Throughout the history of the Church, bishops and popes have struggled mightily to keep committed celibate Catholic women under control. Already in the early Christian centuries male Church leaders forced virgins to describe themselves as “brides of Christ” rather than use the male martial imagery they had come to use during the Roman persecutions. The early equality between male and female desert monastics was likewise undercut when eighth century bishops began taking control of women’s monasteries and ordained monks to the priesthood for the first time (but not nuns, of course). And as, throughout the following centuries, groups of dedicated Christian women came together—canonesses, Beguines, beatas, recluses—popes, bishops, and male theologians went to great lengths to rein them in.
Marian Ronan
Marian Ronan is Research Professor of Catholic Studies at New York Theological Seminary in Manhattan and a former president of the Women’s Ordination Conference. Her new book, Sister Trouble: The Vatican, the Bishops, and the Nuns, will be available on Amazon in November. She blogs here.
