Reading Medieval Reviews

Samuel Fanous and Henrietta Leyser (eds.), Christina of Markyate ; A twelfth-century holy woman, Routledge, London & New York, 2005, pb, xv + 261pp., 0-415-30859-3, £16.66

The Life of the twelfth-century ‘holy woman’, Christina of Markyate, was first published and translated by C. H. Talbot (from a very difficult manuscript) as long ago as 1959.  Scholarly interest has grown slowly but surely and in recent decades Christina has taken her place amongst a small group of medieval women whose stories are becoming as well-known as those of their prominent male colleagues.  In this process, Christina has become the focus for a range of work.  Art historians have for some time been concerned with the striking, and profusely-illuminated, Psalter which seems to have belonged to Christina (although it is usually known as the ‘St Albans Psalter’).  Equally, literary historians have been concerned both with the Life of St Alexis incorporated into that Psalter and with Christina’s own Life.  Amongst historians, the new emphasis on women’s history and on the construction and operation of gender has led to increasing interest in a woman who was apparently able to challenge her family, her husband and even her bishop in order to fulfil her strong spirituality and her self-dedication to the religious life.   Samuel Fanous and Henrietta Leyser have now done a considerable service to all those who wish to know more about Christina by bringing together fourteen studies which represent the range of approaches opened up by this newer scholarship.  It is especially pleasing that the volume is elegantly presented and (thanks especially to Jane Geddes and her work on the St Albans Psalter) luxuriously illustrated, whilst being very reasonably priced.

Henrietta Leyser’s Introduction achieves the difficult balancing act of treating Christina as an historical woman whose biography can to some degree be known, whilst also acknowledging the contribution of more literary and theoretical approaches to the construction of the Life as a text.  Indeed, in some ways Leyser goes beyond the other studies, since she points briefly to the curious status of Christina’s priory at Markyate and to the important role given to the cult of the Virgin in the Life.  These are both very interesting issues which would surely repay further study.  What does emerge very strongly from this collection is that the Life is structured by relationships not only with other Lives but also with more secular genres such as the Romance.  Douglas Gray’s outline of ‘Christina of Markyate: the literary background’ is a helpful introduction for history students unfamiliar with this field.  It thus provides a way into the more challenging arguments of Samuel Fanous and of Neil Cartlidge.  Fanous shows that, despite its surface simplicity, the Life works to present Christina as both a ‘virgin martyr’ and an ‘ascetic martyr’.  In addition, Cartlidge gives a brief outline of the problems created by an uncritical acceptance of the Life as a retelling of Christina’s reminiscences, before moving on to examine the text’s use of the literally dramatic motif of the ‘miraculous’ pilgrim.  C. Stephen Jaeger is perhaps less cautious in asserting that ‘the writer’s intention was clearly to narrate a series of “love stories”’; but his analysis of love and spirituality demonstrates in still another way the boldness of the text.

Other contributions are focused on the historical context for Christina’s putative career.  Stephanie Hollis and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne survey the range of possibilities open to a woman like Christina, who wished to pursue the religious life without the immediate possibility of becoming a nun.  Their catalogue of examples is impressively comprehensive and, whilst the paper moves the reader perhaps rather far from Christina herself, this is a very productive introduction to the spiritual and institutional issues as well as to the bibliography on the subject.  Equally helpful as an introduction to a poorly-recorded area is E. A. Jones’ study of Christina in relation to ‘the hermits and anchorites of England’, which also gives a ‘List of sites and hermits’.  Thomas Head’s paper on ‘The marriages of Christina of Markyate’ gives a brief and straightforward account of the legal issues raised by the idea of marriage to Christ, and of the competing definitions of marriage available in twelfth-century England.  It is Rachel Koopmans who opens up the Life’s most emphatic presentation of Christina, namely as a nun at Markyate, in close communication with the great abbey of St Albans.  What is especially valuable about this paper is the demonstration that the witness lists in the surviving foundation charters for Markyate, like the obits added into Christina’s Psalter, show that Christina was not, in fact, the exclusive ‘spiritual property’ of St Albans, as suggested by the Life.  In discussing this issue Koopmans, like other contributors, refers to the impressive Psalter which St Albans appears to have given to Christina, and in particular to the striking initial for Psalm 105, which shows a woman (presumably Christina herself) addressing Christ, with the accompanying caption ‘Oh Jesus, spare your monks, I pray’.  Jane Geddes’ contribution to the volume is a careful and thorough analysis of the Psalter, which looks at its construction, the five sections which make it up, and at its illumination.  The fact that the ‘Christina’ initial is a later addition is emphasised; but what is especially fascinating here is the analysis of the points at which images of women occur in the manuscript overall, and the presentation of the book as an embodiment of the multi-layered relationship between Abbot Geoffrey of St Albans (its putative patron) and Christina (its recipient).  The unusually generous inclusion of 8 colour reproductions from the Psalter in this volume is to be celebrated; but those who wish to pursue the analysis of the manuscript are referred to the impressive website set up under the direction of Jane Geddes, www.abdn.ac.uk/stalbanspsalter . 

This review is already long, and there is no space to give an account of all the papers in this volume; but the book should by welcomed, not only by those interested in Christina herself, but also by all those with an interest in medieval women religious.

Anne Lawrence

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