The Portrayal of Marriage in Miracula in France, c.1000-1200.

OLD French literature; MARRIAGE in literature; CHRISTIAN hagiography -- History -- To 1500; INTERCESSORY prayer; MIRACLES in literature; CHRISTIAN patron saints in literature; LITERARY criticism; FRENCH literature

This article explores the gender relations of married couples as portrayed in miracle stories (miracula) in central medieval France, a genre that scholars have thus far not used for a discussion of married life. There is no doubt that the clerical authors’ sympathies lay more often with wives and mothers than with their menfolk. This is not to say that sometimes wives were in the wrong. However, in the eyes of the miracula authors, wives who disobeyed husbands in obedience to the higher authority of God, did right in so defying their husbands. The clergy praised wives who sought healing remedies through saintly intervention and those who stood up to husbands who were sceptical of saints as efficacious allies or who were engaged in morally dubious activities. In order to demonstrate these acts of defiance, words were never sufficient on their own and had to be accompanied by gendered body language. For women this ranged from a bowed head and downward gaze to the more powerful and expressive gestures of penitence and mourning (crying, tearing at hair and beating breasts). The hagiographers thus provided instructions for their female readers in how to serve God even when doing so challenged their husbands’ authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]