, strenuous piety, pulses to surface through psychic phenomena, in
and self-effacement. [7] Yet the good woman was not manifestations which were uncomfortably similar to
the saint. This is why the lives of women saints those exhibited by witches who used them to harm
become revealing documents. The female saint had to others. If she is not to be feared,[11] the psychic
be more than a good woman; she had to exhibit woman must use her powers responsibly. The woman
heroic virtue and she had to be a person of demon- visionary, however, did not wish to repress her
strable, exceptional, heroic power. There is a tradi- psychic qualities, for it was only with the emergence
tional part of the saint's life, the acta, which was of psychic gifts that a woman had access to a world in
devoted to the exposition of those deeds performed which she could act effectively.
by the saint which demonstrated her exceptional The psychic and visionary powers of women saints
heroic power for good. Obviously, there could not be were qualities that only became influential in adult
a prescriptive stereotype for a saint's exceptional women, and they generally surfaced in women's lives
power as there may have been for her goodness. In after a long and solitary apprenticeship in the con-
fact, what constituted such power for a woman con- templative life. Their visions over a period of years
trasted with the qualities constituting goodness. were of many different kinds, progressing from
For the women saints themselves, the contrast dreams and waking fantasies, to vivid imaginings of
between goodness and exceptional power was gospel scenes, to full scale visions and ecstatic
resolved by visionary experience, for their visions trances. The act of envisioning was undoubtedly a
encouraged the growth of self-knowledge, and gave liberating and creative one for the medieval woman,
them a sense of mission which led them to break out
one into which she poured all her experiences, her
of traditional feminine underdevelopment and to
hopes, and her fears. Yet the first step in becoming a
visionary, the stage of purgation, was not a very at-
re-enter the world in an active healing capacity. Since
these visions were believed to indicate divine tractive one.
approval of a visionary's life and actions, the female
Most girls were taught that the religious life could
visionary became free to act and to criticize inbeways
summed up in "prayer, fasting, and vigils," and
that were not open to ordinary women. Nevertheless,
to these activities they devoted themselves with great

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 36 FRONTIERS

zeal. The storie

The Blessed Benevenuta was not to find it so easy.
this commitmen
In her biography[14] we read:
fication. These
well by ... little by little Satan crawled into her bedclothes
unmarr
in the form of a snake. She, being well aware of him
married women
and recognizing him, waited patiently until he was
convents.
fully stretched out nextMost
to her. And because he was
over-zealous in their mortification of the flesh. The
so cold that she could scarcely bear it, she suddenly
ability to survive such harrowing forms of asceticism
threw off the top bedclothes, grabbed him in the
was one of the signs of the genuine saint. No onemiddle with her hand, and threw him against the
seems to have really expected that the future saintwall with such force that from the sound it seemed
that he ought to have been crushed. But he at once
would exercise moderation in subduing the flesh, any
more than she would in pursuing the kingdom of raised his head, and coming towards her, began to
heaven. harass her with terrors and threats. And when he was

The external violence of this first stage in the life unable to get near her, she began to insult him
verbally ... thus confounded and sent away, he went
of prayer was equaled by the violence and pain of the
off, making a loud racket.[15]
visionary's inner life. Her desire for true contrition
expressed itself in fantasies of self-punishment, At a similar stage in her life, Blessed Aldobran-
degradation, and public humiliation. Angela of desca was visited by Satan in the guise of her now
Foligno has left us a highly conscious description of dead husband, "urging her to pay the marriage
this stage: debt."[16] The determined woman spit in his face,
then got to her knees and began to flagellate herself
S . . there was a continual conflict betwixt humility until he had gone.
and a certain pride, the which did increase in my soul The function of these visitations was to make
and grievously vex it. The humility was because I did contrition fully conscious, thereby generating a de
see myself fallen from all goodness and void of all
desire to lose one's past self. This feeling, when
virtue and grace, perceiving in myself such an infinite
multitude of sins that I could not believe that God combined with the purging of the psychologica
would ever desire to have me for his own. I perceived residue of past sins, helped to generate further
myself to have become an habitation of demons, their change.
creditor and their child ... Wherefore I was ofttimes In the next stage of visionary activity, the psychic
plunged into the abyss of this humility, wherein I did stage, the visionary began to look outside herself, to be
behold my sins and the super-abundance of mine more concerned with the spiritual welfare of others.
iniquities, but I did see no way whereby they might Her visionary activity became largely psychic and
be made manifest and known to all. And in order that
intuitive now. She heard voices and figures telling
I might make known my dissembling and my sins, it her what to do. She had premonitions of the deaths
came into my mind to go throughout the cities and
and births of others. She foresaw political events and
open places with meat and fishes hanging about my
neck, and to cry: "This is that woman, full of evil and
their spiritual consequences. She had revelations of
of dissembling, slave of all vices and iniquities, who the spiritual states of others and how she might help
did good deeds that she might obtain honour amongst them to resolve their spiritual dilemmas. The mes-
men!"[12] sages always included directions as to the appropriate
way to communicate her information, for as a clois-
tered woman (who was not supposed to speak to very
This type of experience brought about what the many people), it was often difficult to share insights
medievals termed purgation, for as sin and evil were and revelations concerning others. Social convention
made conscious, the visionary gained in the ability to restricted her, for nuns were definitely not supposed
abandon actions and mental habits which she now to meddle in affairs outside their convents. Yet in the
narratives of saints' lives, the women always found a
recognized to be evil. In the stage of purgation, these
way, and one which would be consistently tactful and
images of humiliation alternated with vividly imagined
sensitive to the feelings of the others.
attacks by Satan, who appeared, in various disguises,
some banal, some terrifying. There was often an ag- The best example of this kind of psychic behavior
gressively sexual component to these attacks, was also the most complex. It is worth telling, how-
whether Satan was said to have taken the form of a ever, for it illustrates the web of circumstance in
snake or of a human male. When Blessed Umiliana which women had to act. St. Gherardesca of Pisa[17]
was visited by a large snake, she at first tried to
was concerned about her godmother, a married
ignore the bulky serpentine presence that had woman of some stature in her family. In family coun-
wreathed itself about her feet, and whose head cils, this woman was extremely critical of all brides
reached to her cheek. Although terrified, she did not proposed for a particular kinsman of hers. She even-
confront the snake until she was unable to pray or tually admitted her motivation: she loved her cousin
sleep. Finally she could tolerate this interference no herself. When this fact came to her cousin's notice,
more, and "she conjured it to curl up away from her, he swore that he would not marry, thus leaving the
in the name of her beloved Christ."[13] When it did neighbors to decide that the couple had been lovers
so, she gave it a further command, to leave, out her already. When the woman next went to confession,
window. It went. her confessor (having heard the gossip) expected, but

