Female Spaces in Ethnically and Religiously Mixed Shrines in the Western Balkans: Cases in Montenegro and Kosovo

This paper discusses female spaces and rituals in two sacred sites in the Albanian-Slavonic borderlands that are shared by Christian and Muslim communities. Based on fieldwork material, the article first gives an overview of the infrastructure, various functions and female interrelations of the ‘Ladies’ Beach’ in the city of Ulcinj, Montenegro, which brings together stable local and spontaneously emerging female communities from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The second part explores an example of a mixed pilgrimage in the village of Letnica in Kosovo, paying special attention to female ritual practices related to fertility and childbirth as an integral context for the different scenarios in which the shrine is visited. By examining rituals experienced by women, the paper shows that female practices aimed at reproductive well-being play a specific role in inter-group contacts in shared shrines and have an impact on the process of sharing by different ethnic and confessional communities.

«Situm in loco alto et forti». Una controversia del vescovo Andrea de’ Mozzi per il monastero di San Miniato

The essay analyses a judicial case of the late 13th century (preserved in the archival funds of the Pistoiese bishopric), in which the bishop of Florence Andrea Mozzi and the nuns of Monticelli (one of the earliest Franciscan female communities in Florence) quarrel for the rights on the church of San Miniato, under the protection of the bishop since the origin of the monastic community in the early 11th century. As usual for this kind of sources, the text provides us with an important array of informations: the references to the written records the contenders used draw an image of the documentary landscape of the monastic communities since the 11th century, and at the same time the narrative of the religious practices of the laity around the church are very well described.

Conclusion

This book has examined the consistent vitality of female abbatial authority within one unusual community over the course of a millennium. In 2005, as a graduate student, I had the privilege of spending time at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians discussing this project with Jo Ann McNamara. When I mentioned that the abbey of Sainte-Croix did not fit the pattern she and Penelope Johnson had discussed, she said “of course not, it’s Sainte-Croix!” Since this abbey was wealthier, better supported, and better managed than most other abbeys, she declared it an exception, one whose inclusion in larger narratives could not shift our understanding of medieval monasticism. This conversation fits well with the current “beyond exceptionalism” discussion taking place in studies of aristocratic and powerful women; it also was one I thought about often as a student. While Sainte-Croix was unusually wealthy, well supported, and well managed, it was not so exceptional that other abbeys could not or did not follow its model. Sherri Franks Johnson observed that nuns were quite aware of other female communities and able to draw on them as models or partners....

Setting the Boundaries for Legitimate Experimentation

Reviewing the normative evidence, this chapter argues that Carolingian reformers of the early ninth century did not, as is commonly assumed, create two homogeneous 'cohorts' of female religious. Instead, they showed female religious, their associates and their patrons where lay the outer boundaries of legitimate experimentation, allowing for a great deal of variation between individual communities. To make these points it considers, in order, the decrees of the Aachen reform synods of the 816 decrees, the context in which they originated, their impact on subsequent prescriptive and legislative texts, and finally their reception in female religious contexts. These observations allow reassessing, in chapters 2 and 3, the concrete situation of female communities in ninth- and early-tenth-century Lotharingia.

Transitions, Continuities, and the Struggle for Monastic Lordship

This chapter looks at the period around 900 to argue that, below a surface of change brought about by wars, invasions, and local upheavals, a more significant process of transformation was unfolding, determined by socio-political, institutional, and religious alterations initiated several decades earlier. Two observations are essential to understanding this phenomenon. First, that the reorganization of the female monastic landscape in these decades resulted primarily from the progressive reorganization of Lotharingian regional politics. And second, that some religious groups at least continued to rely on the ‘coping strategies’ discussed in the preceding chapter. Far from being the fortunate survivors of processes over which they had had no control, the women in these houses and their male associates were actively involved in securing the continued existence and societal relevance of female communities.