Asceticism in Female Mystics in the Middle Ages

One of the questions that was brought up in class and that’s been in the back of my mind for a while now is why mystics decided to go to extreme lengths to prove their devotion to God. While many scholars state that they practiced asceticism in order to fully understand the holy Lord, one (undergraduate) scholar that I found on the internet, Sarah E. Hanson, proposes the idea that these extreme measures may have linkage to notions about the female sex. According to Hanson, “If religious women could circumvent their perceived physical inferiorities through fasting and other ascetic practices, perhaps they could release some of the restrictions placed on them because of their sex” (33). As we know from class, women practiced asceticism far more than men did in the Middle Ages. This might possibly be a theory as to why. Through hagiographical accounts, the emphasis on body-soul relationships can be seen in these female mystics. Hanson states that “the increase of documentation describing the soul’s power over the body, as displayed in the accounts of Christina the Astonishing and Catherine of Siena, suggest that the understanding of the soul as having power to influence the body” (33). It is highly possible to believe that Middle Age religious persons believed that, while women may have been inferior physically, in the soul, they were equal with men in the eyes of God. So while mystics may have emulated scenarios similar to what Christ endured to fully understand His sacrifice, the suggestion that they practiced asceticism in order to be equal to their male counterparts is just as equally compelling.  And this theory may also answer the second question I've been thinking about: did these mystics really practice asceticism, or did they just write/imagine about it? I would think that if they were truly concerned with achieving the same level of devotion as their male counterparts had in the eyes of God, these women would go to extreme measures to ensure that equality. Through asceticism, women could shed the shackles that limited them from fully embracing God.

If you’re interested reading Hanson’s article, here’s the pdf link: ww.urop.uci.edu/journal/journal09/03_hanson.pdf

Here's an image of Angela, who, as we discussed in class, practiced asceticism: