ABSTRACT
Unn Falkeid explores the roles of two of the biblical Marys in the self-fashioning of Birgitta and Catherine as public agents. Scholars have long acknowledged the centrality of the Virgin for Birgitta’s promotion of herself as a holy woman. The Virgin Mary offered Birgitta, like other medieval religious women, a role model as mother and bride of Christ. Birgitta, however, adopted the character of the Virgin in a most productive manner: in several of her revelations, she casts Mary as the foundation for her own auctoritas in political as well as in religious matters. In the case of Catherine of Siena, another Mary is given a pivotal role, namely Mary Magdalene, the famous female disciple of Christ. In her Letters, the Magdalene’s status as the repentant prostitute is significantly down-played and replaced by the woman who challenged the authorities of her time by raising her voice in public. Through an intertextual, comparative approach, the chapter analyzes how Birgitta and Catherine contested the contemporary politics of the Avignon papacy by grounding their authority on the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene respectively.
