The women of San Ciriaco and female agency in Rome (tenth-eleventh Centuries)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/1593-2214/6089Keywords:
Middle Ages, 10th-11th Centuries, Rome, Female MonasteriesAbstract
Founded in Rome in an unspecified year sometime before 955, the monastery of San Ciriaco quickly became the most important female religious institution in the city, preserving its wealth and importance intact throughout the eleventh century and beyond. This contribution aims to retrace in detail the history, in many ways exceptional, of this nunnery, by considering it against the broader socio-political context of Rome and its community. Born as a family monastery linked to the family of the Theophylacts, on around the year 1000 San Ciriaco had already expanded its sphere of influence, attracting support and donations from various members of the city elite who not only provided endowments, but also placed their female relatives in the monastery. Thanks to the administrative capacity of its abbesses, evident in the management of an ever-increasing patrimony, the monastery was able to cope with the political and social upheavals that affected Rome in the tenth and eleventh centuries, without suffering any repercussions.
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