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 Petroff 37

did ogy, it is easy to see how these get

not visionary experiences
lengedprepared women for an influential
the role in the lives of
she other Christians, but it is doubtful whether the
stormed
she visionaries themselves recognized this fact. For one
inform
undonething, they were uneducatedhad women, and they felt
stand, and the woman remained unconfessed. But the need to know more about Christian doctrine. The
she had turned to the Virgin Mary, and for theaverage person's knowledge of doctrine was dan-
remission of her sins had placed a robe above her gerously inadequate,[19] and women's conscious
icon. understanding of theology almost nonexistent. Yet
Mary appeared to St. Gherardesca in a vision, women were exposed indirectly to doctrine in daily
explaining that she could not accept this offering prayers, in sermons, and in the decorative schemes of
from the woman until she had confessed. chapels in which they prayed. This unconscious ab-
Gherardesca was to remove the robe from the sorption of doctrine bore fruit in the third stage of
visionaryaactivity-doctrinal visions. Although confes-
church and keep it hidden. She was to approach
certain brother Deodatus and tell him the story, sors were
so reluctant to teach doctrine to the women
that he might speak with the Friar who hadentrusted been theto their care, they were bound to correct
woman's confessor. Although the woman would any doctrinal
not errors women expressed in their
admit to Deodatus that she had sinned, at his visions. Thus even if they had no other effect,
urging,
she went to the church. She found that herdoctrinal offering visions caused some kind of dialogue to take
was no longer there, and repented suddenly.place between the visionary and her confessor, a
Gherar-
desca then gave Deodatus the robe to restoredialogue to thein which the woman must have been the
Blessed Virgin. All of these events happened teacher
justasin
often as she was the student. However
time, for within a few weeks the woman died. Had hostile such dialogue may have been initially, it of
Mary, Gherardesca, and Deodatus not intervened, theresulted in the "conversion" of the confessor to a
woman would have gone to hell, for the saint had anew respect for the visionary. The confessor's com
later vision of her godmother being tortured by the mitment to a visionary's experiences was important
pains of purgatory. because it was he who was in the best position to
Not all the visions characterized as psychic were as proclaim genuine inspiration of the woman under h
subversive as this one, but many of them do suggest care, both by preaching sermons about her and
a kind of sisterhood, where women, when all else writing her biography.
failed, turned to other women for resolution of One of the most careful and objective of such me
problems. A subgroup of psychic experiences, in was Raymond of Capua,[20] the confessor and bio
which the saintly woman intuited the despair of rapher of St. Catherine of Siena. Although he w
another person and cut through it, supports this deeply committed to her ideas and could quote h
notion of sisterhood. For instance, there was an doctrines with great firmness to others, he
episode in the life of the Blessed Benevenuta con- experienced moments of doubt. At one point
cerning a Sister Wilburgis, who was made to feel Catherine was ill and bedridden, but needed to speak
despair in church as a result of demonic temptation: with him about some new revelations. Once he had
arrived at her bedside, ". . . she, as if she were
And when Wilburgis had left choir, Benevenuta, who feverish, began to sermonize concerning God in her
was in that church in a certain hidden seat, hearing
usual way, and to recite those things that had been
her, left her seat and came towards her, and taking
revealed to her." As Raymond wondered whether
her head in her hands, placed it on her own breast,
everything she said was true, Catherine's face sud-
saying, "Beloved sister, don't be afraid, for you are
denly changed, "transformed into the face of a
not damned, but your soul is in a good spiritual state,
and is a friend of God." bearded man, who was gazing on me with a fixed
From that point on, with no delay, and as much stare."[21] When Brother Raymond recognized God
internally as externally, Sister Wilburgis was trans- manifesting himself through Catherine, he was able
formed into the opposite mood, bearing in her heart to see her face again, and had no more doubts about
joy and gladness and consolation, demonstrating in the inspired nature of her utterances.
her face agreeableness and happiness . . . [18] Women's doctrinal visions were not abstract theo-
logical speculation, although they might consist of
Having such visions about the spiritual welfare of relatively abstract and unemotional visual images
others marked the visionary as a spiritual authority.(such as three floating globes of light that fuse to-
The urgency of the psychic messages that she gether to reveal something about the nature of the
received provided her with the strength and the Trinity). Such visions often come in answer to a
confidence to act outside the boundaries of proper spiritual dilemma. The images were easily commu-
female behavior. Because the premonitions and warn- nicated, for they were really parables in visual form.
ings received were often delivered personally by the The saint used them as examples in her guidance to
Virgin Mary or by Christ, the visionary's devotion others faced with dilemmas similar to hers. If the
was increased by this concrete evidence of divine visionary's life was becoming too one-sided, too
concern for ordinary people. devoted to austerities or too grief-stricken over the
With hindsight, and the benefit of modern psychol- sufferings of others, the doctrinal messages offered

