Tag Archives: Domenica da Paradiso

The Other Sister Research Seminar: Images

By Meghan Lescault

As The Other Sister project examines women who often took religious life in new and interesting directions, it was only fitting that we followed in their footsteps ever so slightly for our most recent online research seminar on December 13, 2024, where we departed from our customary format and ventured into new territory. Prior to the meeting, images that had been sent in by several scholars were disseminated to all participants. During the seminar, these scholars had the opportunity to discuss these images that they had come across in their research of medieval and early modern religious women and to ask all attendees for information, ideas, and points of comparison with their own research. This collaborative exercise, hosted by Mary Doyno and Tanya Stabler Miller, was a great success, as it led to robust discussion and a helpful exchange of ideas.

A close-up from the left panel, taken from the larger image seen here.

Isabelle Cochelin began the conversion with the above image of a woman, who is thought to be St. Monica, from a fifteenth-century Netherlandish triptych depicting scenes from the life of St. Augustine. She discussed her search for representations of non-cloistered religious women in art, of which this painting is a potential example. This search has led to questions as to whether such women can be detected in crowds and as attendees of sermons in pieces of artwork. Cochelin also mentioned the difficulties of determining the identity of women depicted in art on the basis of their habits. For example, how can we tell whether the subject is meant to be dressed in the garb of a widow or of another type of non-cloistered woman? Devon Sherwood offered the comparison of books of hours that did in fact belong to religious women but depict their owners in secular clothing. Ashley Tickle Odebiyi offered the insight that the potential St. Monica is portrayed here in a blue habit, a noteworthy point given that the bizzoche of Rome studied by Odebiyi are associated with a consorority of St. Monica that also had habits of a blue hue.

Meghan Callahan further stirred up a flurry of conversation with an image taken from Francesco da Castiglione’s sixteenth-century biography of Sister Domenica da Paradiso. It can be seen on the second page of Callahan’s 2012 article found here. The unusual image is meant to depict Domenica in the midst of a vision, seemingly having a mystical experience of Christ’s crucifixion. Callahan asked the group if others had encountered any comparable images. Amongst several interested respondents, Kate Bush recalled a description of a similar image portraying Vanna of Orvieto in 1306 as well as the accounts of Margaret of Cortona mystically experiencing the wounds of Christ. Callahan was the recipient of several inquiries, as curious attendees wanted to know more about the intriguing image: Who drew it? Could it have been a female artist? Why the detailed outline of Domenica’s legs? Why the Y-shaped cross? Callahan believes that it was composed by Domenica’s confessor and biographer Francesco and that the details of the image simply represent an attempt to portray the sight of Domenica during her visions accurately.

Margot Fassler’s chosen image, found in the Klarenbuch, Karlsruhe, BLB Cod. Thennenbach 4, continued the theme of women depicted in unusual places that are typically reserved for Christ. In this case, St. Clare is placed at the middle of a Last Supper table—seated between Christ and St. John—in a late-fifteenth- or early-sixteenth-century painting by the Poor Clare Sybilla von Bondorf. In comparing this painting to a similar depiction of St. Francis at the Last Supper, also painted by Bondorf and found in the Life of Francis in German (London, BL 15710, f.168v), Fassler surmised that Bondorf may have been appealing to her viewers’ memories, as she painted Clare as the presider in one painting and Francis in the other. This can also be seen in two depictions of Bonaventure painted by Bondorf. Fassler’s work on music, in which one melody can have multiple settings, led her to the realization that a similar phenomenon may be at play in artwork—highly stylized images with similar themes but slightly different details. Amanda Pullan offered a helpful comparison with seventeenth-century embroidery in which women would embroider angel or biblical stories on the left side of the panel, changing the exact content but maintaining the same location of the images.

