Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery (review)

Abstract

Rebecca Krawiec has revised her dissertation (Yale, 1996) and produced a study of very interesting material: letters written by Shenoute of Atripe (348-464 C.E.) to female monks within his domain after he became their leader. The work of Stephen Emmel in re-constructing Shenoute's works ("Shenoute's Literary Corpus," Ph.D. diss., Yale, 1993) made it possible to examine this material and glean the information it offers for the practice of communal asceticism among women in the Thebaid. Krawiec also builds upon the work of Susannah Elm whose Virgins of God (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994) is the rare work that examines Shenoute's conflicts with female monks. The letters are a rich source since they deal with specific problems and contain his painfully frank criticism of the women's behavior. However, this book is flawed by errors in translation, some due to reliance on flawed editions of Coptic texts, some due to grammatical misunderstanding, and some due to neglect of biblical allusions and quotations.