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 38 FRONTIERS

needed tives, and to imagine as vividly as possible

balance
tion. episodes of Christ's Passion. The same proc
Since imaginative re-creation
the ritual might be employed i
gical tating on the five sorrowful
cycle were mysteries of th
were or her five joys; the childhood
many doctof Christ or t
tion, events in Mary's life.
such asThe focus and
thintent o
which would co
way, these
er, bymeditatio.s
or placing
to was the
herself in same;
the
build the devout
historical w
contex
some life of her Savior, was to recognize her pers
previously
tionship with the
visionary suffering of Christ and the so
often
his mother.
message to the
reminded over the course of several visions. It is
For many women, devotional meditation of this
clear from accounts of such experiences that they
kind passed directly and imperceptibly into visionary
experience, and popular opinion reinforced this
were accompanied by a feeling of humility, although
the women seem to have been aware at the same time process by viewing such visions as significant ac-
that they were doing something of great public sig- complishments. Probably everyone would have liked to
nificance. say that he or she had seen a vision of the Passion or
During this stage of visionary activity, the visionaryof the Virgin, and the accounts of such experiences
acquired a reputation for having a special relationshipmust have been influential. The reality of the move-
with the divine, a relationship which helped to rein- ment from meditation to vision was a gradual one,
force the emergence of a new and powerful identity. however, and no one has left us a better account of it
Through her daily prayer and meditation, the than Angela of Foligno. At the seventh step of her
visionary attempted to leave behind her former visionary path, she began to meditate on the cruci-
worldly identity in order to completely open herself to fixion. What she described was not yet a vision, for
the will of God. In this process, she accumulated the her mental process was discursive, with little visual
new experiences out of which she would weave her detail, yet it is a clear instance of the kind of mental
new identity. Her experiences raised her level of self- activity that led to the full scale visions.
knowledge; she acquired new insights about the
nature of sin, and the power of good and evil. She .h.. as I did gaze upon the Cross, whereon I did
behold (as much with the eyes of my heart as with
gained new psychic gifts which she learned to use for those of my body) Jesus Christ who had died for us,
the benefit of others; she thought new thoughts and and I did feel great grief at that sight, notwithstand-
discovered new skills. In her own eyes, she was less ing that this vision and meditation were as yet but
significant than before, for she saw the limits of her little understood by me.[25]
past self with great clarity, although she could not yet
see the new self forming within her. But in the eyes With the eighth step, she was able to go deeper:
of others, she had become more powerful, more in
communication with the divine, more knowledgeable S. . as I did gaze upon the Cross I was granted a
about the suffering of humanity. greater understanding how that Christ had died for
The stage of doctrinal visions seemed to provide a our sins. Whereupon I did so clearly perceive all
mine own sins, that I did feel that I myself had cruci-
kind of transition, and introduction to the fullness of
fied the Lord.... In this beholding of the Cross I did
the spiritual world which would be explored in the so burn with the fire of love and remorse that, stand-
future. In the absence of educative texts on doctrine
ing before the Cross, I did divest myself of every-
written for women, doctrinal visions provided the
thing and did thus offer myself unto Him.[26]
intellectual understanding needed for devotional,
participatory, and unitive visions-the next three Only while asleep did she approach the vivid visual
stages in the visionary life. Women visionaries realization which characterized her later visions. Once
meditated on and explored their doctrinal visions in a dream, for instance,
throughout their lives, continually discovering new
. . He showed unto me the pains of His head and
insights in them, for no stage of visionary activity
the hairs plucked from his eyebrows and his beard,
was ever entirely superseded by the next stages. counting over unto me all His scourgings and
Devotional visions arose from the meditations, or
showing them unto me in the places where they had
directed imaginings, of the life of Christ and of the been inflicted, saying unto me, "All this was for
Virgin which were taught by Franciscan and Domini- thee."[27]
can friars,[22] illustrated in churches and convents,
and narrated in pious literary re-creations of apocry- After a series of doctrinal visions, visions of the
phal gospel stories.[23] To a great extent, devotional Passion of Christ are narrated. Angela calls the latter
meditations were the only form of meditative exercise "Consolations on the Passion" because each scene
apart from repetitive prayer that was taught to lay was followed by a discourse on the insights whic
people and to nuns unable to read Latin. Drawing on came to her as she meditated on the vision later.
the excessive emotionalism of late medieval Angela's emotions and sensations mirrored spon-
taneously
piety,[24] the friars instructed the devout to make Christ's
a experience although she did not
participate
mental pilgrimage to the scenes of the gospel in it. Participation was the fifth stage in
narra-

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 Petroff 39

the visionar
pain was the absolute toward which the visionary saw
makes herself to be striving.
it All her spiritual
a exercises werev
probably tell us that it is one thing to attempt to directed to the end of making herself capable of
meditate on the images of the Passion, and another experiencing fully the pain of the crucifixion. Thus,
thing entirely to have those images come alive before after she had participated in the female grief surround-
your eyes, act themselves out in time, and involve ing the passion, she was able to begin identi-
you with them. Although women visionaries had been fying with the crucifixion itself. She desired not
employing the same meditative images from merely to bring her own suffering to Christ as she
childhood, having made them an integral part of theirshared his suffering, but also to lose herself in that
practice of prayer, even they seemed unprepared for pain, hoping that in this way her suffering might
the power of these images become visions. The have some redemptive value, for herself and for
reality of her presence in the crucifixion was totally others. This use of suffering drove a wedge between
unexpected and overwhelming to the visionary, and the visionary's ego and the pain that was
the shock of the unexpected told her that she had a experienced. The ego then could be sacrificed to th
great deal to learn, both about herself and about the pain.
contents of her visions. There was no guarantee for the medieval woman
Although the visionary had been meditating on the visionary that she would emerge from this experience
with a healthier attitude toward pain, and among
crucifixion for years, and often may have felt Christ's
pain internally as she saw his broken body on the
those women who remained solitaries there was a
cross, the first visions that moved her from a devotionalhigh incidence of madness. This was especially tr
stance to a participatory one were those in which shefor someone like Blessed Rita of Cascia, or St. Sper
andea and her heir, Blessed Santuccia.[30] Blessed
associated herself with female grief, either the grief
of the women at the foot of the cross, the grief ofRita wanted to experience the physical reality of the
Mary Magdalene when the risen Christ forbids her tocrown of thorns; she bore an unhealed, putrid, and
touch him, or the grief of Mary when she loses thewormy wound in her forehead for the rest of her life
child Jesus in the temple. In such experiences theas the result of her experimentation.
visionary was so fully identified with the archetypal The experience toward which Rita was striving with
experience of grief that she was incapable of observ-her crown of thorns, the experience which culminated
ing her vision or reflecting on what she had seenand perfected participation in Christ's passion, was
until the vision was over. She became the object of the receiving of the stigmata in which the saint was
her meditation and although she had prayed for this imprinted with the five wounds of Christ, and bore
experience, she often lived to regret it. The Blessed the pain of them in her daily life until she died. The
Benevenuta, for instance, may have overestimated task was not only to bear the pain willingly, but to do
her tolerance for pain when she asked to participate so while exercising active charity. No one who was
in the Virgin's grief at losing her son in the temple, conflicted internally, or who had any resistance to
for she based this tolerance on the fact that she had
love or pain was believed able to exercise charity in
already experienced much pain in her life. At the
such pain. For this reason, the medieval church was
time of her vision, in fact, she was bedridden and very cautious about affirming the genuine stigmatiza-
paralyzed, largely as a result of her austerities. tion of saintly figures like St. Francis of Assisi or
Catherine of Siena.
And behold! there appeared to her at a certain time a Participatory visions of the crucifixion reveal two
noble and devout lady with a handsome elegant important modes by which the medieval female
young boy, who began to walk around in her visionary related to Christ. First, an identification
chamber. She began to take great delight in his
appearance and behavior, but when she tried to touch
with Christ took place through the acceptance of
him in some way, he withdrew from her, and then suffering in one's own life by seeing that suffering as
suddenly both he and his mother vanished. Violent an archetype of the female experience. This under-
grief seized her with tears and grew ever greater, standing comes about through the identification with
afflicting her so overwhelmingly that she was unable grieving women in the gospels. The second step was
to see the suffering which linked one to Christ as
to find any consolation, and it seemed to her that her
soul would be forced out of her body.[28] participation in the archetype of atonement; to see
passive suffering leading onward to active, creative
In spite of Benevenuta's prayers, the Virgin left suffering undergone to cure the suffering of the
her in this state for three days, so that Benevenuta human condition. For women who were sensitive to
could repeat the Virgin's experience. At the end of the emotional content of traditional images of mascu-
this time, the Virgin came to her, told her that she linity and femininity, the participation in the cruci-
had experienced exactly what she requested, and fixion became enormously liberating, for in the cruci-
admonished her: "Don't crave similar things after fixion women saw a powerful male figure saving the
this."[29] world by suffering passively, as women suffer. The
This encounter with grief was evidently the first opposites of passive and active, female and male,
conscious attempt on the part of the visionary to were reconciled in this single act.
place her own grief and pain in the larger context of It is at this point in their visionary careers that
divine suffering. At this point in her development, women visionaries broke out of their restrictions and

