Female Piety and Sanctity in Hrotsvitha’s Writings
Jerome’s letters to Eustochium are recognized as a call to an intense aestic lifestyle. Hrotsvitha’s writings reflect some of those views for establishing piety, specifically for the Christian female. Jerome and Hrotsvitha shared similar views on female piety and sanctity. They display these similar images of female piety in their writing involving chastity, virginity, temptation, and devotion. Jerome, in his letters to Eustochium, wrote greatly on the need to abstinence for temptations of the flesh. He advocated for total chastity. Jerome viewed it as a way to gain strength and protection from the Lord. He uses the example of Sampson, a chaste man, who was incredibly brave and strong and…show more content… In Hrotsvitha’s writings, she focuses intensely on the importance of female chastity. In The Resurrection of Drusiana and Calimachus, Drusiana recoils at the possibility that her chastity may be threatened by Calimachus. Drusiana is deeply concerned with living a devout Christian life, that although she is married, she refuses to engage in sexual intercourse with her husband, Andronici another Christian. Drusiana’s devotion to chastity is great that she goes as far as to call Calimachus a vile seducer. Jerome and Hrotsvitha both share a vision for female piety which includes the protection of chastity. The female chastity is something that is constantly under threat from the outside. Drusiana wishes death upon herself because she does not want to be seduced by Calimachus. Chastity is…show more content… When stones could not be located to build the monastery, Lady Oda endures an intense devotional period for the Lord day and night because she believes so strongly in the female chastity. Through her prayer and devotion to chastity, God provides the stone necessary for the Monastery. During Lady Oda’s period of prayer for the stones, Hrotsvitha writes how Lady Oda “wearied herself many a time with excessive rigor, serving the Lord night and day with holy water.” Hrotsvitha’s mention of how Lady Oda endured an intense period of prayer for stones for the monastery is in alignment with Jerome’s idea that the aestic life must be followed with great intensity and great devotion. One such idea was fasting. To Jerome, the devout woman fasted regularly and surrounded herself with other pale, thin fasting women. For Jerome, the there is a feeling of importance in gathering with others during such a time as fasting. Hrotsvitha writes of Lady Oda fasting for the stone to be provided for the monastery, “For she gave herself over to fasting and sacred prayers.” Jerome preached on how the body, human flesh, could lead to sin and it was necessary in his eyes to cleanse the body to live a more pious life and to become closer to the Lord. Hrotsvitha uses Lady Oda’s fasting for God to show how when a woman devotes her body to the Lord, he will provide for her. An important factor in female piety is pushing the body to its