ABSTRACT
No matter how willing early Christian leaders were to attribute spiritual virility to ascetic women, they rarely wished them to represent such manliness in their outward dress and physical appearance. As we have just seen, dress performances that proved too signifi cant a challenge-or potential challenge-to conventional gender categories were censured by Christian leaders or, when possible, forcefully suppressed by Christian councils. In light of the widespread criticism in the third through fi fth centuries, we might be puzzled by the popularity of the numerous legends of female cross-dressing saints in the fi fth through seventh centuries.1 We might fi nd it odd that we fi nd no objections from ascetic leaders whose disciples circulated and elaborated these stories and that only rarely do the characters within these narratives express concern about the protagonists’ cross-dressing.2