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 40 FRONTIERS

began appearances, Mary

to work led her daughters to a mature and i
Christ'scompassionate ability to love, and rejoiced with them
passivit
own in their union with her son. In return, her daughters
activity. O
their promoted her cult. The commitment ofor
touch women saints t
that saw to it that Mary got proper food
scarce recognition as the
around Queen ofof Heaven. their
The movement toward a mature and compassionate
outstretched ha
powers. love for others had its beginning in the devotional
But the process of growth of a visionary did not and participatory stages of visionary activity, and
end here. If deepening participation in the crucifixionreached its proper culmination in the sixth stage, the
involved a new understanding of loss, suffering, andunitive. In unitive visions we find the fullest expres-
sacrifice-and gave women an objective way of view- sion of erotic love. The experience of union with the
ing their personal griefs and losses-participation in divine was one for which the saint had been yearning
the childhood of the Virgin and the infancy of Christsince the beginning of her spiritual path. In her
provided an understanding of divine love and joy devotional visions, it was often she who was the more
which could also be carried over into their daily lives.desirous partner, longing for a personal and erotic
All the women saints of this period lived through relationship with Christ the bridegroom, and yearning
periods of intense human suffering, but they did notequally for a tender relationship with the Virgin.
all have periods in their lives where they felt loved. Later, the divine figures wooed the visionary.
For those women deprived of love as children or In the surviving fragments of St. Umilta's ser-
young adults, visions of the childhood of Christ were mons,[35] we find accounts of the experience of
compensatory in the most positive sense. They were union. For St. Umilta and her chief disciple, Blessed
fantasies which healed the lonely visionary by makingMargarita, however, the role of lover was taken by
her feel part of the divine family. By activating herSt. John the Baptist. St. Umilth's metaphors were so
love for others and her desire for heaven, such obviously sexual that one wonders at the effect these
fantasies hastened her move toward healing others. sermons must have had on her congregation of nuns:
Many women had visions of being visited by the . . O Evangelist, bringer of sweet love from heaven,
Virgin and being allowed to hold the infant Christ, you send many precious rewards to your beloved
but their responses to this vision varied greatly,
according to their own needs and yearnings. For ones.
sweet .... Remember
legates for yet angels]
[her guardian a while,whom
John,you
.... those
used
some women, the experience was pure bliss, andto send to me, that you might inflame me still more
even though the vision had to come to an end, and with your love. . . . Be mindful, meanwhile, of that
the child had to be returned to his mother, the blissmost beautiful blade, which you have fashioned with
remained as a powerful force in their daily lives. hammer strokes of love . . . with which you have
But for the Blessed Agnesa of Montepulciano,[33] transfixed my heart, and in renewing my love for
you, you have thrust that blade in me anew. . .. O
the pain of holding the child and then of giving him
most beloved John, you have bound me with chains,
up was terrible and threatened to overshadow the
and have married me with a ring of gold.[36]
earlier joy. She refused to let go of the infant, and as
the Virgin pulled him away, she grabbed at a tiny There were two scenes which occurred repeatedly in
mother-of-pearl cross which hung on a chain around women's visions at this stage. One is termed the
his neck. When she awoke from her trance, she found "mystical marriage." It was generally a highly ritu-
that in her clenched fist was the cross and broken alized scene of a wedding or betrothal ceremony,
chain-tangible proof of her vision and of her attach- obviously patterned on secular ritual, in which Christ
ment to it. Later when she failed to reflect on what and the visionary joined hands, exchanged vows and
this episode said about her unsatisfied needs, she rings, and occasionally presented each other with
was visited again by the Virgin, who reprimanded her nuptial robes.[37] This event took place in heaven,
for her "holy greed" but reassured her of Christ's and was understood by the visionary as a promise of
love for her. her place in heaven after death.
The initial stages in the visionary's exploration of The second scene was far more sensual, for it
human and divine love were generally mediated by involved a physical embrace by Christ in which the
Mary, and visions of the Virgin create a profound visionary drank, deeply and voluptuously, of the
bond between the apprentice saint and her Lady. blood flowing from his wounded side. The women
Often this bond was visualized as a feudal ceremony, themselves found this vision to be deeply significant
in which the devotee takes Mary as her feudal lord, for their spiritual growth, and the imagery points to
and is received into her protection as vassal.[34] It that profound interplay of masculine and feminin
was Mary who, as wise guardian and affectionate roles in Christ which was first discovered in their
mother, brought together the saint and her son. She participatory visions of the crucifixion. Christ becam
presented her child to the visionary, and allowed her the visionary's mother in his nurturing, life-sustai
to cuddle and caress him. Later Mary was present at ing aspect, and her lover in his delight at her
the mystical marriage of her son with her devoted spiritual beauty and in his eagerness to bestow his
daughter, joining their hands ritually or giving the potency upon her. There are suggestions that the
couple her blessing. In a succession of visionary fusion of masculine and feminine roles may also have

