Religious belief and practice were central aspects of many women’s lives in medieval European society. Christianity was the dominant religion and the accepted form in Western Europe was Catholicism. But it’s important to remember that medieval Catholicism involved both a core set of beliefs and practices that all Catholics were supposed to follow AND regional distinctions.
In today’s class, we’re going to consider the experiences of women who dedicated their lives to their religious belief and practices: nuns who took formal vows, lay women known as beguines who devoted their lives to God and engaged in the world outside the convent, and other women who sought a more meaningful and deeper religious experience. We’ll also spend some time talking about the normative religious practices for all Catholic women in medieval Europe.
To Watch (online students)
Powerpoint slides:
#6-Christian Women’s Religious Experiences
To Read
Selections from The Book of Margery Kempe
Various letters by Catherine of Siena
All available here:
To Do
Our readings for today look at the experiences of two women–Margery Kempe and Catherine of Siena–who positions in society were very different from one another. Margery was a married woman and Catherine was a tertiary–a member of a religious order who did not take formal vows. But both women were mystics who had religious visions which we know about because of the writings that detailed them.
In person students
For those signed up to lead discussion for this class, you are in charge of developing discussion questions. You can also create activities for the class to engage in as a means of exploring the assigned readings.
Online students
Questions will be posted in your chatboard channels as a means of starting discussion about the assigned readings. Students who are signed up to lead the online discussion are responsible for monitoring your classmates’ comments and responding to them to keep discussion going. If there are questions that arise which I can help with, don’t forget to tag me @dwl
Comments should be posted by Sunday May 22nd at midnight.