School of History and Institute for Medieval Studies
Third Postgraduate Monasticism Conference
MONASTIC MYTHS:
ORIGINS, IDENTITIES, LEGACIES
University of Leeds, 16-17 May 2014
PROGRAMME
Friday 16 May: Michael Sadler Building 3.11
10.00–10.30: Registration
10.30–10.45: Welcome
10.45–12.15: SESSION 1: Exploring Monastic Foundations through Origin Stories
Moderator: Emilia Jamroziak (University of Leeds)
Catalin Taranu (University of Leeds)
‘A New Heaven and a New Earth’: The Making of the Cistercian Desert
Marco Muresu (University of Cagliari)
Founding Legends of the Main Monasteries of Mount Athos: Lavra, Vatopedi, Iviron
Isabella Bolognese (University of Leeds)
Bickering Brothers, Squabbling Sisters: Communities in Conflict at the Foundation Stage
in Twelfth-Century Monasteries
12.15–1.30: Lunch Break
1.30–2.30: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Moderator: Amy Devenney (University of Leeds)
Dr Marie-Luise Ehrenschwendtner (University of Aberdeen)
Literacy ‘under the Lock’: Education, Spirituality and Enclosure in Dominican Reform
Convents
2.30–2.50: Break
2.50–4.20: SESSION 2: The Formation of Religious Identities through Origin Stories
Moderator: Rene Hernandez Vera, University of Leeds
Hannah Shepherd (University of Edinburgh)
Holy Women in the Household: Women, Space and the Clerical Construction of Lay
Monasticism in the Early Thirteenth-Century Low Countries
Zachary Domach (University of Oxford)
Ascetic Ideas and Popular Wisdom: Diogenes the Cynic and the Sententiae Sexti in Early
Monastic Thought
Robert Briggs (University of Nottingham)
Ignoble Treatment of a Noble Lady? A Provisional Reassessment of the Foundation Story
of the Priory of St Mary Overy, Southwark
4.20–4.40: Break
4.40–5.40: Roundtable Discussion
Moderator: Iona McCleery (University of Leeds)
5.40–6.45: Wine Reception
7.00: Informal Dinner at Thai Edge
Saturday 17 May: Centenary Gallery, Parkinson Building (First Floor)
10.00–11.00: SESSION 3: The Use (and Abuse) of Anglo-Norman Origin Stories
Moderator: Matthew Beckmann (University of Leeds)
Rebecca Browett (Institute for Historical Research, London)
The Legend of St Æthelwold: Protecting Winchester Cathedral Priory
Berenice Wilson (University of Leeds)
Edith Forne and the Myth of the Fallen Female Foundress
11.00–11.20: Break
11:20-12:20: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Moderator: Richard Thomason (University of Leeds)
Dr Hugh Willmott (University of Sheffield)
Century of Excavation: Challenging Some Myths of Monastic Archaeology in the 21st
Century
12.20–1.35: Lunch Break
1:35-3:05: SESSION 4: Religious Experience through the Visual and Non-Visual
Moderator: Isabella Bolognese (University of Leeds)
Christian Nikolaus Opitz (University of Vienna)
‘…scribere et depingere genealogiam fundatorum monasterii’: Word and Image in
Cistercian Foundation Narratives from Fourteenth-Century Austria
Malcolm McNeill (SOAS, University of London)
Speaking for Icons: Inscriptions on Buddhas and Patriarchs in the Discourse Record of
Yanqi Guangwen (1189-1263)
Petre Maican (University of Aberdeen)
The Monastic Myth of the Non-Visual Experience of God
3:05-3:25: Break
3:25-4:30: Roundtable Discussion
Moderator: Melanie Brunner (University of Leeds), with closing comments by Audrey Thorstad (University of
Leeds)
Our conference has been kindly sponsored by the Institute for Medieval Studies and the School of
History at the University of Leeds, Medium Aevum: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and
Literature, and The Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology.
Organised by Kirsty Day, Amy Devenney, Rene Hernandez Vera, Audrey Thorstad and
Richard Thomason