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 Petroff 41

beenyears afterward.
suppl This event was the beginning of a
and new playfulness in their relationship. Benevenuta,
child r
the who earlier could not have been accused of having
Virgin
The had much of a sense of humor, acquired the gift of
biograp
discursively being able to manifest herself physically as Margaret.
only Thisameant that if Margaret
few were sick, Benevenuta
themselves. One must, therefore, be cautious in took her place. The trick was discovered, not once but
speculating on what these unitive visions meant to times, when the other nuns in choir got a
several
the women who experienced them. If we couldglimpseask of two Margarets, the disguised one who had
these women what internal process had led them been
to there all along, singing happily, and the real
one, who was seen hobbling into choir late and
this kind of erotic relationship with Christ, they would
probably have said, as they had been taught, thatpainfully
it out of breath.[39]
Benevenuta, like most of the women who had
was the sacrifice of their earthly desire that had given
them the satisfaction of that desire on a transcendent
experienced unitive visions, had the ability to work
plane. But the process of their visions had taught
miracles. Without conscious effort on her part, her
them not to sacrifice desire but to transform it, to love reached out to embrace others, and she was
strengthen it by purifying it, so that finally all theirequally unconscious of the great attractive power she
most conscious desires might be directed toward now possessed to draw others to her. But there were
union with the divine. Through their experience ofwomen who were troubled by this new attention, and
suffering on a divine scale, they had acquired a way still had to struggle to accept their new freedom and
of measuring and validating whatever pain there was easy compassion. They were helped by the fact that
in their unsatisfied yearning. And certainly, once the world would not let them forget that they were
their desires were satisfied by the experience of needed. People were suffering terribly in the thir-
union, no matter how fleeting the vision, they felt teenth and fourteenth centuries: from illness, from
assured that the pain they had experienced was worth poverty, from civil wars, plagues, and natural disas-
it. ters. Whether women visionaries really intended to
There is no doubt that the unitive vision was both work miracles was irrelevant; they were expected to
concrete and satisfying to the visionary, yet to the do so, and miracles were ascribed to their interven-
modern reader the experience remains vague and tion even when they may not have been aware that
abstract. It is difficult to determine what emotions others were calling upon their powers. Compassion
were experienced during the actual vision, for the
had become the bond between the woman visionary
total experience was so overwhelming and so and others, just as compassion was the bond between
transcendent that each visionary felt that she could the visionary, Christ, and the Virgin. There was no
never communicate it effectively. But the feelings tolonger any separation to be experienced by the
which they all point included joy, an orgasmic or visionary between the needs of the human realm and
near-orgasmic sense of fulfillment or release, time- the joys of the heavenly one. It was love that
lessness, and a relaxation into boundless comfort and provided the continuity between all of the saint's
protection-all accompanied by laughter and playful- activities. Love governed the cycle of charity which
ness. Once the visionaries returned to normal she embraced all her life. She was, in turn, embraced
consciousness, they manifested similar qualities to by love.
those around them. Tenderness, potency, consolation, The woman saint's charity found its expression in
sweetness, these are the attributes of women vision- miracles. These miracles were believed to be the
aries once they had reached this stage in their devel- fruit of visions. Visions, in their turn, created and
opment. Their experience was something they could nurtured the compassion dwelling within the
share physically with others, even if they could not visionary. The miracles that were ascribed to women
put it into words. We read of the impact the Blessed visionaries exhibited much variety, although they can
Benevenuta had on her closest friend, Margaret. be divided into four basic categories. The first two
After a vision witnessed by Sister Margaret, Bene- types of miracles are what we would call psychic
venuta fell asleep. phenomena. In the first group are those attributes of
mystical states that were experienced by the visionary
Sister Margaret, however, deeply moved with alone (but witnessed publicly) such as levitation, the
devotion, bent her face down over Benevenuta's face,
and kissed her; and at once, from Benevenuta's touch
manifestation of holy dew, rigid ecstatic postures,
and breath she sensed such sweetness of consolation,
tears manifested as blood, and the like. The second
that it seemed to her that all the sweetnesses and type of psychic phenomena are those inner
consolations of this human life could not possibly be revelations and commanding voices which brought
the equal, and she was scarcely able to think that theher into an active relationship with the outside world,
consolation of beatitude could be greater . . . and thisincluding her performance of such offices as peace-
consolation lasted with her for a full fifteen days andmaking, erasing despair in others, and warning
more. [38] people of hidden sins and vices. In most of these
tasks, the visionary found herself violating con-
In fact, Margaret felt herself carried in this "cloud of ventional female behavior in order to do good.
marvelous sweetness," as she later referred to it, for The other two types are closer to what we ordi-

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 42 FRONTIERS

narily think of as miraculous, for they usually and the son. And they saw this equality in a much
involved the transformation of matter. The first larger context. For then they saw the whole of
included miracles of healing and casting out demons; heaven, all neatly and hierarchically arranged, with
the second involved the multiplication of food and the two equal thrones in the most important position, and
transformation of one element into another (such as they witnessed the crowning of the Virgin over her
water into wine). The sum of these miraculous triple kingdom of heaven, hell, and earth. Within this
activities gave women scope for exercising their com-scheme, they often saw the church, and they dis-
passion in very powerful ways, and integrated them covered that there, too, the Virgin had a more central
into a larger human community. Miracles brought a role than even they had thought.
reputation for personal power almost immediately, What these final visions of divine order confirmed
especially in times of social upheaval and naturalwere the potency of the feminine. This confirmation fol-
disaster. Evidence of miracle-working power was lows upon the identification with Christ that had already
necessary for canonization. For these reasons, a large taken place, both through the visionary's having con-
portion of canonization documents is devoted to ac- formed her life to his, and through her having been
counts of miracles, performed during the saint's life- united with him in an ecstatic vision. In this absolute
time and after her death.[40] But it is important not valuation of the feminine, it was Mary as Mother,
to let these documents mislead us. From the point of rather than Mary as Virgin, who was visualized. One
view of the visionary, the ability to work miracles was often finds that the last recorded vision of a woman
not the goal of her existence, nor was it the sole saint was of Mary. She was seen with attributes that
expression of her compassion. Her goal was a con- related her to more ancient Great Mother divinities,
tinually deepening relationship with the divine, and and which symbolized her cosmic ordering
the corollary of that was ever-deepening self-knowl- function.[44] Such a vision could be stunning in its
edge. simplicity and directness:
St. Catherine of Siena began her Dialogue[41] with
. . she saw the Mother of God, dressed in the most
the assertion of this goal. The succession of visionary
experiences she recounted in that book revealed her glowing white silk and adorned with the most
precious jewels, with a gold crown of marvelous
growth. Her first paragraph might have been written
beauty. And the Sunday after this, she saw her in a
by any of the women visionaries of her age, for in it golden robe, having on her head a crown of twelve
she said: stars, with the moon beneath her feet, and a tablet in
The soul, who is lifted by a very great and yearning her hand, on which was written: "Daughters, be
desire for the honour of God and the salvation of obedient to the law of the Mother."[45]
souls, begins by exercising herself, for a certain
space of time, in the ordinary virtues, remaining in This statement of the power of the feminine was a
the cell of self-knowledge, in order to know better the fitting conclusion to a succession of visions that led
goodness of God towards her. This she does because women to the acquisition of power in the world, while
knowledge must precede love, and only when she has confirming their knowledge of themselves as women.
attained love, can she strive to follow and to clothe Visions were a socially sanctioned activity that
herself with the truth. But in no way does the freed a woman from conventional roles by identifying
creature receive such a taste of the truth, or so bril-
her as a genuine religious figure. Her visions
liant a light therefrom, as by means of humble and
provided a woman saint with an emotional outlet, an
continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself
and of God; because prayer, exercising her in the expression of grief and loss, and an exploration of
above way, united with God the soul that follows the love. They brought her to the attention of others,
footprints of Christ crucified, and thus, by desire and giving her the opportunity to learn and to teach. All
affection, and union of love, makes her another the attention received by visionaries was not positive,
himself.[42] but hostility could be dealt with too; and women
visionaries provided examples of how to grow
If we understand this goal of the visionary spiritually in spite of opposition and harassment.
properly, we are not surprised to learn that the Through devotional visions the isolated visionary was
initiated into the divine family. Although as a woman
visionary experience did not end with unitive visions.
For the medieval visionary, with her deep need for she was excluded from the ruling hierarchy of the
introspection,[43] there was a final experience-the church and given no role in its rituals, as a visionary
vision of divine or cosmic order. And this ultimate she was an insider, leading an angelic life with other
experience was concerned with the feminine. To besaints, the Virgin, and Christ. Her visions gave her
sure, women visionaries had long had hints of thethe strength to grow internally and to change the
power of Mary in heaven. Because of their devoutworld, to build convents, to found hospitals, to
meditations on the life of the Virgin, many women preach, and to attack injustice and greed-even
had been granted detailed revelations concerning the within the church. Visions also provided her with the
bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, and had evencontent for teaching, even though education had been
witnessed her coronation by Jesus. But now, at thedenied her. She could be a role model for other
end of their lives, when they again saw that event, women, and could lead them to fuller self-develop-
the visionaries were made aware of the absolute ment out of her own experience. Finally, visions
allowed the woman visionary to be an artist,
equality in heaven of male and female, of the mother

