Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity

by Krawiec, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9780195129434
• ISBN10: 0195129431
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This volume depicts the lives of female monks within a monastery locatedin upper Egypt in the period 385-464 CE. During this period the monastery washeaded by a monk named Shenoute; twelve of his letters to the women under hiscare survive. Krawiec here uses the letters to reconstruct a series of quarrelsand events in the life of the White Monastery and to discern some of the keypatterns in the participants' relationships to one another within the world asthey perceived it. Krawiec examines how Shenoute constructed and exerted hisauthority in these conditions, and investigates the degree to which the womenaccepted it.

Author Biography

Rebecca Krawiec serves as adjunct faculty at Canisius College in the Religious Studies Department and at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, in the Classics Department.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	3	(10)
Daily Life in the White Monastery under Shenoute	13	(18)
Women's Life in the White Monastery under Shenoute	31	(20)
Shenoute's Discourse of Monastic Power	51	(22)
Acceptance and Resistance: The Women's Power	73	(19)
``They too are Our Brethren'': Gender in the White Monastery	92	(28)
Gender and Monasticism in Late Antiquity	120	(13)
Women's Role in the Monastic Family: The Intersection of Power and Gender	133	(28)
``According to the Flesh'': Biological Kin in the White Monastery	161	(14)
Notes	175	(62)
Bibliography	237	(8)
Index	245