Raising John’s Body: Ælfric’s Homily for the Assumption of John the Apostle
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Ælfric was a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and Abbot of Eynsham. Ælfric’s Old English Catholic Homilies, the First Series (ca. 992) invites gender analysis because its gender asymmetry is atypical of its genre and period. Homilies of this period include a sanctorale, and typical male lives focus on the saint’s refusal to worship pagan gods, while typical female lives showcase their rejection of pagan suitors in favor of lifelong virginity. Strangely, this text avoids narrating female actions while glorifying the lifelong virginity of men, especially John’s. Indeed, the homily for the assumption of John the Apostle dramatizes the saint’s bodily vulnerability as a male, while ignoring any female vulnerability. In addition, a prominent theme in CH I is that heavenly rewards are earned through merit. Since male figures act to demonstrate their merit, and female figures do not, in effect, merit is masculinized. In addition, the text works to align reproduction and the earthly life with the female body and against a spiritualized male body. While this effect is commonplace in western literature, it is beyond rare in the sanctorale genre. Finally, whereas caution is usually Ælfric’s constant companion, CH I.4 depicts the assumption of John rather overenthusiastically. Ælfric consistently chose the most sensational passage in each of his sources in order to depict John as a perfect example of pious monastic behavior. On the other hand, there seems to be a desire on Ælfric’s part to reduce and control the significance of the female body so that it could not suggest other meanings to his audience, meanings which they might find more attractive than those with which he associates his holy men.
Abstract
Ælfric was a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and Abbot of Eynsham. Ælfric’s Old English Catholic Homilies, the First Series (ca. 992) invites gender analysis because its gender asymmetry is atypical of its genre and period. Homilies of this period include a sanctorale, and typical male lives focus on the saint’s refusal to worship pagan gods, while typical female lives showcase their rejection of pagan suitors in favor of lifelong virginity. Strangely, this text avoids narrating female actions while glorifying the lifelong virginity of men, especially John’s. Indeed, the homily for the assumption of John the Apostle dramatizes the saint’s bodily vulnerability as a male, while ignoring any female vulnerability. In addition, a prominent theme in CH I is that heavenly rewards are earned through merit. Since male figures act to demonstrate their merit, and female figures do not, in effect, merit is masculinized. In addition, the text works to align reproduction and the earthly life with the female body and against a spiritualized male body. While this effect is commonplace in western literature, it is beyond rare in the sanctorale genre. Finally, whereas caution is usually Ælfric’s constant companion, CH I.4 depicts the assumption of John rather overenthusiastically. Ælfric consistently chose the most sensational passage in each of his sources in order to depict John as a perfect example of pious monastic behavior. On the other hand, there seems to be a desire on Ælfric’s part to reduce and control the significance of the female body so that it could not suggest other meanings to his audience, meanings which they might find more attractive than those with which he associates his holy men.
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