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 Petroff 43

composing
most medieval women.
periences into a form which she could create and
re-create for herself and for others during her entire
life. Like the best artists of the European middle
ages, women visionaries have left for us in their
nuns, there are very few who became pregnant every year, as did
6. Accompanying the enforcement of celibacy for the clergy after
the twelfth century was a deep reluctance on the part of clerics to
take responsibility for the spiritual direction of nuns and pious lay-
women. This reluctance caused the scandal referred to as the

visions a record of the self-knowledge to be gained "cura monialum" (care of nuns). For details on the appalling lac
of guidance for religious women, see John B. Freed, "Urban
from the exposure of one's inner life to the power of Development and the 'Cura Monialum' in Thirteenth Centur
divinity. Germany," Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 3 (1972),
311-27; and Brenda M. Boulton, "Mulieres Sanctae," in Women in
Medieval Society, ed. Susan M. Stuard, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Press (1976), pp. 141-58.
This problem is related to the larger issue of female literacy. On
the literacy of nuns in England, see Eileen Power, Medieval
NOTES English Nunneries (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1922).
Most medieval writers seem to agree that only nuns should be
1. For a brief account in English of Margaret of Cortona's life,
taught to read, but the evidence in saints' lives after the twelfth
see Anna Jameson, Legends of the Monastic Orders (New York century is that even nuns were almost illiterate in Latin, except for
and Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1894), pp. 368-71. The Latin text of able to sound out the letters of the divine office. If Italian
being
her life is found in the Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntusnuns were literate in the vernacular, it would not have helped
Johannes Bollandus, Editio novissima, curante J. Carnadet (Paris, them much, for very little religious literature was translated into
1863-1940) XXII, Februarii, 302-63. Her announcement of her the vernacular until after the Black Death in 1348. For the reasons
future sanctity is found on p. 305, par. 7. Since the pagination ofbehind this situation, and for documents forbidding friars to trans-
each edition of the Acta Sanctorum (AASS) differs slightly, it lateis for women, see E. W. McDonnell, The Beguines and Beghards
best to look up saints' lives by date, then by paragraph and in Medieval Culture (New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1954),
chapter numbers. This is the system I have followed in these pp. 189 ff. McDonnell thinks, however, that the description of
footnotes.
women saints as illiterate was merely conventional. We do know
2. The AASS is the most inclusive collection of saints' lives that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there were
extant. It has been published consecutively since the seventeenth collections of saints' lives in Italian that were owned by priva
century in Belgium by the Bollandist Fathers. The Lives are in-and read aloud to the entire household in the evening. O
families
dexed according to saint's (death) day. December is not yet women reading, see also the notes to History of Childhood, ed
completed. Very few of the lives of women saints contained in this Lloyd de Mause (New York and Evanston: Harper, 1974),
collection have ever been translated. I am presently preparing a especially to Chapter 3, "Survivors and Surrogates: Children and
volume of translations from the Latin of the lives of St. Verdiana Parents from the 9th to the 13th Centuries," by Mary M.
(c. 1190- +1242), Bd. Gherardesca of Pisa (c. 1200- +1269), St. McLaughlin, and Chapter 4, "The Middle Class Child in Urban
Humiliana (1220- +1246), St. Umilta of Florence (1226- +1310), Italy, 14th to Early 16th Century," by James Bruce Ross.
Blessed Benevenuta of Friuli (1255- +1292), Bd. Margaret of 7. See Power, Medieval Women, pp. 9-34.
Faenza (c. 1230-+ 1330), and Bd. Aldobrandesca of Siena (1245- +
1307). The other saints whose lives I have read for this study are: 8. Because of the nature of sanctity itself, which does not appear
Bd. Agnesa Peranda, St. Clare of Assisi, Bd. Agnesa of Assisi, Bd. rational to the ordinary person, there is always a certain amount of
Phillipa Mareri, Bd. Chiara Ubaldini of Florence, St. Zita of Lucca, cognitive dissonance in a medieval saint's life, a tension between
St. Fina of San Gimignano, Bd. Nera Tolomei of Siena, Bd. San- the enlightened actions of the saint, which reconcile opposites and
tuccia of Gubbio, Bd. Margaret of Cortona, Bd. Agnesa of Monte- resolve contradictions, and the narrator's unenlightened under-
pulciano, Bd. Giuliana Falconieri, Bd. Margherita of Citta di standing. But that is not what I am referring to here. What I wish
Castello, Bd. Giustina of Arezzo, and St. Catherine of Siena. I have to stress is the fact that the two aspects of female sanctity, the
discovered records still extant for close to one hundred women idpal of feminine goodness and the proof of exceptional power,
saints who lived in Italy between 1200 and 1500; of these, approxi- were in conflict with each other. On the process of canonization,
mately half are represented by biographies in AASS. At one seetime
Damian Joseph Blaher, Ordinary Processes in the Causes of
there must have existed comparable biographies of women Beatification and Canonization, Catholic University of America
heretics, for in their confessions most women heretics seem to Canon Law Studies, No. 268 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic Univ.,
have narrated the history of their visionary experiences as justi- 1949) pp. 1-130. On the significance of exceptionality in hagio-
fication for their religious activity. I know of only one such confes- graphy, see Charles F. Altman, "Two Types of Opposition and the
Structure of Latin Saints' Lives," In Medievalia et Humanistica,
sional biography that has been published, the "Confession of
Prous Boneta"; she was a spiritual Franciscan who was burned in NS 6, Medieval Hagiography and Romance, ed. P. M. Clogan
Provence in 1325. See William Harold May, "The Confession of (Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1975), pp. 1-11.
Prous Boneta Heretic and Heresiarch" in Essays in Medieval Life 9. On women saints' refusal to be victimized, see my article,
and Thought, ed. John H. Mundy, Richard W. Emery, and Benja- "The Paradox of Sanctity," in Occasional Papers of the Interna-
min N. Nelson (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1955), pp. 3-30. tional Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, 1 (Fall
1977).
3. Donald Attwater, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints (Baltimore:
Penguin, 1965), p. 13. 10. The "contemplative life" was a life of prayer which revolved
around the eight canonical hours of prayer each day, but there
4. The terms are on my own; they derive from expressions used were many variations on this basic structure, depending upon
by the women visionaries themselves. The classic division of vis-
whether one was a solitary, a tertiary, or living in community. The
ionary experience is into three stages: purgative, illuminative, and Beguine movement also revolved around a life of prayer, but the
unitive.
women were generally self-supporting through manual labor, usually
5. Women saints seem to have been very long-lived compared weaving; there were solitary and community roles among the
with the medieval population at large; the average age at death of Beguines, too. When St. Clare left her wealthy family to join St.
the women saints cited above was fifty-eight years and some Francis, she probably hoped to lead a new kind of active life; her
months. This longevity also gave them much greater opportunity insistence on the complete Franciscan Rule of Poverty was in part
for self-reflection than was possible for married women living at based'on her conviction that religious women were capable of sur-
home. Since nuns generally tended the sick in times of epidemic mounting every hardship to which men might be exposed. For the
disease, one cannot argue that their isolation alone accounted for disappointing restrictions of the contemplative life for St. Clare,
their long lives. It is more likely that they lived so long because see John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order (Oxford:
they did not run the risk of childbearing. Although there are many Clarendon Press, 1968), pp. 205-15. For the varieties in lifestyle
saints in this study who bore one or two children, and then became within women's religious orders, see McDonnell, cited above, and

