University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 6-23-2015 God's Chosen: The ultC s of Virgin Martyrs in Anglo-Saxon England Colleen Dunn Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Dunn, Colleen. "God's Chosen: The ultsC of Virgin Martyrs in Anglo-Saxon England." (2015). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ engl_etds/4 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Language and Literature ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Colleen Marie Dunn Candidate English Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr . Jonathan Davis-Secord, Co-Chairperson Dr. Helen Damico, emerita , Co-Chairperson Dr. Anita Obermeier Dr. Timothy Graham i GOD’S CHOSEN: THE CULTS OF VIRGIN MARTYRS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND by COLLEEN MARIE DUNN B.A., English, St. Michael’s College, 2007 M.A., Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy English The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2015 ii GOD’S CHOSEN: THE CULTS OF VIRGIN MARTYRS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND By Colleen Marie Dunn B.A., English, St. Michael’s College, 2007 M.A., Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2009 Ph.D., English, University of New Mexico, 2015 ABSTRACT At the center of Anglo-Saxon life was a thriving religious culture, which—in one of its most vibrant forms—was expressed in the cult of saints. The virgin martyr became one of the most popular forms of sanctity, yet with hundreds of possible martyrs who could have been venerated, the question becomes which ones ultimately thrived in Anglo-Saxon England and why? Moreover, the very need for these two questions reveals a troubling fact: when writing about female virgin martyrs, the hagiographers never chose a native Anglo-Saxon woman as the focus of their passiones. In exploring both the reasons for and the implications of the choice made by these hagiographers to forgo local female virgin martyrs in favor of foreign models, I particularly investigate the appeal of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia and St. Margaret of Antioch, as they represent not only two of the earliest models of the virgin martyr brought to England, but also two of the models that would survive to the end of the Anglo-Saxon era and continue on into the Anglo- Norman one. The purpose of this dissertation is thus two-fold: firstly, to demonstrate that viable options existed for Anglo-Saxon female martyrs and were intentionally ignored by those who had the authority to promote their cults; and, secondly, to explore the specific appeal the Mediterranean female martyrs held for Anglo-Saxons. iii Table of Contents List of Figures ……………………………………...………………….………………vi Abbreviations ………………………………………..……………..…………………vii Introduction Historical and Theoretical Background from the Conversion (597) to the First Wave of Viking Attacks (793) ………….…..…………….……...…………...1 Female Sanctity in Anglo-Saxon England .……..……........……………………...9 Bringing the Saints to England .………………….………….…………………..15 Understanding the Virgin Martyr: Tradition and Theory …..……….…………..25 The Question of the Virgin Martyr in Anglo-Saxon England ...…………….......36 Chapter One: Virginity, Martyrdom, and Political Supremacy, c. 793-c. 948 ...…...….........42 Keeping the Saints in England: Juliana and Margaret ...…………….…………..50 Silenced Women ..….……………………………………………………………69 Saints and National Identity …..…….……………………………………....…...85 Chapter Two: The Appeal of Juliana and Margaret in Early Anglo-Saxon England: Legal, Political, Social, and Theological Resonances……………………....………..…91 The Saint and Her Parents……………………….……………………………….93 Deaf and Dumb Idols…………………………………………………………...100 High Beams and Vessels of Liquid……………………….…………………….106 Saints under Siege: The Harrowing of Hell Motif………….…………………..112 A Voice in the Darkness: Pentecostal Images………………………………….136 Chapter Three: (Re)Visions of Female Sanctity Following 948……………..….……………..150 Juliana and Margaret in Later Anglo-Saxon England………………….…..…..161 Female Sanctity and Silenced Women…..….…....…..….….….………………205 iv Chapter Four: Continuing the Tradition: The Appeal of Juliana and Margaret in Late Anglo-Saxon England…………………………….………………….....…...….….219 The Saint and Her Parents…………………….……………………...…………222 Deaf and Dumb Idols…………………………………….……….…...………..227 High Beams and Vessels of Liquid………………………….……..….…….….234 Saints under Siege: The Harrowing of Hell Motif……………..….….………...241 A Voice in the Darkness: Pentecostal Images…………..…..……..…..……….270 Conclusion: The Question of the Virgin Martyr in Anglo-Saxon England……......….….285 Appendix A: “Christ’s Descent into Hell”………………………….…………..289 Appendix B: “Pentecost”…………………………………………….………....…290 Appendix C: Nunneries in Late Anglo-Saxon England……….……………..291 Appendix D: Dubious Nunneries in Late Anglo-Saxon England……..…....300 Works Cited………………………………………………………..…..…………….304 v List of Figures Figure 1: London, British Library, Harley 3020, fol. 111v…………………………….…………164 Figure 2: Juliana in Later Anglo-Saxon Liturgical Calendars……...……………………….….182-3 Figure 3: Margaret/Marina in Later Anglo-Saxon Liturgical Calendars….....…….……….…..184-5 Figure 4: Later Anglo-Saxon Litanies………………………………….…...…………………..192-4 vi Abbreviations ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle BEASE Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Lapidge, Blair, Keynes, and Scragg (1999) BL British Library BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France CCCC Cambridge, Corpus Christi College CH Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies CSASE Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England EETS Early English Text Society EHD English Historical Documents, Vol. I: c. 500-1042, ed. Whitelock (1968) GN Gospel of Nicodemus OEM Old English Martyrology SASLC Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, Vol. I: Abbo of Fleury, Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and Acta Sanctorum, ed. Biggs, Hill, Szarmach, and Whatley (2001) vii INTRODUCTION HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND FROM THE CONVERSION (597) TO THE FIRST WAVE OF VIKING ATTACKS (793) Towering over the Thames is one of the most iconic sights associated with the religious landscape of England: Westminster Abbey. Overlooking London with its famous flying buttresses and rose windows, and serving as the site for both coronations and royal burials,1 the abbey has become an image with which almost all in the Western hemisphere are familiar. Yet lying forgotten in the shadows of this titan is St. Margaret’s Church, only a few steps from Westminster itself. Built in the latter half of the eleventh century as an effort to separate lay parishioners from the Benedictine monks who lived and worshipped at Westminster, it was dedicated to St. Margaret of Antioch, a fourth- century martyr.2 But how exactly did someone who died nearly 800 years earlier and nowhere near England come to have so prominent a church dedicated in her honor? To understand her story, and, indeed, the story of how other female virgin martyrs came to England, we must begin with a closer look at the religious atmosphere that developed in Anglo-Saxon England. At the center of Anglo-Saxon life was a thriving religious culture marked by the expressions of devotion performed by and for its Christian followers. While these expressions permeated the various strata that comprised and defined Anglo-Saxon England—one need only look at grave goods,3 artwork,4 and even place-names, like 1 John Blair, “Westminster,” in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (hereafter, BEASE), ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), 471. 2 St. Margaret’s Church: A Souvenir Guide (London: Barnard and Westwood, 2006), 4. 3 Helen Geake, The Use of Grave-Goods in Conversion-Period England, c. 600-c.850, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 261 (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1997); Sonja Marzinzik, “Grave-Goods in ‘Conversion Period’ and Later Burials - a Case of Early Medieval Religious 1 Heavenfield,5 for evidence of this—religious devotion found one of its most vibrant forms in the cult of saints, a form that has left vast literary and archeological evidence. Serving as intercessors who could mediate directly between heaven and earth, saints— both native and foreign—functioned as signs of the divine that could be readily accessed on earth via their relics and their literary commemorations, particularly hagiographies. “Hagiography”—a term derived from the Greek hagios, ‘holy,’ and graphē, ‘writing’—denotes a supposedly biographical account written about a saint that served to edify its audience through the production of easily recognized figures of sanctity, most notably the martyr, the virgin, and the holy bishop.6 The recorded lives of these figures followed patterns that were readily identifiable to medieval Christian audiences Double Standards?” in Double Standards in the Ancient and Medieval World, ed. Karla Pollmann, Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft, Beiheft 1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2000), 149- 66. 4 Jane Hawkes, “Statements in Stone: Anglo-Saxon Sculpture, Whitby and the Christianization of the North,” in The Archaeology