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Women and Death Rituals in Late Antiquity: Forming the Christian Identity

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Women and Death Rituals in Late Antiquity: Forming the Christian Identity University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 2011 Women and Death Rituals in Late Antiquity: Forming the Christian Identity Mogen, Sharon Lorraine Murphy Mogen, S. L. (2011). Women and Death Rituals in Late Antiquity: Forming the Christian Identity (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/15912 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/48782 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Women and Death Rituals in Late Antiquity: Forming the Christian Identity by Sharon Lorraine Murphy Mogen A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2011 © Sharon Lorraine Murphy Mogen 2011 The author of this thesis has granted the University of Calgary a non-exclusive license to reproduce and distribute copies of this thesis to users of the University of Calgary Archives. Copyright remains with the author. Theses and dissertations available in the University of Calgary Institutional Repository are solely for the purpose of private study and research. They may not be copied or reproduced, except as permitted by copyright laws, without written authority of the copyright owner. Any commercial use or re-publication is strictly prohibited. The original Partial Copyright License attesting to these terms and signed by the author of this thesis may be found in the original print version of the thesis, held by the University of Calgary Archives. Please contact the University of Calgary Archives for further information: E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: (403) 220-7271 Website: http://archives.ucalgary.ca Abstract Widely scattered primary data confirm that Roman-Christian families managed the rituals for death, burial, and commemoration of the dead at the domestic level. The performance of this domestic worship was regulated within the sacra privata, which largely explains the lack of any serious interest by the emergent church in funerary matters until the mid-eighth century. During late antiquity therefore, Christian women as the primary caregivers and ritual specialists of the familia, assisted the dying; prepared the corpse for burial; lamented the dead in song, poetry, music, drama, and dance; hosted funerary banquets, and remembered deceased family with regular offerings at the cemetery. Women were patrons and administrators of cemeteries, catacombs, martyr- shrines, and voluntary associations that buried deceased members. It was not until ca.750 that the Frankish bishops requested the nuns at the abbey in Chelles to compile the rituals for Christian dying, death, and burial; the result was a sacramentary of funerary liturgy called the Vatican Gelasian. This document became the foundation of the church’s response to death, extrema unctio, which would eventually be adopted at the Council of Trent in 1545 as the Christian sacrament, Extreme Unction. Using an array of material, including textual and visual, that is read through various interdisciplinary lenses, this study proposes that Roman-Christian women not only performed the rituals for dying, death, and commemoration of the dead in the early centuries of Christianity, they also contributed in very significant ways to the formation of Christian identity. Women’s specialization in death ritual affirms a specific status and role for women in late-antique Christianity that has been previously neglected in the scholarship. ii Acknowledgements I have always had an interest in the function of women in the early church. Christianity must have required their creativity, resilience, and nurturance. Scholars however, have failed to fully examine women in the domestic realm where Roman- Christian families practiced their religiosity in matters of death. A wide scattering of scholarly ‘crumbs’ throughout late antiquity has suggested female involvement in the building of church community. I have attempted in this thesis to gather into one place those many tantalizing ‘crumbs’ in the hopes that they may form a ‘whole loaf’ and reveal more precisely women’s roles. I submit that late-ancient wives, mothers, daughters, and grandmothers deserve to have it told that, through their prominence in funerary rituals, women helped to forge the Christian identity. This study has been no small undertaking. I could not have seen its completion without the assistance of some very special people. Therefore, I wish to sincerely thank the following individuals for their assistance: Dr. Anne Moore for her expert guidance, support, and inspiration; Warren Harbeck PhD (columnist, Cochrane Eagle) for encouraging my return to higher learning; the professors and grad students of RELS (Religious Studies department) for showing the way; Dr. Lisa Hughes and Dr. Wayne McCready for sitting on my committee; my dear husband Pat for his patience and advocacy; my children and their spouses for believing anything is possible; my grandchildren for cheering ‘Go, Nana, Go!’ and for my parents, Stella and George Murphy for fostering the love of learning from the very beginning. Finally, there is my debt to Dan Brown for writing The Da Vinci Code. His book sparked this quest for the whole story. iii Dedication To the countless Roman-Christian women who served their families in matters of death and, in doing so, made significant contributions to the forging of a Christian identity in late antiquity. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements............................................................................................................iii Dedication.......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents................................................................................................................ v List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................viii Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: DISCIPLINARY CONTEXT................................................................ 1 Women’s History and Feminism ............................................................................ 1 The Beginning............................................................................................. 2 Political Feminism and Christian Theology ............................................... 3 Integrating the Social Sciences ................................................................... 6 The Dilemma of Gender Studies................................................................. 9 A Depature: The Women’s History Approach ......................................... 11 Christianity Embedded, Rather Than Unique....................................................... 13 Religion Versus Religiosity .................................................................................. 15 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 19 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY............................................................................. 21 Limitations and Parameters................................................................................... 22 Methodological Specifications.............................................................................. 25 Literary Texts Concerning Women, Death, and Burial ........................................ 26 The Data Set.............................................................................................. 26 The Approach............................................................................................ 31 Non-Literary Texts Concerning Women, Death, and Burial................................ 35 The Data Set.............................................................................................. 35 The Approach............................................................................................ 38 Material Culture Concerning Women, Death, and Burial .................................... 40 Funerary Art – The Data Set..................................................................... 40 Funerary Architecture – The Data Set ...................................................... 41 v Funerary Artifacts – The Data Set ............................................................ 43 Material Culture – The Approach............................................................. 44 Contextualizing with the Social Sciences............................................................. 48 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 51 CHAPTER THREE: REVIEW OF EXISTING RESEARCH ......................................... 52 Greco-Roman Funerary Rituals ...........................................................................
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