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 44 FRONTIERS

R. W. Southern, very hungry for learning of this sort. On heresy in Italy, and the W
Ages (Baltimore: Penguin, 1970), pp. 309-17; see also Dayton role of women as leaders, see Gioacchino Volpe, Movimenti
Phillips, The Beguines in Medieval Strasburg (San Francisco: 1941) Religiosi e Sette Ereticali nella Societa Medievale Italiana
and Lina Eckenstein, Woman Under Monasticism (Cambridge: (Florence: Sansoni, 1961). For heresy in general and the role of
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1896). women, see H. C. Lea, The Inquisition of the Middle Ages (New
11. I am not suggesting that women visionaries would have York: Harper and Row, 1963) and Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of
thought that a fearful response was intrinsically wrong and to be The Millennium (London: Religious Dissent in the Middle Ages, ed.
avoided. There were pragmatic reasons why it was preferable to be Jeffrey B. Russell (New York and London: John Wiley, 1971) and
loved rather than to be feared; women who were feared eventually Schism, Heresy, and Religious Protest, ed. Derek Baker, Vol. 9 of
became identified as witches or heretics. Studies in Church History (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1972).
12. Angela of Foligno was born in 1248 and died in 1309. A
20. Brother Raymond was the confessor assigned to her by the
Franciscan tertiary, her spiritual autobiography, the Divine Conso-
lation, was dictated to her male disciple and uncle, Fra Arnaldo; Dominican Order after she had begun her public career, at the
the book was immediately acclaimed by educated Franciscansconclusion as of an examination of her beliefs in Florence. The
Ubertino da Casale, and continued to be translated and read all records of this examination have not survived; she was suspected
over Europe into the eighteenth century. The Latin text is found in of heresy by some members of her order, but she was cleared of
the Acta Sanctorum, IV Januarii; quotations here are from an all charges. She seems to have preached publicly in Florence on
English translation: The Book of Divine Consolation of the Blessed this and other occasions; the Florentine chronicler Marchione di
Angela of Foligno, trans. Mary G. Steegman, The New Medieval Coppo Stefani writes about her in 1377, when Florence was under
Library (New York: Cooper Square, 1966). This passage is from interdict, and he also has an entry for her death in Rome in 1380.
p. 15 of that text. He is very cautious about her reputation for sanctity; "those in the
Party [the adherents of the Pope] thought she was a prophetess;
13. Blessed Umiliana dei Cerchi led a short unhappy life; she others did not." Concerning her death, he remarks, "molte cose si
was born in 1219, married at age seventeen. After the death of her dessono di lei, e molti miracoli avea fatti in Rome." Aside from
husband when she was twenty-two, she became a recluse until her several references to Queen Giovanna of Naples, Catherine is the
own death, five years later. Her male relatives wanted her to only woman who merits inclusion in his chronicle. Marchione di
remarry, for theirs was one of the most influential families in Coppo Stefani, Cronica Fiorentina, ed. N. Rodolico, Rerum Italic-
Florence; although she wanted to be a nun, no nearby convent arum Scriptores, XXX, 1 (1903-55), 306, 378.
would risk making enemies of her family by admitting her. She
finally managed to convert the family dungeon into a kind of 21. The Latin text is found in AASS, 30 Aprilis, par. 90. This is
oratory, where she remained in isolation except for occasional visits the Life by Raymond of Capua, which has been translated into
from her small daughters. The Acta Sanctorum provides three English by George Lamb, The Life of St. Catherine of Siena
Lives; the Vita Major by Vito of Cortona is much less sympathetic (London: Harvill Press, 1960). The translation is my own. It will be
to her than the two shorter lives, one anonymous and one by found in Lamb on pp. 60 ff.
Raphael of Volterra. All her biographers seem to have known her 22. Devotional meditation as a collective phenomenon seems to
personally. This passage is from par. 20, Vita Major, Decima Nona have begun as a response to the Crusades and to the desire many
Maii. paragraphs 17-20 tell of her battles with Satan; she was often medieval people felt for making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
visibly bruised, and her teeth were cracked and loosened from one The first instruction of this sort seems to have been Franciscan in
encounter. The translations given are from my translation of all origin and to have centered on the stations of the cross. See John
three of her Lives. Moorman, Franciscan Order, pp. 256-78, 390-405. For a late
14. Blessed Benevenuta of Friuli died October 29, 1292. Her fourteenth-century guide to such meditation written for women by
parents' seventh daughter, she never married and never officially an anonymous Franciscan, see Meditations on the Life of Christ,
joined an order, although she spent much time at a nearby An Illustrated Manuscript, trans. Isa Ragusa and Rosalie B. Green
convent, where the nuns were extremely fond of her. She was not (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press 1961, 1977).
particularly famous, and what is outstanding in her biography is 23. Gospel stories were known only in the form in which they
the love she inspired in all those who knew her. were read as part of the Mass. Better known were the apocryphal
15. Bd. Benevenuta Bojanis of Friuli, AASS, 29 Octobris, par. infancy gospels, for they found their way into collections like
19. Voragine's Golden Legend, which was accessible to lay people as
well as to ecclesiastics. For apocryphal texts, see Montague R.
16. Blessed Aldobrandesca, AASS, 26 Aprilis. Aldobrandesca James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
lived from 1219 to 1310. She was a tertiary in the order of the 1924).
Humiliati, and the semi-heretical and indisputably powerful status
of this fringe order may account for the fact that we have no 24. Compare J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (New
fourteenth-century biography for her. The text that exists is a six- York: Doubleday, 1954), pp. 190-99, and R. W. Southern, Western
teenth-century summary of a fourteenth-century Italian Life, and it Society, pp. 300 ff.
is this text that I have translated. For bibliography on the 25. Angela of Foligno, Divine Consolation, pp. 3-4.
Humiliati, see my article, "Paradox of Sanctity," cited above. This 26. Angela, p. 4.
passage is found in Chapter II, par. 11.
27. Angela, p. 6.
17. St. Gherardesca of Pisa was born between 1200 and 1207,
and died sixty years later. Her biography in the Acta Sanctorum, 28. Benevenuta, AASS, 29 Octobris, par. 56.
29 Maii, is filled with accounts of her visionary experiences. As a 29. Benevenuta, par. 56.
child, Gherardesca tried to enter a convent, but her mother grieved 30. For the Life of Blessed Santuccia, see AASS, 21 Martii.
so much that she returned home, only to be tricked into marriage.There are only three pages on her in the Acta Sanctorum; in her
An unhappy child, marriage made her even more unhappy, and case, as in that of Aldobrandesca, there seem to be political reasons
her mother seems to have mistreated her because she could not
behind the disappearance of documents concerning her life. She
become pregnant. She finally convinced her husband to become was born a about 1240; by the time she died in 1305, she had
monk, and she became a tertiary Camoldolesi. From thenfounded on she twenty-four houses. An Abbot Eugenius pronounced her
was happy, and even her mother had to accept the fact that she
anathema, but Pope Clement IV defended her innocence. Since
had a genuine vocation as a mystic. The robe story begins Chapter Clement IV was Pope between 1265-68, when Santuccia was about
11, par. 29. twenty-five, and Santuccia had been a nun for forty-five years
18. Benevenuta, AASS, 29 Octobris, par. 71. when she died, she must have made an enemy of Abbot Eugenius
19. Most studies of medieval heresy stress that heretical lay when she first embarked on her career. Like St. Sperandea, she
persons were the only lay people who knew very much about was a Benedictine Abbess; Eugenius was evidently a Benedictine
Christian doctrine, and what they knew (which was not always Abbot, and her crime was in denying his authority over her.
orthodox) they taught to other lay people, who seem to have been 31. For an account of the curiosity about Francis' stigmatization,

