ABSTRACT
Early modern Catholics avidly read the life stories of exemplary female penitents composed by confessors, texts that were produced in great number, translated, and disseminated throughout Europe and its colonies. What messages did readers derive from this literature? Naturally, authors continued to construct their subjects as models of virtuous behaviour, as hagiographers had done for hundreds of years. But perhaps more compelling to many readers were the vivid depictions of friendships shared by priests and penitents. Since the early centuries of the faith Christians had acknowledged that the contemplative, celibate life held the possibility – perhaps the only culturallysanctioned possibility – for a man and a woman to have a deep, mutually satisfying relationship outside of marriage.2 Indeed, given how marriages were, for the most part, arranged for economic and procreative purposes, a celibate but otherwise intimate friendship may have struck many as a more attractive option. With the advent of printing this tradition became more widely known to a larger audience than ever before. As people learned of cases of spiritual friendship in earlier generations, did they aspire to participating in such relationships themselves? The potential to achieve a meaningful connection with a member of the opposite sex may well have served as a powerful incentive for people to remain within the Catholic fold, and even to consider a religious vocation. In this essay I explore the themes of spiritual and personal bonding that feature so prominently in the life-narratives of early modern women and men.
