Espousal of the Impoverished Bride in Early Franciscan Hagiography and the Kabbalah of Gerona

Abstract

This article examines the deep structural affinities between early Franciscan hagiography and the kabbalah of Gerona through a comparative analysis of how both domains of knowledge valorize the espousal of an impoverished divine bride—Domina Paupertas, or Lady Poverty in the case of the Franciscans and shekhinah, the female divine presence in the case of the kabbalists. Analysis focuses on gender as a key element in the construction of divine economy in both corpora, concentrating primarily on writings produced in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. The materials surveyed here include various anonymous kabbalistic sources, writings of Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona, the anonymous Sacrum Commercium Beati Francisci cum Domina Paupertate and Thomas of Celano’s Memoriale in desiderio anime. This comparative case study sheds new light on old questions regarding the function of interreligious acculturation between Judaism and Christianity, generally, and kabbalists and Franciscans, in particular.