Women and Religious Life in Byzantium

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Alice-Mary Talbot
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104024579X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
After an introductory general essay on the life cycle and status of women in Byzantine society, this volume focuses on female religious life, with particular emphasis on the role of convents - as spiritual sanctuary, refuge for women in need, or provider of charitable services. Several essays compare Byzantine nunneries with male monasteries, pointing out the relatively small size and lack of intellectual and artistic activity in convents, and more rigorous rules of enclosure and stability. Such phenomena as double monasteries, the conversion of a monastery to a nunnery, and women's economic and spiritual ties with Mount Athos are also examined. Other articles investigate issues of female sanctity and sanctification, analyzing types of women saints, women during the era of iconoclasm, and the role of the family in promoting the cult of a holy woman. In addition there are studies on healing shrines in Constantinople in the middle Byzantine and Palaiologan periods, and the resurgence of hagiographical writing in the late Byzantine era, particularly the reworking of the vitae of older saints.

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Alice-Mary Talbot
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104024579X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
After an introductory general essay on the life cycle and status of women in Byzantine society, this volume focuses on female religious life, with particular emphasis on the role of convents - as spiritual sanctuary, refuge for women in need, or provider of charitable services. Several essays compare Byzantine nunneries with male monasteries, pointing out the relatively small size and lack of intellectual and artistic activity in convents, and more rigorous rules of enclosure and stability. Such phenomena as double monasteries, the conversion of a monastery to a nunnery, and women's economic and spiritual ties with Mount Athos are also examined. Other articles investigate issues of female sanctity and sanctification, analyzing types of women saints, women during the era of iconoclasm, and the role of the family in promoting the cult of a holy woman. In addition there are studies on healing shrines in Constantinople in the middle Byzantine and Palaiologan periods, and the resurgence of hagiographical writing in the late Byzantine era, particularly the reworking of the vitae of older saints.

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Alice-Mary Maffry Talbot
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
After an introductory general essay on the life cycle and status of women in Byzantine society, this volume focuses on female religious life, with particular emphasis on the role of convents - as spiritual sanctuary, refuge for women in need, or provider of charitable services. Several essays compare Byzantine nunneries with male monasteries, pointing out the relatively small size and lack of intellectual and artistic activity in convents, and more rigorous rules of enclosure and stability. Such phenomena as double monasteries, the conversion of a monastery to a nunnery, and women's economic and spiritual ties with Mount Athos are also examined. Other articles investigate issues of female sanctity and sanctification, analyzing types of women saints, women during the era of iconoclasm, and the role of the family in promoting the cult of a holy woman. In addition there are studies on healing shrines in Constantinople in the middle Byzantine and Palaiologan periods, and the resurgence of hagiographical writing in the late Byzantine era, particularly the reworking of the vitae of older saints.

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium

Women and Religious Life in Byzantium PDF Author: Mary-Alice talbot
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Byzantine Religious Culture

Byzantine Religious Culture PDF Author: Alice-Mary Maffry Talbot
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004212442
Category : History
Languages : de
Pages : 527

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Book Description
Twenty-five articles in art history, social history, literature, epigraphy, numismatics and sigillography pay tribute to Alice-Mary Talbot in a coherent volume related to her abiding interest in the study of Byzantine religious practices in their social context.

Unrivalled Influence

Unrivalled Influence PDF Author: Judith Herrin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691153213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, this title focuses on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters.

Women in Purple

Women in Purple PDF Author: Judith Herrin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691117802
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
In the eighth and ninth centuries, three Byzantine empresses—Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora—changed history. Their combined efforts restored the veneration of icons, saving Byzantium from a purely symbolic and decorative art and ensuring its influence for centuries to come. In this exhilarating and highly entertaining account, one of the foremost historians of the medieval period tells the story of how these fascinating women exercised imperial sovereignty with consummate skill and sometimes ruthless tactics. Though they gained access to the all-pervasive authority of the Byzantine ruling dynasty through marriage, all three continued to wear the imperial purple and wield tremendous power as widows. From Constantinople, their own Queen City, the empresses undermined competitors and governed like men. They conducted diplomacy across the known world, negotiating with the likes of Charlemagne, Roman popes, and the great Arab caliph Harun al Rashid. Vehemently rejecting the ban on holy images instituted by their male relatives, Irene and Theodora used craft and power to reverse the official iconoclasm and restore icons to their place of adoration in the Eastern Church. In so doing, they profoundly altered the course of history. The art—and not only the art—of Byzantium, of Islam, and of the West would have been very different without them. As Judith Herrin traces the surviving evidence, she evokes the complex and deeply religious world of Constantinople in the aftermath of Arab conquest. She brings to life its monuments and palaces, its court ceremonies and rituals, the role of eunuchs (the "third sex"), bride shows, and the influence of warring monks and patriarchs. Based on new research and written for a general audience, Women in Purple reshapes our understanding of an empire that lasted a thousand years and splashes fresh light on the relationship of women to power.

