Table of Contents

Introduction: “The Significance of Things: Materiality, Embodiment, and Early Middle English Reclusion”, Michelle M. Sauer and Jenny C. Bledsoe

“Blessedly clothed with gems of virtue”: Clothing and Female Reclusion in The Life of Mary of Egypt and The Life of Christina Markyate”, Anna McKay

Materiality, Documentary Authority, and the Circulation of the Katherine Group, Jenny C. Bledsoe

Framing Materiality: Relic Discourse and Medieval English Anchoritism, Michelle M. Sauer

“Clean hands and a pure heart”: Relics and the Recluse’s Touch in Goscelin’s Miracles of St. Edmund, Sophie Sawicka-Sykes

A Matter of Voice: Mary, Silence, and the Fictions of Power in Ancrene Wisse 2.269–474, Joshua S. Easterling

The Anchoritic Body at Prayer in Goscelin of St. Bertin’s Liber confortatorius, Alicia Smith

PECE ⁊ Oþer: Stupor in John of Gaddesden’s Rosa medicinæ, Laura Godfrey

The Material of Vernacular English Devotion: Temptation and Sweetness in Ancrene Wisse and Richard Rolle’s Form of Living, Jennifer N. Brown

Considering the Archaeological Context of an Anchoritic Cell at Ruyton, Shropshire, Victoria Yuskaitis

About the Author

Michelle M. Sauer is Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of English & Gender Studies at the University of North Dakota. A specialist in medieval reclusion, she is recipient of the Thomas J. Clifford award for research excellence, and also authored Gender in Medieval Culture.







Jenny C. Bledsoe is an Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern State University, OK, and a specialist in medieval manuscripts.