Tipologia di donne nella Vita S. Hilarionis di san Girolamo

Abstract

In the historical monastic literature, the presence of the feminine figure is sparse and few. In itself the presence of women must be exorcised, at least if we do not treat sinners to be converted or of pious ones who ask for grace and miracles. The figure of the sister of the ascetic is the most common, following the model of the Vita S. Antonii , written by St. Athanasius of Alexandria. In the Via S. Hilarionis one meets a more mature Saint Jerome in the relationship with the female world. The monk of Bethlehem is no longer the young convert who sees the woman as a danger. He is surrounded by many disciples and learned collaborators. The prevailing and most positive figure is that of the mother. The first miracle of Hilarion grants fruitfulness to a barren woman, who appeals to him on accounting the divine motherhood of her sex, because she has generated the Saviour of the world. This reference is a clear reference to the redemption of Eve in Mary. If Aristaenete is a religious and spiritual model of a mother and a Christian woman, it is nevertheless the anonymous mothers who, in everyday life, carry out the most precious task in the Church for the faith and in a people for culture: to preserve and pass on the “memory” in their children, forming future generations. In this sense, the mother is also the mother of a people and of faith. Finally, there is a hint to the typology of the woman as “wife of”, but also in this case, concerning other pagans, the value is positive. A miraculous blind woman and an exorcised consecrated virgin find instead a negative tint due to lack or lukewarmness of faith in one and authentic fidelity to her vocation in the other. St. Jerome seems to warn that it is not miracles or vows that guarantee holiness, nor the appearance of a “evangelical” state of life, but the quality of his being in Christ and of Christ. Finally, there is the typology of the woman friend thanks to the high degree of charity and piety. In the Vita S. Hilarionis is the matron Constance the emblem of a figure of an intimate woman friend, who will succeed in the Middle Ages.