A symposium of new research on nuns, beguines, recluses, and other sisters.
DATE: 14-15 July 2025
HOSTED BY: Notre Dame Rome and the Medieval Institute of the University of Notre Dame.
ORGANIZERS: CJ Jones and Kristina Kummerer.
MODE: Hybrid. In-person at Notre Dame Rome (Via Ostilia, 15 – 00184, Roma, Italy). Virtual attendance through Zoom.
DESCRIPTION:
The last decade has witnessed an explosion of scholarship on religious and semi-religious women’s participation in the liturgy of the medieval Catholic church. Recent studies have cast new light on women’s direct participation in liturgical action, as well as their production and care of liturgical art, textiles, and books. Liturgical references in mystical literature and hagiography reveal how embodied practice fostered women’s access to the divine, and a broader interest in prayer practice expands study of women’s rituals beyond the bounds of the liturgical, narrowly defined. Lay women, tertiaries, and professed lay sisters all engaged in ritual devotions, both communal and private, albeit differently than enclosed nuns.
Thirteen international scholars across disciplines – history, musicology, liturgy, theology, and literature – will present new research on the ritual cultures of medieval religious women in Europe, defining both “ritual” and “religious” in broad terms to include the communal and individual ritual practices of enclosed nuns, beguines, tertiaries, anchoresses, and the communities with whom they interacted.
Both virtual and in-person participation is possible. Registration for all attendees is required, but free. For more information or to register, please visit the event webpage. The last day to register for in-person attendance is 7 July 2025.
Please email Kristina Kummerer (kkummere@nd.edu) with any questions or technological difficulties.
