Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity

261 Pages·2002·0.77 MB·English

by  Rebecca Krawiec

Shenoute & the Women
of the White Monastery:
Egyptian Monasticism
in Late Antiquity
Rebecca Krawiec
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery
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Shenoute & the Women of
the White Monastery
EGYPTIAN MONASTICISM IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Rebecca Krawiec
1
2002
3
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Cape Town
Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 2002 by Rebecca Krawiec
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krawiec, Rebecca.
Shenoute and the women of the White Monastery: Egyptian monasticism
in late antiquity / Rebecca Krawiec.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-512943-1
1. Shenoute, ca. 348–466. 2. Monastery of Apa Shenoute (S˚ah˚aj, Egypt)—History
3. Monastic and religious life of women—Egypt—S˚ah˚aj—History—Early church,
ca. 30–600. I. Title
BR1720.S48 K73 2001
(cid:1)
271.900623—dc21 00-050131
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For
JOHN
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Acknowledgments
This book began as my dissertation, written under the direction of Bentley Layton at
Yale University. I must begin by thanking Bentley for his many fine qualities as an ad-
viser, including his uncompromising standard of excellence, the work he contributed
to help me strive towards that standard, and the faith he had that I could achieve it.
Towhatever degree I have succeeded both then and now, I owe him my gratitude.
Stephen Emmel suggested this project to me and has been extremely generous in
sharing his own work, including transcriptions and translations, with me. For that
and his supportive friendship I give him thanks. Rowan Greer and Wayne Meeks
both contributed helpful advice and warnings that kept me from going down treach-
erous paths.
Two institutions furnished me with financial support at the dissertation stage. In
1995 Yale University awarded me an Enders travel fellowship which helped make
possible a trip to Paris to study some of the pertinent manuscripts in person. That
same year the Mellon Foundation provided generous support through a dissertation
fellowship. I would like also to thank the librarians at the Bibliothèque Nationale in
Paris for their hospitality.
In the years since finishing the dissertation, when I was revising the manuscript
into a book, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work at several places and give
papers to a variety of audiences. In 1997–98 I was a Research Associate and Visiting
Lecturer in the Women and Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School. I wish to
thank the interim director, Deborah Valenze; the other research associates, Kather-
ine French, Carol Karlsen, Susan Shapiro, and Amina Wadud; the administrative as-
sistant, Julia Starkey; Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, François Bovon, and the New
Testament faculty and graduate students; and the members of my seminar. All con-
viii Acknowledgments
tributed to a lively, friendly, and stimulating community that helped my ideas grow
and develop. Susan Shapiro’s scholarship and conversations were especially impor-
tant for shaping my thesis on monasticism and gender. In the summer of 1999, I was
a participant in an NEH summer seminar on Roman Egypt, led by Roger Bagnall at
Columbia University. I would like to thank Roger and the participants of the semi-
nar for their discussions.
Portions of chapters have been given as papers on the following occasions: the
1995, 1997, and 1998 national meetings of the AAR; a regional meeting of the AAR
in St. Paul, MN in 1997; the 1997 and 1998 meetings of the North American Patris-
tics Society; lectures at the University of Minnesota (1997), Duke University (1997),
Bryn Mawr College (1998), Harvard Divinity School (1998), and Brandeis Univer-
sity (1998). I thank all audiences for their comments and questions on these occa-
sions. In addition, thanks to Philip Sellew, Elizabeth Clark, Richard Hamilton, and
Bernadette Brooten for their invitations to speak at their institutions. Finally, a pa-
per I gave at the 1997 annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt was
published in the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrology;much of that article ap-
pears at varous points in this book. Thanks are due to the editor of BASP,Terry Wil-
fong, for his comments and encouragement. In addition, I presented a draft of that ar-
ticle to a faculty seminar on religion in antiquity at Brown University (1997). Thanks
to Stanley Stowers for his invitation on that occasion and to the participants for their
suggestions.
As I was finishing the final revisions, David Brakke and Caroline Schroeder read
the entire manuscript, and Roger Bagnall read the Introduction and Chapters 1 and
7. For their comments and insights, as well as corrections, I am grateful. Bentley Lay-
ton, at an earlier stage, graciously checked my translations of the Coptic throughout.
Dwight W. Young generously corresponded about recent translations. I would also
like to thank the two anonymous readers, Cynthia Read, Robert Milks, and my copy
editor at Oxford University Press. All errors, needless to say, remain my own.
Finally, I would like to thank the following people who have provided support in
a variety of ways throughout this process: Dean Béchard, SJ; Regina Plunkett Dowl-
ing; Susan Harvey; Andrew Jacobs; Flora Keshgegian; Derek Krueger; James Ross
Smith; Stanley Stowers; Kristen Welsh; my colleagues in the Department of Classics
at the University at Buffalo, especially Martha Malamud who read the manuscript,
and Melissa Rothfus, who provided last-minute babysitting; my parents, brother, and
sister-in-law; and, of course, my husband, John Dugan, to whom I dedicate this work.
Our son, Joseph Joo Won Dugan, arrived to us from Korea just as the manuscript re-
ceived final copyediting. I can think of no happier ending to a long project.
Contents
Abbreviations,xi
Introduction,3
1. Daily Life in the White Monastery under Shenoute, 13
2. Women’s Life in the White Monastery under Shenoute, 31
3. Shenoute’s Discourse of Monastic Power, 51
4. Acceptance and Resistance: The Women’s Power, 73
5. “They too are Our Brethren”: Gender in the White Monastery, 92
6. Gender and Monasticism in Late Antiquity, 120
7. Women’s Role in the Monastic Family: The Intersection of
Power and Gender, 133
8. “According to the Flesh”: Biological Kin in the
White Monastery, 161
Notes,175
Bibliography,237
Index,245