Tanya Stabler Miller continued the discussion by presenting sketches of the tomb effigies of three identifiable medieval Parisian beguines—Jeanne Brichard, Agnes d’Orchies, and Marie de Gonesse. Images of the latter two can be found on pages 100 and 51, respectively, in Stabler Miller’s book. She pointed out that such items allow for interesting observations about how the women chose to represent themselves, and she specifically drew attention to the girdle books carried by Brichard and Gonesse in these images, suggesting that such an accessory might have an association with beguines. Their connection with these wearable pouches intended to carry and protect psalters and other books would make sense given their reputation for piety and charitable work as well as their movement between spaces such as the beguinage, workshops, and home. In asking the group for comparisons, Stabler Miller received feedback about similar tomb effigies of women depicted with books. Moreover, Margot Fassler and Siobhan Nelson noted the similarity of these girdle books to chatelaines, which were used by women working in nursing and haberdashery to store their belongings needed for such tasks. Stabler Miller pointed out that beguines could function as caregivers and silk-workers and that the need for a storage device of this kind highlighted their mobility and fluidity between spaces.

Diptych-reliquary depicting Dominican saints, saint Ursula, saint Catherine of Alexandria, the Virgin and donors. Burgos, Monastery of Santa Maria de Las Huelgas. 13.2 x 20.2 x1 cm (both panels). Beginning of the fourteenth century. Reproduced with the permission of Patrimonio Nacional.

Mercedes Pérez Vidal brought the conversation off the page and into the third dimension, as she discussed the above devotional diptych and reliquary that probably originated in or near Cologne but is now housed at the Cistercian monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos, Spain. She emphasized two especially intriguing, even puzzling aspects of this object. The diptych contains one of the earliest known depictions of Helen of Hungary, a Dominican nun who is styled as a saint here, and at the same time, it is very similar to an object that belonged to Christina von Stommeln, a beguine who lived near Cologne in Jülich. Pérez Vidal noted that this points to a blurring of boundaries between cloistered and non-cloistered women, Dominicans and beguines. Isabelle Cochelin responded by inquiring about the price of such a precious object and who would have had the means to afford it. Pérez Vidal emphasized that the origin of the diptych remains unknown but discussed the possibility that it came out of the context of the circulation of relics, especially those of the 11,000 virgins of Cologne, that occurred in the area between Cologne and the Low Countries.

Barbara R. Walters furthered the discussion with a presentation of an illumination in a Mosan Psalter (The Hague, KB 76 G. 17 f. 82v). She explained that she approaches images in terms of historical sequences, palimpsests, and progressions with particular emphasis on the feast of Corpus Christi. The thirteenth-century women of Liège, especially the recluse Eve of St. Martin and St. Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, are represented here by this image from a Mosan Psalter, as this is part of a group of psalters that likely circulated among laywomen of Liège. Moreover, the image’s depiction of the elevation of the host highlights the Eucharistic devotion among the women of Liège, who were instrumental in instituting the new feast of Corpus Christi in 1246. Thinking about generations of recluses, Walters asked the group if it makes sense to see different generations of recluses in Liège as part of a progression from a friendship network to a more formal set of church roles and relationships. Isabelle Cochelin responded that the notion of recluses as wholly enclosed with a locked door has been debated throughout the centuries. While the rhetoric suggested constant enclosure, there were significant variations in reality.

Katherine Clark Walter brought the session to a fitting close with some perplexing illuminations from a fourteenth-century pontifical of William Durand (Clm 10037, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich). Three images found on folios 80v (page 170 in the above link), 81r, (171), and 233r (475) depict women standing behind a bishop at various consecration ceremonies, an unusual sight in such manuscripts. We especially focused on folio 81r (171), where such an illumination is paired with the text for the benediction of widows. Clark Walter thought that the woman right behind the bishop might be an officiant at the benediction alongside the bishop and asked the group why this might be. In response, Isabelle Cochelin discussed the often-significant roles played by abbesses at the professions of nuns and introduced the question of the potentially diverging roles of the abbess and the bishop, depending on the sources consulted. Margot Fassler and Meghan Callahan both questioned whether the woman was playing an active part as an officiant or rather was serving as a witness. Bruce Venarde drew everyone’s attention to the highly unusual nature of the image, highlighting the strange placements of the virgins to one side, the bishop to the other side, the woman behind the bishop, and a monk front and center.

