Gender and Sanctity in Medieval Ireland: Papers in Honor of the 1500th Anniversary of Saint Darerca's Death

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Maeve Callan

Organizer Affiliation

Simpson College

Presider Name

Maeve Callan

Paper Title 1

Coming into the Country: Saints, Gender, and Land in Early Christian Ireland

Presenter 1 Name

Dorothy Africa

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Harvard Univ.

Paper Title 2

Conchubranus's Saint Monenna

Presenter 2 Name

Dorothy Ann Bray

Presenter 2 Affiliation

McGill Univ.

Paper Title 3

It's Not Easy to Keep a Good Holy Woman Down: The Manipulation of Female Sanctity and Gender Roles in the Lives of Saint Darerca (aka Moninna and Modwenna), from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century

Presenter 3 Name

Diane P. Auslander

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Lehman College, CUNY

Start Date

11-5-2017 3:30 PM

Session Location

Valley I Shilling Lounge

Description

This session brings together three vitally important areas of inquiry--gender, sanctity, and Ireland--and honors the 1500th anniversary of the death of St. Darerca, also known as Monenna. Darerca was a pioneer for women's pursuit of the religious life in fifth- and sixth-century Ireland, and the community she founded, Killevy, survived throughout the entirety of the Middle Ages, ending only with the Dissolution in the sixteenth century. Her example highlights issues that remain critically important today, including avenues of power, relationships between the sexes, diversity of religious lifestyles, whether women retained or had to sacrifice their sex in order to be regarded as holy, women's education, the threat of sexual violence, the strength of bonds between women, and more.

Maeve Callan