Secular Byzantine Women

Secular Byzantine Women PDF Author: Sophia Germanidou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100053734X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Secular Byzantine Women examines female material culture during the Late Roman, Byzantine, and Post-Byzantine eras, to better understand the lives of ordinary and humble women during this period. Although recent scholarship has contributed greatly to our knowledge of Byzantine and medieval women, such research has largely focused on female saints, imperial figures, and prominent women of local communities. But what about secular and non-privileged women? Bringing together scholars from various fields, including archaeology, history, theology, anthropology, and ethnography, this volume seeks to answer this important question. The chapters examine the everyday lives of lay women, including their working routines, their clothing, and precious possessions. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Byzantine history, art, and archaeology, as well as those interested in gender and material culture studies.

Holy Women of Byzantium

Holy Women of Byzantium PDF Author: Alice-Mary Maffry Talbot
Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks
ISBN: 9780884022480
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
These ten holy women, whose vitae range from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, represent a wide variety of Byzantine female saints. From nuns disguised as monks to desert harlots, these holy women exemplify some of the divergent paths to sanctification in Byzantium. These vitae are also notable for their details of Byzantine life, providing information on family life and household management, monastic routines, and even a smallpox epidemic. Life of St. Mary/Marinos Life of St. Matrona of Perge Life of St. Mary of Egypt Life of St. Theoktiste of Lesbos Life of St. Elisabeth the Wonderworker Life of St. Athanasia of Aegina Life of St. Theodora of Thessalonike Life of St. Mary the Younger Life of St. Thoma s of Lesbos Life of St. Theodora of Arta

Varieties of Monastic Experience in Byzantium, 800-1453

Varieties of Monastic Experience in Byzantium, 800-1453 PDF Author: Alice-Mary Talbot
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268105634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
In this unprecedented introduction to Byzantine monasticism, based on the Conway Lectures she delivered at the University of Notre Dame in 2014, Alice-Mary Talbot surveys the various forms of monastic life in the Byzantine Empire between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. It includes chapters on male monastic communities (mostly cenobitic, but some idiorrhythmic in late Byzantium), nuns and nunneries, hermits and holy mountains, and a final chapter on alternative forms of monasticism, including recluses, stylites, wandering monks, holy fools, nuns disguised as monks, and unaffiliated monks and nuns. This original monograph does not attempt to be a history of Byzantine monasticism but rather emphasizes the multiplicity of ways in which Byzantine men and women could devote their lives to service to God, with an emphasis on the tension between the two basic modes of monastic life, cenobitic and eremitic. It stresses the individual character of each Byzantine monastic community in contrast to the monastic orders of the Western medieval world, and yet at the same time demonstrates that there were more connections between certain groups of monasteries than previously realized. The most original sections include an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing hermits in the wilderness, and special attention to enclosed monks (recluses) and urban monks and nuns who lived independently outside of monastic complexes. Throughout, Talbot highlights some of the distinctions between the monastic life of men and women, and makes comparisons of Byzantine monasticism with its Western medieval counterpart.

Byzantine Christianity

Byzantine Christianity PDF Author: Derek Krueger
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9780800634131
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This third volume in the pioneering A People's History of Christianity series focuses on the religious lives of ordinary people and introduces the religion of the Byzantine Christian laity by asking the questions: What did ordinary Christians do in church, in their homes and their workshops? How were icons used? How did the people celebrate, marry, and mourn? Where did they go on pilgrimage?