Abstract
The Order of Saint Clare played a key role in the experience of feminine spirituality during the Middle Ages in Portugal. Women of all walks of life arrived at the Poor Clare monasteries, which reveals the vitality of the message of Francis and Clare. Subject to the vow of cloister and tutored by the Franciscans, these communities seem to "shut in" women who were submitted by the male power and under their surveillance. How do these women relate to the male world that tutors them and with whom they interact? And, subject to the cloister, how do these communities establish relations with the world around them? Initially operating as tutored nuns under surveillance, the Poor Clares start to take a leading role in their own history, building living and active communities where women take leadership roles and where men are invited to an attitude of mutual aid and solidarity in order to live autonomously, yet in a constant relationship with the outside world.
Translated title of the contribution | Women in custody: the Poor Clares communities as spaces of obedience and autonomy (13th and 14th centuries) |
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Original language | Portuguese |
Pages (from-to) | 33-50 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Lusitania Sacra |
Issue number | 31 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2015 |
Keywords
- Female monasticism
- Poor Clares
- Franciscan
- Surveillance
- Convent family