Female anchoritic spirituality in Ancrene Wisse and Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich

Abstract

Táto diplomová práca skúma jedno z mála náboženských povolaní, ktoré bolo dostupné ženám v stredoveku, a to pozíciu pustovníčky. Anachoréty, či pustovníčky, vymenili svoj svetský život za celu pri kostole, v ktorej strávili zvyšok svojho života dodržiavaním každodenného programu modlitieb a meditácií. Pomocou v tomto živote im malo byť viacero "sprievodcov" alebo "pravidiel" - jedným z nich je aj Ancrene Wisse. Tento sprievodca pre pustovníčky obsahuje praktické rady týkajúce sa toho, ako správne viesť pustovňu, rovnako ako pasáže týkajúce sa spirituality. Keďže sa jedná o normatívny text spísaný mužským autorom, diplomová práca ho porovnáva s iným textom zaoberajúcim sa spiritualitou, ktorého autorkou je žena - Juliána z Norwicha. Juliána sa pravdepodobne stala pustovníčkou po sérii vízií, ktoré mala, keď bola vážne chorá; neskôr tieto vízie zaznamenala pre dobro ostatných kresťanov. Analýza oboch textov prebiehala na základe pustovníckej spirituality a odhalila viacero podobností - napríklad, oba texty používajú základné metafory uzavretého priestoru ako tela, Krista ako matky, či Krista ako kráľa alebo rytiera. Obraz spirituality, ktorý tieto dva texty odhaľujú, je často pretkaný paradoxami, keďže oba texty sa snažia komunikovať nekomunikovateľného Boha; práve preto anonymný autor Ancrene Wisse...

This MA thesis explores one of the few religious vocations available to medieval women, that of an anchoress. Anchoresses, or recluses, exchanged their life in the world for a cell adjacent to a church, in which they spent the rest of their lives, keeping a daily schedule of prayers and meditations. As an aid in their daily life, several "rules" or "guides" were produced - one of them is Ancrene Wisse. This guide contains practical advice on running the anchorhold, as well as passages concerning spirituality. As a normative text written by a male author, it was compared with another text concerning spirituality, this time written by an anchoress -Julian of Norwich. Julian likely became an anchoress after receiving a series of visions when laying seriously ill; she later recorded these visions for profit of her fellow Christians. Both texts were analysed in connection to anchoritic spirituality and revealed several similarities - for instance, both tend to use the basic metaphors of enclosure as body, Christ as a mother, or Christ as a king or a knight. The image of spirituality that emerges from the two texts is often paradoxical, due to the incommunicability of the Divine, which makes both the anonymous author of the Ancrene Wisse and Julian utilise images with opposite meanings and often shift...