Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WoMent ('Mad for Him'. Women, Religion and Mental Illness in the Late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Age)
Reporting period: 2021-08-01 to 2022-07-31
This research analysed the biographical and autobiographical texts of late-medieval and early modern women who were deemed to be mystics, blessed, or saints. The main objective was to determine to what extent extreme religious experiences (ecstasies, visions, physical sensations) might be attributable not to unexplainable relations with the Godhead, but to very explainable medical causes. This research considered many cases of mental illness (anorexia, visions, hysterical pregnancies, folie à deux and post-partum depression) in biographical texts of 6 religious women. The project looked to achieve the following main objectives: A) Textual analysis of: sixteenth and seventeenth-century books; manuscripts; digitizations and critical editions B) Analysis of the pictorial cycles and iconographic images representing the lives of religious women C) Analysis of the bibliography allows to identify cases of manipulation of women by father confessors.
In this first part of the work, I focused on hysterical pregnancy disease.
I proceeded with a census: I examined all the cases of mystical women known to me, very often translating the texts from Latin.
The cases I have identified are 20 ca. The analysis of the texts first of all revealed that the mystics celebrated the Baby Jesus with the use of dolls, cradles and infantile outfits; this very often reveals a morbid attachment to the Child Jesus, as can also be seen from the analysis of some visions. One of the most shocking cases seems to be that of Bl. Margherita Ebner, a German Dominican from the 14th century. The woman possessed a doll representing Baby Jesus. The nun used to breastfeed him and lay him in a cradle. One night she claimed to give birth to him and in the Revelations the birth is described: the woman had labor pains and some nuns assisted her as if they were midwives. Equally interesting are the cases of Orsola Benincasa, Caterina de 'Ricci, Angela from Foligno, etc.
Starting from March 31, 2020, the class devoted to de religious life in the Middle Ages began; It tooke place at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana. Many topics were discussed, such as the oriental monastic life of the IV sec., the monastic period between Iv and XI sec., and the reform of the XII sec. Despite the pandemic, my class at the Gregorian University proceeded through online lessons. The health emergency has created problems, but the course had its continuity.
Starting from April 1st, 2020 I began to write an article on the relationship between saints, hysteria and liturgical time of Passion. I intended to analyze eight mystics experiences through the use of manuscripts and printed editions. I submitted some hypotheses and some texts to a psychiatrist – Franco Bellato – at the Pisa Medical School, and I also subjected some materials to a medical historian – Antonio Fornaciari.
On April 20202, I began to manage the Congress "Mad for HIm" that tooke place in 2021.
On April 24, 2020 my training has ended. During the last lessons, the medieval concept of love – for the Cistercians and Abelard – was clarified. Another topic dealt with, was heresy in the Middle Ages. Medievalist heretical movements (it was said in class) can be of two types: pauperistic-evangelical or dualistic (in reference to the movement of the Cathars). At the same time the issue of the movements of the mendicant Orders was addressed, with regard to the figures of San Domenico and San Francesco.
On May 29, 2020, I just uploaded my DMP for the REA.
On July, 16, 2020, the drafting of a report on the work done in the first months of financing has just been completed. In short, it can be said that the work carried out led to the writing of an essay in which it is shown that the desire for maternity denied to mystical women was sublimated by them, giving rise to pathological results, such as hysterical pregnancy. Furthermore, the essay shows that the frustration of the mystics resulted in strange devotional behaviors related to the cult of the Child Jesus. Thanks to the investigation, a scientific text has been outlined in which 18 texts relating to mystical women are analyzed. Through these texts it is possible to document the 'strange' cult of the Child Jesus, which was practiced through dolls and cradles. In conclusion, it can be said that the simulation of pregnancy and the various morbid attitudes connected with the cult of the Child Jesus can be considered alternative forms thanks to which the mystical women avoided two processes: the "passage to the act" and the "discharge of instincts".
On September 18, 2020, I completed my survey related to the holy women and I began to write some texts that would represent the first chapter of my monograph. Moreover, this texts will be transferred on the Wiki platform "Mad for Him".
Many meetings took place among my supervisors, Dr Franco Bellato (Scuola medica di Pisa) and me, in order to detect the Saints' mental illness.
In November 2020, I wrote an article on the relationship between holiness, hysteria and Passion – I submitted my work to the Canadian magazine "Quaderni di Italianistica" by 20 November.
On November 2020, I finished writing the chapter dedicated to the saints possessed by the devil, so that the chapters of the monograph undergo a general revision.
At the beginning of April 10, 2021, I prepared a talk for the conference titled "Visionarias", and – ad the mid time – I worked on a essay devoted to the venerable Margherita Maria Diormira del Verbo Incarnato (m. 1677), mystic and stigmatized.
On May 2021, I am in Florence in order to achieve some research about three mystic women: Maria Triboli, Diomira Allegri del Verbo Incarnato and Maria Angiola Gini. At the same time I am managing the conference "Mad for Him", planned for November 2021 at Ca' Foscari
On June 2021, I worked about a new article devoted to another mystic woman: Arcangela Panigarola
During Sept 2021 and Nov 2021, the organization of the international congress "mad for Him" took place.
Between Jan 2022 and Apr 2022, the I worked for the correction of proofreading ("Santità femminile e disturbi mentali fra Medioevo ed età moderna", Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2022).
During the last moths of founding, I devoted myself to the construction of the Wiki Platform (Jan-Jun 2022) and to the drafts of the proceeding (May-Jul 2022).
