Date of Submission
Spring 2022
Academic Program
Literature
Project Advisor 1
Karen Sulivan
Project Advisor 2
Marisa Libbon
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This project attempts to understand the relationship between a Medieval anchoress and Christ as a romantic relationship rather than a spiritual metaphor. Mystical marriage, the union of a human woman with Christ, son of God, is a popular formulation of the relationship a medieval anchoress experiences through her religious enclosure. Through analysis of a collection of thirteenth century Middle English texts written to instruct anchoresses on the maintenance of mystical marriage, I argue that the love between the anchoress and God is produced through action rather than a spontaneously generated emotion. The Katherine Group, or Ancrene Wisse Group, consists of a love poem to Christ in the voice of an anchoress, a guide on proper comportment as an anchoress, and three Lives of female saints who participated in mystical marriage. These texts provide a “squint” into the lives of thirteenth century anchoresses in the English West Midlands and suggest how these women practiced mystical marriage.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Barickman, Theophila Mathilda, "Theophila" (2022). Senior Projects Spring 2022. 101.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2022/101
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