Mary Doyno noted that ending on the note of oddity was a fitting cap for this meeting, as its goal was to elicit analysis, draw out questions, and illustrate the need for further research. This session did just that, highlighting the potential successes of crowdsourcing and proving that sometimes a picture is worth more than 1000 words.

The Other Sister Research Seminar: Prophecies and Politics Outside Enclosures: Visionary Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

By Sarah Carruthers

On Friday, November 22, 2024, The Other Sister Research Group held a thematic meeting on the topic of Prophecies and Politics Outside Enclosures: Visionary Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Our invited scholars and readings were:

  • Frances Kneupper, “Female Prophets Transcending Gender Expectations During the Great Schism – The Revelations of Constance of Rabastens and Marie Robine,” in Mediävistik im kulturgeschichlichen Kontinuum, edited by Gerda Brunnlechner, Nadine Holzmeier, et al. (Niva Mediaevalia), Göttingen: V&R Unipress, 2024. (to appear)
  • Eleonora Cappuccilli, “Domenica da Paradiso and the Prophetic Discipline of the Body and Soul,” in Body, Gender, Senses: Subversive Expressions in Early Modern Art and Literature, edited by Carin Franzén and Johanna Vernqvist, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024, pp. 11-29.
  • Unn Falkeid. “‘The Most Illustrious and Divine of All the Sibyls.’ Saint Birgitta in the Prophetic Visions of Tommaso Campanella and Queen Cristina of Sweden,” in The Legacy of Birgitta of Sweden, edited by Anna Wainwright and Unn Falkeid, Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp. 277-307.

For the first time we also had a respondent, our co-organizer Delfi Nieto-Isabel

Frances Kneupper began by explaining that prophetic authority could be both claimed and dismissed. Men justified their prophetic voices through text, including scripture and reading, whereas women (or at least men who wrote about women) justified their prophetic voices through the body, such as the stigmata and illness. Frances emphasised the differences between these two traditions: the male prophetic tradition was educated and written, while the female prophetic tradition was oral and more bodily. However, Frances stressed that the occasional merging of these two traditions is understudied. She explained that the female and male prophetic traditions at times drew on each other, for instance in the cases of Vincent Ferrer and Marie Robine, regarding concerns about the Antichrist. Moreover, Constance of Rabastens and Marie Robine broke the molds with their prophetic voices. Both were laywomen and illiterate, who used their roles as prophets to participate in the political uncertainty and the papal schism which formed the social background to their prophetic visions and engagement with apocalyptic rhetoric.

Eleonora Cappuccilli spoke next about Domenica da Paradiso, focusing on the questions and paradigms surrounding this prophetic figure. Eleonora notes that scholars have primarily focussed on Domenica’s lived and embodied experience, but Domenica’s body is in dialogue with her intellect. Domenica’s body could be both positive and active, becoming the link to the divine for the prophet. Dominica used extreme ascetism against her body, but Eleonora noted that martyrdom of the body has limits. Nevertheless, Eleonora explained that the earthly body also opens women to the divine and that the imitatio Christi does not have a limit. For hagiographers, prophetic women doubting themselves shows their legitimacy because doubt is answered by God. Domenica and Constance are connected to St Birgitta of Sweden, as Birgitta is authorized as a widow and prophet, and these women used their positions as prophets to influence the political climate that emerged around the fourteenth-century papal schism between Rome and Avignon. Domenica is not as political as Birgitta and Constance, but she calls on the Pope in 1526 to warn him of catastrophe. Eleonora underscored that a prophet could function as a critic even in a supportive capacity for an authority figure, but prophecy could also expose women to public circulation and legal danger. 

