Title: Forgetful of their sex
First published: 1998
Description: In this study of over 2,200 female and male saints, Jane Schulenburg explores women's status and experience in early medieval society and the Church. She focuses on the changing social contexts of female sanctity (women saints as embodiments of cultural models) as well as various kinds of extravagant, "transgressive," or "deviant" female behavior that frequently challenged male order and authority.

She argues that between 500 and 1100 a clear gender-based asymmetry existed in the selection of saints, which became more exaggerated during certain eras. Schulenburg also examines some of the major contributing factors involved in establishing reputations of sanctity and the recruitment and promotion of saints, including family wealth and power, patronage, monasticism, virginity, motherhood, and longevity.

Invaluable for what they tell us about early medieval society and the Church, the Lives of these early saints also afford rare insight into the private world of medieval men and women, the special bonds of family and friendship, and the collective mentalities of the period. This book constitutes a major contribution to the study of medieval history, gender, and religion.
Subjects: Celibacy, Christianity, History, Religious aspects, Religious aspects of Celibacy, Religious aspects of Sex, Religious aspects of Virginity, Sex, Virginity, Women in Christianity, Heiligen, Monachisme et ordres religieux chrétiens féminins, Aspect religieux, Vrouwen, Femmes dans le christianisme, Célibat ecclésiastique, Hagiographie, Femmes, Women saints, Histoire, Sexualité, Virginité, Early church, Célibat, Christianisme, Religieuses, Middle Ages, Women, history, middle ages, 500-1500, Sex, religious aspects, christianity, Virginity, religious aspects
Time periods: Early church, ca. 30-600, Middle Ages, 600-1500
LC classification: BR195.W6 S38 1998