A Mystical Concubine: Giunta Bevegnati's Portrayal of Margaret of Cortona as a Spiritual Mother

Ford, Brooke

A Mystical Concubine: Giunta Bevegnati's Portrayal of Margaret of Cortona as a Spiritual Mother

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Date

2014

Authors

Ford, Brooke

Advisor

Beretz, Elaine

Department

Haverford College. Department of Religion

Type

Thesis

Language

eng

Access Restrictions

Open Access

Terms of Use

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/

Abstract

Margaret of Cortona, (1247-1297), led an intriguing life and one that would inspire others. As a single woman and an unwed mother turned mystic and saint, Margaret spanned the spectrum of womanhood. Earlier in her life, she was a concubine, a woman living with a man outside the bounds of acceptable marriage. More importantly she had an illegitimate son, which compounded the usual pollution of childbirth. She thus carried not only a social stigma, but was considered impure in the eyes of the Church and God. Fra Giunta Bevegnati, Margaret's Franciscan confessor and author of The Life and Miracles of Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297), constructs his narrative of her life to demonstrate her transition from impurity to purity by showing her development from physical mother to spiritual mother. By embracing spirituality and a more ascetic way of life, Margaret is able to gain a more intimate relationship with Christ. Giunta traces this process of how Margaret became a holy, spiritual mother who cared for the people of Cortona and how she emerged through her spiritual motherhood as a new kind of saint and champion for the Franciscan Third Order. When Giunta portrays Margaret's spiritual motherhood as a living embodiment of Holy Mother Church, he also presents a new hierarchy of spiritual to physical motherhood that spoke to the lay people of Cortona. As an ascetic, female, mystic, Margaret was considered suspicious by the Church and was even dangerous to the Church and to society as a whole. Since he was aware of this, Giunta constructed his biography to portray her in a fashion that is acceptable to society and orthodox to the Church. In order for Margaret's spiritual gifts to benefit the Franciscan Order, she must be presented as a woman who was gifted with visions but who also conformed to religious orthodoxy. Margaret's living embodiment of Holy Mother Church presents a new hierarchy of spiritual to physical motherhood. Giunta weaves this theme of the two motherhoods throughout the Vita. This is an important aspect in the construction of Margaret's identity because it posits her as a safe and obedient member of the Church. As a widowed-concubine with an illegitimate son experiencing personal interactions with Christ, Margaret was suspicious and a potential threat to the authority of the Church. By stressing Margaret's obedience to him and the other Franciscans, as a spiritual mother figure, Giunta ensures Margaret's reception as a positive role model for the Italian laity. Furthermore, Giunta includes a ledger of the multitude of miracles attributed to Margaret, many of which involve stories of mothers praying to Margaret for the health and safety of their sons. This further cements her role as a spiritual mother figure for the people of Cortona and demonstrates the hierarchy that occurs in spiritual and secular motherhood. I will conclude by the end of this thesis that Margaret changed the concept of motherhood, enriching it with the addition of spirituality. She is a new transformative figure for the Italian laity to model themselves after, in particular the mothers. Margaret's example by spiritual motherhood gives even more strength and power to mothers while remaining harmoniously within the realm of acceptable social roles for women. Her story serves to highlight the power of medieval Italian motherhood beyond the parameters of physicality, enhancing it with a spiritual power that was previously absent.