Rites of Passage and Monastic Communities in the late-antique Mediterranean

Información del proyecto

RITPASS

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: 101060038

DOI

10.3030/101060038

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de la firma de la CE 29 Julio 2022

Fecha de inicio 1 Septiembre 2023

Fecha de finalización 31 Agosto 2025

Financiado con arreglo a

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Coste total

Sin datos

Aportación de la UE

€ 173 847,36

Coordinado por

FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
Germany

Objetivo

How did medieval monastic leaders assert control over their communities? This project proposes an innovative way to approach to this often-considered question: through the rites of passage into ascetic groups in Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE). Late-antique sources emphasise five membership rituals as particularly significant: rigorous testing; ceremonial cleansing; the offering of stability pledges; the renunciation of possessions; and the donning of uniform attire. These rites were meant to bind novices to their new lives, efface their prior identities, and enforce obligation to their abbots and abbesses. Although the scholarship on medieval monasticism is extensive, the relationship between ascetic authority structures and the aforementioned five ceremonies has received little recent substantial attention. This project proposes to investigate this relationship from the first appearance of monastic groups in the fourth century to their widespread multiplication across the Mediterranean by the seventh century. To do so, I will focus on laws, monastic rules, church canons, hagiographies, and provincial documents, five types of source which are not often brought together but represent contemporary attempts to assert control over ascetic rites of passage. My research will use a comparative, interdisciplinary framework of diachronic, transcultural and -regional, and socio-historical analysis to achieve the project’s three core goals: 1) to explore how and why these ceremonies changed; 2) to analyse how these rites supported or challenged late-antique discourses about monastic obligations and identities; and 3) to investigate how these rituals were related to other analogous rituals and processes. Furthermore, this project will contribute to the increasing scholarly interest in medieval monastic perspectives beyond the Benedictine and also pave the way for epistemological reconsiderations of authority, identity, and obligation, even into the modern day.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

• humanidades › historia y arqueología › historia › historia antigua
• humanidades › lenguas y literatura › estudios literarios › géneros literarios
• ciencias sociales › derecho

Palabras clave

• Male and female monastic communities
• Abbots and abbesses
• Rituals and ceremonies
• Obligation
• Authority and power

Programa(s)

• HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) PROGRAMA PRINCIPAL
  

Tema(s)

• HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01-01 - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021
  

Régimen de financiación

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

Convocatoria de propuestas

HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01

Coordinador

FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN

• Aportación neta de la UEn: € 173 847,36
• Dirección: KAISERSWERTHER STRASSE 16-18 ; 14195 BERLIN ; Alemania
• Región: Berlin › Berlin › Berlin
• Tipo de actividad: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Coste total: Sin datos