I proceeded with a census: I examined all the cases of mystical women known to me, very often translating the texts from Latin.
The cases I have identified are 20 ca. The analysis of the texts first of all revealed that the mystics celebrated the Baby Jesus with the use of dolls, cradles and infantile outfits; this very often reveals a morbid attachment to the Child Jesus, as can also be seen from the analysis of some visions. One of the most shocking cases seems to be that of Bl. Margherita Ebner, a German Dominican from the 14th century. The woman possessed a doll representing Baby Jesus. The nun used to breastfeed him and lay him in a cradle. One night she claimed to give birth to him and in the Revelations the birth is described: the woman had labor pains and some nuns assisted her as if they were midwives. Equally interesting are the cases of Orsola Benincasa, Caterina de 'Ricci, Angela from Foligno, etc.
Starting from March 31, 2020, the class devoted to de religious life in the Middle Ages began; It tooke place at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana. Many topics were discussed, such as the oriental monastic life of the IV sec., the monastic period between Iv and XI sec., and the reform of the XII sec. Despite the pandemic, my class at the Gregorian University proceeded through online lessons. The health emergency has created problems, but the course had its continuity.
Starting from April 1st, 2020 I began to write an article on the relationship between saints, hysteria and liturgical time of Passion. I intended to analyze eight mystics experiences through the use of manuscripts and printed editions. I submitted some hypotheses and some texts to a psychiatrist – Franco Bellato – at the Pisa Medical School, and I also subjected some materials to a medical historian – Antonio Fornaciari.
On April 20202, I began to manage the Congress "Mad for HIm" that tooke place in 2021.
On April 24, 2020 my training has ended. During the last lessons, the medieval concept of love – for the Cistercians and Abelard – was clarified. Another topic dealt with, was heresy in the Middle Ages. Medievalist heretical movements (it was said in class) can be of two types: pauperistic-evangelical or dualistic (in reference to the movement of the Cathars). At the same time the issue of the movements of the mendicant Orders was addressed, with regard to the figures of San Domenico and San Francesco.
On May 29, 2020, I just uploaded my DMP for the REA.
On July, 16, 2020, the drafting of a report on the work done in the first months of financing has just been completed. In short, it can be said that the work carried out led to the writing of an essay in which it is shown that the desire for maternity denied to mystical women was sublimated by them, giving rise to pathological results, such as hysterical pregnancy. Furthermore, the essay shows that the frustration of the mystics resulted in strange devotional behaviors related to the cult of the Child Jesus. Thanks to the investigation, a scientific text has been outlined in which 18 texts relating to mystical women are analyzed. Through these texts it is possible to document the 'strange' cult of the Child Jesus, which was practiced through dolls and cradles. In conclusion, it can be said that the simulation of pregnancy and the various morbid attitudes connected with the cult of the Child Jesus can be considered alternative forms thanks to which the mystical women avoided two processes: the "passage to the act" and the "discharge of instincts".
On September 18, 2020, I completed my survey related to the holy women and I began to write some texts that would represent the first chapter of my monograph. Moreover, this texts will be transferred on the Wiki platform "Mad for Him".
Many meetings took place among my supervisors, Dr Franco Bellato (Scuola medica di Pisa) and me, in order to detect the Saints' mental illness.
In November 2020, I wrote an article on the relationship between holiness, hysteria and Passion – I submitted my work to the Canadian magazine "Quaderni di Italianistica" by 20 November.
On November 2020, I finished writing the chapter dedicated to the saints possessed by the devil, so that the chapters of the monograph undergo a general revision.
At the beginning of April 10, 2021, I prepared a talk for the conference titled "Visionarias", and – ad the mid time – I worked on a essay devoted to the venerable Margherita Maria Diormira del Verbo Incarnato (m. 1677), mystic and stigmatized.
On May 2021, I am in Florence in order to achieve some research about three mystic women: Maria Triboli, Diomira Allegri del Verbo Incarnato and Maria Angiola Gini. At the same time I am managing the conference "Mad for Him", planned for November 2021 at Ca' Foscari
On June 2021, I worked about a new article devoted to another mystic woman: Arcangela Panigarola
During Sept 2021 and Nov 2021, the organization of the international congress "mad for Him" took place.
Between Jan 2022 and Apr 2022, the I worked for the correction of proofreading ("Santità femminile e disturbi mentali fra Medioevo ed età moderna", Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2022).
During the last moths of founding, I devoted myself to the construction of the Wiki Platform (Jan-Jun 2022) and to the drafts of the proceeding (May-Jul 2022).
At the end of the research's process, it can therefore be concluded that many ecstatic processes (related to women saints) can be ascribed to hysteria, according to the researcher's initial assumption. All this results have been achieved in the frame of an interdisciplinary method of analysis, applied, for the first time, to hagiographic texts.
The interpretation of the hagiographical literature through the codes coming from anthropology, history of medicine and psychiatry, was crucial.
Another important result is that related to stigmatization, due to hysterical conversion crisis and, at the mid time, many cases of 'struggle' of women saints with demons, were connected to a more realistic case of mystic delirium.
The interpretation of the hagiographical literature through the codes coming from anthropology, history of medicine and psychiatry, was crucial.
Another important result is that related to stigmatization, due to hysterical conversion crisis and, at the mid time, many cases of 'struggle' of women saints with demons, were connected to a more realistic case of mystic delirium.