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 Petroff 45

see The Little

more: Penguin
32. There is an explicit example of this in the Life of Bd.
Aldobrandesca, par. 26. The narrator tells us: "Living in this way
she had reached an advanced age, when she began to consider the
life of our Saviour, which had been very occupied with the good of
His neighbors, and to be ashamed of her own self, for she had
been quietly at home with divine solaces. She therefore proposed
to leave her solitude behind and to devote herself to the comforting
of widows, orphans, the sick, and other neglected people, and to
the conversion of common prostitutes, encouraging them to
observe the rules for nuns, and to devote themselves to other pious
works. She brought herself to the hospital of St. Andrew, now
called San Onofrio, and there, having located a secret place where
she might recite prayers or sleep for brief periods, she gave herself
totally to ministering to the sick and to travellers."
33. Blessed Agnesa of Montepulciano, AASS, 20 Aprilis, par.
22.23. Her Life is by Raymond of Capua, Catherine of Siena's
confessor and biographer. Like many women saints, she was
especially concerned about reforming prostitutes; for various
reasons, she insisted that the land on which she founded her con-
vent be in an area where prostitutes were known to solicit busi-
ness. Wherever the whores had walked, she saw angels.
34. I have deliberately used masculine nouns to indicate the
male feudal relationship. Occasionally the feminine domina is used
rather than dux.

35. Although the Life of St. Umilta dates from the fourteenth
century, the Analects containing Umilta's sermons were edited
much later, in 1632, utilizing an Italian vita written shortly after
her death in 1310 and translated into Latin at some later date.
Umilta evidently composed in Latin, not Italian. There is a vast
stylistic difference between Umilta's sermons and the commentary
of Ignatio Guidiccio, her editor; the language of these sermons,
which may or may not be what Umilta originally wrote, is clear,
smooth, and very moving.
36. Umilta, Analects, par. 7, fragment of Sermon XI.
37. On the appearance of this scene in fourteenth-century
painting, see Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena After
the Black Death (New York and Evanston: Harper, 1964), pp. 88 ff.
38. Benevenuta, AASS, par. 40.
39. Benevenuta, par. 74.
40. For the process of canonization or beatification, there must
be proof of miracles before and after the death of the saint.
Post-mortem miracles are more varied and more interesting to the
social historian, but there are too many of them to discuss ade-
quately here. Many of the saints' lives I have read include
notarized accounts of several hundred miracles, often over the span
of several centuries. It seems that when a presumed saint died, the
town or commune immediately paid notaries to be present at the
gravesite around the clock, to record any unusual occurrences and
to get the identities of witnesses. The frugal Italian towns knew
how lucrative it was to be able to claim their own saints.

41. The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena,

trans. Algar Thorold (Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, 1973).
42. Catherine, Dialogue, p. 1.
43. Catherine, p. 345.
44. See Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: the Myth and
the Cult of the Virgin Mary (New York: Knopf, 1976), especially
pp. 255 ff.
45. This is the last recorded vision of Blessed Aldobrancesca,
AASS, pars. 29-30.

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