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IMC 2005: Sessions

Session 507: Imitatio Christi and Mystical Marriage in Educational Texts of the High Middle Ages

Tuesday 12 July 2005, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Robin Stephen Gilbank, Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University
Moderator/Chair:Liz Herbert McAvoy, Department of English Language & Literature, Swansea University
Paper 507-bThe Childhood of Christ and the Infancy of the Soul in Aelred's De Iesu Puero Duodenni
(Language: English)
Robin Stephen Gilbank, Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Latin, Monasticism, Theology
Paper 507-cDying to Be Brides of Christ: Liturgies of Mystical Marriage and Death in the Visions of Mechtild von Hackeborn
(Language: English)
Anna Sander, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Liturgy, Monasticism, Religious Life
Abstract

The papers in this session explore the significance of Christ's life and mystical marriage for High Medieval texts concerned with monastic or anchoritic education. Rosamund Allen's paper focuses upon the 'Wooing of Our Lord', interrogating the problematic acts of gender inversion effected by the male writer before his female reader. The 'imitatio Christi' is considered by the second presentation, which re-examines the significance of the Christology of 'De Iesu Puero Duodenni' for the reading of Aelred's 'Speculum Caritatis' and 'De Institutione Inclusarum'. Finally, Sander investigates the interplay of liturgy and visionary experience in Mechtild's formulation of the anchoress's life-cycle.