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The Lost Women of Premontré: Finding and Following the Footsteps of Medieval Women

April 19 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Old Main, Alumni Room

$0

This event is open to the public.

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Nuns matter. This is true in the present day, but was even more so in the Middle Ages. Medieval nuns led lives of prayer, contemplation, and service, but did so in ways which had far-reaching social, economic, and political consequences. Studying their lives gives us new insights into medieval Western Europe, and also into how later historians have overlooked these active women.

This talk will focus on the sisters of a French monastic order, the Premonstratensians, between the 12th and 16th centuries. For decades, historians have presumed that the Order expelled all its female members in 1198. New archival research, however, tells a much more complicated story.