7 nuns in world history who became famous not only in the field of religion

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For a long time, most women had only one chance to get an education and make a normal career - to go to a monastery. It is not surprising that among the most famous female names of the past, there are many names of nuns. But even in the days of women's education, there were very cool nuns - the whole point, of course, is in the personality.

An activist of Old Russian enlightenment: Euphrosyne of Polotskaya

The daughter of the Vitebsk prince Predslav was born at the very beginning of the twelfth century - as you might guess, her native principality was located on the territory of modern Belarus. As expected, they raised her with an eye to a dynastic marriage, but at the age of twelve, Predslava declared that she did not want to get married in any way and never, and went to a monastery in Polotsk, a city not far from Vitebsk. The monastic name of Predslava became Euphrosyne.

Even before the monastery, Euphrosyne received a home education quite good for a noble girl. After she was tonsured, she was able to continue her studies. In the monastery, she first became a copyist of books (a rather complicated and unhealthy craft), and then a translator of spiritual literature from Greek and Latin, seriously adding to the corpus of texts available in her time. In addition, she collected an extensive collection of books, which later formed the basis of the unique library of St. Sophia Cathedral.

But most of all, Euphrosyne of Polotskaya is known for having founded a school for girls - which was very unusual for her time, and in this school girls were taught not only literacy, but also nature studies, medicine and public speaking. The school operated on the territory of the monastery, but not only novices, but also boyar and merchant daughters were trained there. Thanks to Euphrosyne-Predslava, Polotsk has long been one of the cultural centers of the ancient Russian principalities.

Self-taught artist: Plautilla Nelly

Artists often met in medieval monasteries. They were either illustrators-miniaturists, or embroiderers (many built embroidery on their own, not using other people's sketches). But this can only be found out thanks to accidental mentions and research of the remains - most of the nuns-artists, unlike men, did not sign their works. It was believed that this would inflame their pride.

Nevertheless, we know the names of some, and among them the Florentine Renaissance painter, the legendary Plautilla Nelly, stands out. In the world - the daughter of a textile merchant, at the age of fourteen she went to a monastery and there soon began to illustrate rewritten books. In parallel, she was interested in the development of painting and independently studied it.

Soon, Nelly became popular as the author of paintings on religious subjects. She painted both portraits of saints and multi-figured complex paintings. Giorgio Vasari, a Renaissance painter and author of a guide to artists of his era, notes her and her talent and regrets that Plautilla did not have the opportunity to study like a man. In general, I must say that there are a lot of female names in his reference book - during the Renaissance there were several popular artists, but at the end of the era of Absolutism, a serious revision of the role of women in society took place and many female names were consigned to oblivion.

Rescuers and anti-fascists: Maria Skobtsova and Cecilia Roshak

Mother Mary was Orthodox, Sister Cecilia was Catholic, but they have more in common than monasticism. Both of them during the Second World War tried to resist evil, saving people from murder and persecution. Mary's dormitory in Paris became one of the headquarters of the Resistance, Maria herself personally organized the issuance of baptism certificates to Jews (which sometimes helped), took Jewish children to a safe place, and hid escaped prisoners of war.

She was eventually captured and taken to the Ravensbrück camp, where she was gassed with other female inmates. Together with her, her son Yuri and fellow father Dmitry Klepinin were arrested. They were both killed in the Dora camp. All three are canonized as martyrs.

Polka Cecilia Roshak arrived in Vilnius in 1938. She was supposed to participate in the construction of the monastery, but the war began. Throughout the war, Cecilia, along with her sisters, who came to the foundation of the monastery (which never took place), sheltered the Jews. After the war, she was recognized as the righteous woman of the world, and Cecilia was lucky to live to be one hundred and ten years old. She died only in 2018.

Mother Mary not only saved people. She wrote poetry, spent a short time as the elected mayor of Anapa, then became the city commissioner for education and health, and then, in exile, published stories and kept the Bunin library. But most of this activity occurs during her worldly life.

Writer and composer: Hildegard of Bingen

Abbess of a Benedictine monastery in the Germanic lands of the eleventh century, Hildegard is known not only as the author of mystical books and poems, but also works on natural science and healing. The latter was in the spirit of the times: it was in the eleventh century in Solerno (Italy) that a medical school for women was created, where women studied and taught, and this school and its graduates had a high professional reputation.

From her youth, Hildegard suffered (or rather enjoyed) mystical visions, and once, already a nun, received the revelation that they needed to be written down. The confessor approved this idea, and so gradually Hildegard was drawn into writing as a profession - which made it possible for her to create scientific works.

In general, this nun was very gifted. For example, she composed music for her poems; as a composer, she became the author of the first-ever performance in the genre of morality, which soon became very popular. The melodies of her authorship were distinguished by bold experiments, for example, frequent leaps at large intervals and complex melodies, uncharacteristic for sacred music of her time. She was also consulted in the letters of many bishops, abbots and abbeys - Hildegard with age became very authoritative in church circles.

Voivode and healer: Alena Arzamasskaya

The worldly name of this nun is unknown, only a general biography: presumably, an Erzyan woman, for sure - a widow. After a short marriage, she realized that ordinary female life did not attract her in any way, and went to a monastery, where she learned to read and write and cut her hair under the name Elena (Alena is his folk form). In addition to literacy, Alena learned how to heal.

Alena showed great talent for medicine and soon became famous as a healer throughout her native land. According to legend, she knew how to heal even purulent wounds using blue bath mold. She spent twenty years in the monastery until she was carried away by the uprising of Stenka Razin.

Leaving the walls of the monastery, Alena gathered a detachment of three hundred men, sat on horseback herself, wearing armor and armed with a bow, and occupied the city of Temnikov. From there, from Temnikov, the rebel nun sent out propaganda messages of amazing effectiveness. Perhaps the matter is in the personal authority of Alena, whom literally all local men knew as a medicine. Volunteers began to flock to Temnikov and Razin's detachments.

Alena held the city for two months, increasing her army during this time to two thousand people. Finally, the tsarist army took Temnikov. The arrest of the leader was very spectacular. She shot back to the last with a bow, wounding many, and then ran into the church, threw away her weapon and hugged the altar. With difficulty, two men pulled her away from the altar, breaking her fingers first. Then the tsar's people marveled at the bow, competed to see who could pull it - the bow turned out to be on a very strong man. Alena, after being tortured, was burned in a log house on charges of treason and witchcraft.

Women's Rights Defender: Arcangela Tarabotti

Unlike all previous nuns, Archangela did not come to the monastery of her own free will. She was sent there at the age of twelve. In the monastery, she wrote many books criticizing the attitude of society towards women. It all began, of course, with criticism of the violent surrender of girls to nuns, but later she also revealed the issue of domestic violence, the treatment of women as property and goods, and many other aspects that are still on the agenda of modern feminists. In addition, she encouraged women to defend their rights and dignity. Surprisingly, Arcangela wrote her works in the seventeenth century.

She quickly became famous. Many women have secretly or openly read and discussed her work. Some writers and poets came to talk with Arcangela, admiring her style and ideas, others pounced with fierce criticism on stylistic mistakes, inability to write according to the canons, intonation of her texts, not finding anything to refute the arguments themselves. Arcangela responded to critics fearlessly and generally willingly entered into controversy. She died at the age of forty-six. Some believed that the Lord punished her with an early death.

Social issues were not only discussed by the nuns. For example, 5 women philosophers who became famous at a time when women and philosophy were considered incompatible.