Presbyters in Late Antique Women’s Monasteries: Roles, Responsibilities and Conflicts

Abstract

The strict separation of male and female is a commonplace in late antique ascetic literature; nevertheless, at the very least, women’s monasteries did require a male presbyter to celebrate the Eucharist or provide previously consecrated bread and wine. The relationship between the presbyter and the women, especially the superior, was not always harmonious and conflict arose because of ascetic scruples, differing models of monastic and ecclesial hierarchy, personality and patronage. Although the topic is not treated in any sustained way in ancient sources, anecdotes in biographies and letters indicate the type of situations where conflict could and did occur. In addition to examining a range of sources and monastic contexts, this paper also suggests that conflict between presbyteral and female monastic leadership may lie behind the ambivalence towards Melania the Younger expressed by her biographer the priest-monk Gerontius.