Women and Faith: Catholic Religious Life in Italy from Late Antiquity to the Present (review)

Women and Faith: Catholic Religious Life in Italy from Late Antiquity to the Present. Edited by Lucetta Scaraffia and Gabriella Zarri. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1999. Pp. vi, 378. $59.95.)

The sixteen essays in this volume span the period from the fourth to the twentieth century and focus on the relationship of women with the Catholic Church, its institutions and teachings. Although the authors, most of whom are Italian, primarily deal with Italy, they cast their nets widely. The history of women in one part of Europe thus becomes paradigmatic for more general problems implicit in the tensions between the male hierarchy and specifically female devotions and imagery. Collectively, the essays pose several central questions: did the Catholic Church throughout its history offer women possibilities of participating in its culture? Further, how much room existed for the development of specifically female forms of spirituality in a religion with a male divinity? What was the meaning of the Pauline vision of spiritual equality among all Christians?

The essays explore some of these issues. They begin with a survey of early medieval female asceticism and monasticism and a sketch of the idea of mystical marriage. "Society and Women's Religiosity, 750-1450," by Giulia Barone is more meaty, especially in the connections it establishes between female religiosity and periods of crisis. Heretical movements that included women were one response, but so was the leadership of figures like Saint Catherine of Siena, whose religiosity had a distinctively political dimension, or Saint Francesca Romana, a model of a new "urban" saint.

Dominique Rigaux's essay on the portrayal of saintly women in art offers some surprises, especially in her discussion of frescoes commissioned by women. For example, in the refectory of the bizzoche in Foligno we find a busy Martha depicted in her kitchen and given greater eminence than Mary. The author convincingly links iconography with the turn toward the active life among late medieval women. Another and quite different piece on images of women is the last in the volume. It deals with the at times ambiguous portrayal of nuns and saints in modern cinema and makes for good reading.

The essay that in a way sets the tone of the whole volume is Gabriella Zarri's "From Prophecy to Discipline, 1450 to 1650," a masterful survey by an eminent scholar of women's religious history. It summarizes a vast amount of recent research and organizes it firmly in support of her thesis that the Council of Trent truly initiated a new era for women. While some women in the late Middle Ages had the freedom of prophets and were able to urge reform of the Church and the papacy, the Tridentine decrees resulted in the regimentation and subjection of nuns to strict social and religious discipline. Instead of seers, their outstanding figures became models of social action. In their schools they taught Christian doctrine and discipline to generations of future wives and mothers who in turn perpetuated the new emphasis on active charity in the community. If one has time to read only one essay in this collection, I would recommend this elegantly crafted piece. It is followed by Adriano Prosperi's subtle discussion of spiritual letters by saintly and famous nuns or devout women. A surprisingly large proportion of these letters was written down by men who were the women's secretaries or confessors. This raises a number of fascinating questions about the filters through which we see some of the great women mystics and the mediation of their image through the efforts of their male followers or spiritual directors.

Changes in the post-Tridentine model of sanctity, notably in connection with convent life, are discussed in a number of the essays. Several authors, among them Elissa Weaver, argue that cloistered women had a good deal of latitude to write, study music...