Under the Virgin's Veil: Monastic Spirituality, Gender and Power in Stefan Iavors'kyi's Sermon to the Nuns of the Ascension Convent in Kyiv

Abstract:The article offers a detailed analysis of a sermon on the Intercession of the Theotokos preached in 1694 by Stefan Iavor'skyi to the nuns of the prestigious Ascension Convent in Kyiv, the sister house of the male Monastery of the Caves. The sermon places exceptional emphasis on clothing metaphors: because nuns wore special clothes that defined their identity, and textile production was considered emblematic of female and monastic virtue, I will use this observation to embark on an examination of the identity, intentions and anxieties of the audience, clarifying how gender and power relations motivated the production of a text that emphasized monastic values while negotiating clerical expectations for the nuns' lives and self-reflection.