2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

This session, sponsored by the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, considers women’s efforts to heal and be healed in Premodern Europe. Sick and disabled people in this period sought care from medical professionals, as well as from healers with holy credentials. Holy women were as successful as men, particularly in terms of palliative care. Female saints bathed, fed, clothed, treated, and soothed the sick. They eased suffering and, thereby, demonstrated their sanctity. After a saint’s death three types of records—holy biographies, miracles tales, and canonization inquests—reported her deeds and miracles in order to prove her holiness. The panelists demonstrate the importance of these records as medical evidence for the work, care, and health of women in Premodern Europe.                   

Panelists consider the problem of access: to physicians’ care, saints’ miracles, medical knowledge. Edwards and Archambeau examine women’s healing power, as female saints and their servants treated the sick. Archambeau and Earenfight combine legal or medical records with personal accounts to examine well-studied saintly canonizations and a queen’s fertility in new ways. Archambeau’s canonization records reveal the importance of non-holy women in the treatment of maladies by assisting saints, serving the sick, and communicating with the inquest organizers. Edwards emphasizes a sexual division of labor, with female saints confined to holy care of lepers, while male saints cured with healing miracles. And Earenfight demonstrates that a powerful woman took control of her health and explored a range of options to address the infertility that threatened her position and her kingdom.