Unn Falkeid was the session’s third speaker. Unn began by explaining that this article emerged from her latest book. Because the article does not go into great depth about Birgitta of Sweden, she reminded the group about Birgitta’s life. She was born as an aristocrat, married at thirteen, and had eight children. In the 1340s, she became a widow and started to engage in public political debates while creating her own religious order. Birgitta moved to Rome, established a monastic rule, and traveled widely in Italy, where she produced her Liber celestis. According to scholarship, Birgitta was one of the most influential figures of the visionary tradition in the late Middle Ages. At the end of her life, she is at the height of her authority in Rome. Birgitta had a significant influence throughout Italy and was a key figure in the Italian Renaissance. Unn worked with Anna Wainwright on a research project on Birgitta of Sweden that produced a database and articles. The article presented today is one of the articles that emerged from this research project. Unn and Anna Wainwright’s most surprising discovery was that in the early modern period, long after her death, Birgitta was still invoked as a prophetic authority.

Delfi Nieto-Isabel was the session’s respondent. She indicated that she would first discuss how the papers work together, then turn to how her own work on prophetic women fits in, and then bring the key themes of the session’s prophetic women together. Delfi emphasised that prophecy is never about good things: it has an aura of negativity and catastrophe surrounding it. Although there were prophetic religious women before, the fourteenth century was a turning point. Drawing on the Book of Revelations, such women were concerned with the Antichrist and criticized the Pope, as the fourteenth century was a time of papal schism, leading to an increase of apocalypse rhetoric based on the Book of Revelation. On the other hand, Delfi stressed that in this session’s papers the relationship between intellectual and emotional authority is mediated for women. In the early fourteenth century, female prophets could respond to and draw on scripture in their writing and prophecies directly. By the late fourteenth century, male theologians drew on scripture, while women needed to negotiate the way in which they approached scripture, using a male figure to record their oral prophecies, claiming ignorance of the scripture draw on in the prophecy, and presenting their prophecies as embodied rather than intellectual. Delfi emphasised that earlier women paved the way for these later prophetic women. She then noted that another theme in this session is illiteracy, which is sometimes a trope and sometimes real. Prophetic women were able to participate intellectually, as the somatic body and reason interact in prophetic writing. Delfi stressed that there is both a turning point and a tension present here. For instance, the fourteenth-century beguine Na Prous is much more focused on her intellect and is less bodily, but the source that provides us with Na Prous’ visions is a legal source based on her testimony, not a source based on the tradition of affective piety associated with women, such as Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue or Birgitta of Sweden’s Liber celestis. Delfi indicated that this tension comes from women moving away from the aesthetics of the body in the fourteenth century. Delfi gave temporality as another reason for this tension, as the coming of the apocalypse is a concern in Franciscan circles at the time. 

Frances then responded to Delfi, saying that she is curious about the Franciscan prophetic circles. How did this tradition continue and change throughout time? And how was the tradition disseminated and continued?

Next, Eleonora responded to Delfi, mentioning the relationship between literacy and intellectual production. Birgitta’s pen was moved by God. Yet, women had to justify their non-traditional way of life. Eleonora stresses that orality is connected to the collective production of prophetic writing, and that women used orality to justify their tertiary lifestyles to their audiences. Eleonora stressed that prophetic women called on authority figures to pray, act immediately, take power, and interact with God. She also remarked that the mortification of the body filtered in and out. Prophetic women drew on the imitatio Christi, as Christ died for everyone. Christ touches everyone as equals, but in some moments the Passion becomes a political message. Eleonora said that a key theme is the relationship between the prophetic message and self-doubt. Eleonora then drew on Unn’s thinking, saying that Birgitta was sometimes misinterpreted, saying that theologians, systematised and challenged living saints. How should they use someone’s joy? Joy for prophetic women was divine, not diabolic. Eleonora said that doubt is always present, but women could not be deluded by the devil if they knew their hearts were clear. Prophetic women placed reform on themselves; it is true and from God.

Next, Unn responded to Delfi and Eleonora, explaining that Birgitta turned into a figure who became part of the language of prophecy. Unn argued that prophecy was way for women to enter politics, differentiating prophetic and mystical language. Unn also said that Birgitta’s language was vague, making it easy to re-use. Thus, her revelations gained popularity in the early seventeenth-century, and her Liber celestis turned into a tough document for the Church to grapple with. 

Delfi then asked a question to all three speakers about heresy: “What is the connection between prophecy and heresy? How does it play out?” 

