Sacred sisters : gender, sanctity, and power in medieval Ireland / Maeve Brigid Callan.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. "Founded upon the Rock Which Is Christ": What Patrick and His Promoters Reveal about Women in the Early Irish Church -- 2. "A New and Apostolic Band of Virgins Arose": Darerca, an Exceptionally Learned Abbess -- 3. "The Safest City of Refuge": Brigid the Bishop -- 4. "God Is Always Present with Those Who Exemplify Such Devotion": �Ite, Foster-Mother of the Saints of Ireland -- 5. "Do Not Harass My Sisters": Samthann, an Abbess Not to Be Crossed -- 6. "I Place Myself under the Protection of the Virgins All Together": Sister Saints with Something Like a Life -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- Bibliography -- Index

*Sacred Sisters* focuses on five saints: the four female Irish saints who have extant medieval biographies (Darerca, Brigid, �Ite, and Samthann), and Patrick, whose writings -- fifth-century Ireland's sole surviving texts -- attest to the centrality of women in Irish Christianity's development. Women served as leaders and teachers, perhaps even as bishops and priests, and men and women worked together in a variety of arrangements as well as independently. Previous studies of gender in medieval Ireland have emphasized sexism and sex-segregated celibacy, dismissing abundant evidence of alternative approaches throughout the sources, including in the Lives of Ireland's female saints. Sacred Sisters places these generally marginalized texts at its center, exploring their portraits of empowered, authoritative, compassionate women who exemplified an accepting and affirming ethics of gender and sexuality that would be unusual in many mainstream Christian movements in the present day, let alone in the Middle Ages.

Print version record.

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