Holy Virgins and Blessed Rulers

Eastern and Western Perspectives (4th-6th Centuries)

Edited by Rita Lizzi Testa

Book cover: Holy Virgins and Blessed Rulers

Extent: 380 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Religious Studies

Series: Studi e testi tardoantichi

Series volume number: 27

Language: English

Paperback (Forthcoming)

(June 2026)

ISBN: 9782503618807

Price: $119.00

Out of stock

Many questions raised by the spread of female asceticism in Late Antiquity have now been answered. Other issues remain unresolved. The one to which we try to give more emphasis in this volume has to do with the institutional and economic aspects of women’s monasticism. They are the most difficult to discern solely based on literature aimed at creating models of behaviour and rules of spiritual life. Some reflections, however, can help our discussion. The exhortation to female sexual continence, exalting in women the inclination to live in total renunciation of material goods and sex, encouraged their exclusion from the hierarchies. We need to understand whether it became central in Christian preaching and treatises at a particular time because, whether effective or not in its outcomes, it allowed the Church to absorb much of the wealth of women who had been won over to that ideal of a Christianity of excellence.

  • Edited by Rita Lizzi Testa