Unn responded that prophecy was a powerful assistant to women, as drawing on Birgitta could increase the authority of other women. Birgitta of Sweden’s legacy is full of tensions between the tradition of the classical saint and the prophetic figure, as she became a figure that bridges the lines between a saint and a rebel.

Frances then responded that Birgitta of Sweden’s prophetic writing was taken out of context by theologians but not substantially so, especially at the Council of Basel. Constance and Marie questioned authority, but they were disobedient, not heretical. Disobedience and heresy are not the same. Frances stressed that heresy and the rejection of authority were different.

Eleonora responded that the reason for prophecy was clear, everything is coming directly from God. Divine authority sent by God is instrumental for a prophetic woman, so her prophecies are authorised by God and she is not mistaken for a preacher, a role Biblically forbidden to women. Eleonora mentioned that the church authorities tried to exclude Domenica, who became a pawn within this system, but Domenica wanted to be autonomous. The Dominicans considered that to be an issue. Domenica’s trial revealed the detention of another prophet. Dominica took responsibility for this woman, taking spiritual care of her.

The question-and-answer period then began.

Isabelle Cochelin asked a question about the social status of prophets. Birgitta of Sweden had no issues with writing because of her high status, and her disobedience was accepted. How does this change for lower-status women?

Unn responded that Birgitta’s high status and literacy matters here. The Virgin Mary is the Queen of Heaven and Birgitta speaks with the Virgin Mary in her visions. High status does lead to acceptance. Nevertheless, Birgitta faced resistance during her life and her canonization process was challenging.

Frances responded that there are two models at play here. Birgitta acts as an inspiration for everyone, but no one else has her status. Yet, illiterate lowly women also said that God had chosen them because of their simple status, as humility was a trope used by women and their hagiographers to authorise women’s speech.

Eleonora weighed in that Birgitta took a vow of poverty at one point, making Birgitta of Sweden an unusual model as a higher-status woman.

Bob Sweetman then asked if there were any allusions to the prophet Amos in Dominica’s visions and sermons as Amos was himself a farmer prophet. Frances responded that many women connected their authority to male prophets, not female prophets. Women also drew on John the Baptist, and Domenica also acted as “a New Age Mary.”

Jane Tylus then inquired about the Virgin Mary as an example of a prophetic figure whose body is crucial. Eleonora responded that the body anchored the Virgin Mary to the earth, but the body also opened her to the birth of Christ. Unn then responded that in Birgitta’s world, the Virgin Mary functions as a sister, mother, and friend, explaining that Birgitta also experienced many of the same social roles as the Virgin Mary. The late Middle Ages is the height of Marian devotion, as the Virgin Mary was simultaneously an inspiring figure and fountain head, and the imitation of Birgitta followed in the tradition of the imitatio Mariae.

Margot Fassler then asked Unn if she can say more about the oratorio of St Birgitta composed by Decio Azzolino (d. 1689), if it had been transcribed and ever performed and recorded: if not, “these things should happen.” Unn replied to Margot that she did not know if the oratorio had been performed, but the piece would be sung. She added that the oratorio still needed to be transcribed.

Next, Devon Sherwood asked Eleonora if a permeability is present between secular and religious works. Is corporality and intercessory language present regarding Queenship? Was the political undertones of these religious works meant to be an attempt to claim secular authority? Eleanora responded to Devon that as Birgitta is noble, she is a bearer of secular authority and power. The more classical image of this type of authority is the procession of queens in a religious ritual.

Lydia Walker asked Unn and Eleonora about Campanella’s love and Domenica’s doubt. Does the relationship between gender and emotion provide authorization? Is the authentication of doubt also gendered? Unn responded to Lydia, bringing in the history of emotions, saying that love is a strong word and can be an uncertain word due to translation issues. Eleonora said that doubt is gendered. Doubt for women is a formal form of authorization, as scripture is for theologians. Eleonora stressed that human intellect cannot have complete knowledge. Doubt needed to be reflected in action. This opens a space for women as prophets. Eleonora stressed that for Domenica, the garden and the virtues of the Virgin Mary are clear influences on her imagery.