www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Mitred Abesses?

Let me begin by saying that while I'm an Anglican I absolutely oppose the ordination of women, even to the diaconate.

With that out of my system, let me ask:

What is the tradition of "mitred abesses"? I believe St Hilda was one. Apparently they wore mitres and carried a crosier, just like bishops and abbots. Did they wear other liturgical garments?

Does the east have a parallel tradition?

in Christ,
Marshall

Mitred Abbesses never arose in the East, thanks be to God - though one does find (especially in the Slav Churches) Abbesses with croziers, ornate pectoral crosses and an elaborate mandyas [sorry; I can't make up my mind how to form the plural of mandyas!].
An enjoyable novel called *The Ladies of Soissons* recounts the fictional history of a women's monastery headed by a mitred abbess; if anyone can get hold of a copy (I believe it was written over 40 years ago) it's a pleasant read.
Incognitus

I have also read stories about mitered abbesses and even read in one history book where she sat in the Bishop's chair on the Altar and the priests would have to kiss her hand...I always wondered if these 'histories' were really fictional, or if these incidences were just abuses that were later cleared up.

I don't know. How would a nun wear a mitre on top of her veil? Yes, they still carry a crozier and a pectoral cross, and they can give blessings.
It was, (maybe still is ), on her professiona day, a Carthusian Nun wears a stole cross-wise like a deacon, and chants the Gospel.

In theory, when bishops serve together, only the celebrant should wear the mitre. Out of respect to persons (these days), all of the serving bishops usually wear their mitres. But the mitre is the symbol of the celebrant ("iereus" in Greek) who stands in the role of Christ at the offeratory liturgy.

Because the canons prohibit women from serving at the altar (but not from serving in the churches and community as deaconesses), there is no reason for a bishop to authorize an abbess to wear a mitre. It is strictly related to the offeratory liturgy and related ceremonies (blessing of the waters, etc.).

The abbess has full authority from the bishop to manage the affairs of her monastery. While she may lead the reading of the Hours and also the evening and morning prayer services (Daily Vespers and Daily Matins) she does not lead an offeratory liturgy or the Great Vespers that precede an offeratory Divine Liturgy.

This Eastern tradition has never been broken, as far as I know.

With love in Christ,
Andrew

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Some accurate (though now dated) information about abbesses in the Roman Catholic church can be found by accessing:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01007e.htm

The comment at the end of the article, where it states that there are no abbesses in the United States, is inaccurate.

(Prof.) J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

This is off topic, I'm afraid, but involves monks and nuns and is cute (and it comes with a prayer request at the end):

At a local monastery, there was a very aged priest/monk who had many health problems. I remember this monk because he was always at Vespers and Mass when I visited the monastery and participated to the best of his ability and continued to assist as a priest, even though it was clearly extremely difficult for him to move. There was a young monk who was always with him and who treated him with such care and respect that it was really touching. The old monk could be a bit of a handful.

Eventually, the old monk needed more serious medical care than the monks could give him. So he was put in the care of a nearby community of sisters who were equipped to help him with his increasingly serious medical needs.

This dear old monk apparently complained to his abbott (and I believe to the cardinal as well) that it seemed scandalous to him that women (the nuns who cared for him) were able to enter his cell at all. I think it is somehow beautiful that an old monk still cared about appearances and needed assurance - and that he was treated with such love and care in his declining years.

So, please, pray for the old priest and monk Urban who died recently and for the brothers and sisters and all of his former students who surely miss him dearly.

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

I don't know where your interest in the area of mitred abbesses comes from, but you are right in your understanding that such leaders of religious women's monasteries do indeed exist. An abbess is the female superior of a community of twelve or more nuns. With some exceptions, the position of abbess corresponds to that of Abbot in a male monastery of monks. Abbesses exist, not in the types of convents most familiar to us in the United States, that are not cloistered or living the monastic rule. There is a distinction between nuns living a monastic rule and Sisters, with which we are more familiar and who do not live the monastic lifestyle in their communities. An Abbess is elected by her fellow nuns. Abbesses elected for life, rather than for a term of office, can be solemnly blessed according to the Roman rite, by the local Bishop. The rite of blessing is prescribed in Monastic rituals and, like an Abbot, an abbess bears a crosier as a symbol of her office and of her rank; she also has the right to wear a ring as a sign of her office. An abbess exercises supreme local authority over her monastery and its satellite monasteries. She administers the temporal business and local rule of the nuns. She can not, obviously, confer any sacraments nor change any ecclesiastical laws. She can not publicly bless her nuns as a priest does, but she can bless them in the way a mother can bless her children. She can not preach, but, in chapter, she can give exhortations and spiritual direction for the monastery. In medieval times, the abbess often sat among her male counterparts and would be present for local synods. Currently there are no abbesses in the United States, although there are 120 worldwide, all in European countries. Monasteries of nuns in the United States are off-shoots of European monasteries and thus under the rule of the abbesses there.

Are you sure that abbesses can give blessings? How is this possible, since they are nuns, and nuns are not ordained (obviously)?

Logos Teen

Yes, a mitred abbess can give blessings - she might perhaps use Holy Water for the purpose. There were also a few examples of mitred abbesses with quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, but that seems to have died out. Incognitus

May the memory of the monk-priest Urban be eternal.

O Lord, receive the soul of Your servant, the monk-priest Urban, who has departed from this life, and lead it to rest in a place of light, happiness, and peace, where there is neither pain nor suffering, neither grief nor sighing. And since You are a gracious God and the Lover of Mankind, remember his years of service to You and to Your people, forgive him every sin he has committed by thought, or word, or deed, for there is not a man who lives and does not sin, for You alone are without sin and You are the Resurrection and the Life.

And remember, too, Lord. those who cared for Your servant in his time of need and all whom this humble man of God left behind and who mourn him, though they rejoice that he sleeps in Your repose.

Dear Annie, I notice you are in Virginia and you speak of your old monk's former students. Would this be the Fr Urban at St Anselm's in DC who lovingly kept the Latin Mass alive there for so many years?

Hi Logos Teen,

I would assume that the blessing would be of a different nature than that given by priests and deacons and therefore not require ordination.

I don't know....but this is the only way that makes sense to me....

UIC

I heard a story once about a [Roman] bishop who was visiting a Benedictine women's monastery and the abbess requested that he say a pontifical Mass. The bishop objected that he did not have the authorization to do this and the abbess responded "I am granting you the authorization" and it turned out that she had the authority to do this...

Daniel's post (directly above) explains the abbess' authority well. Just like priests, deacons, etc. who exercise authority for their own bishop, she was exercising her authority for her own bishop and authorizing the visiting bishop to serve. [He was out of his own jurisdiction and just visiting in the abbess' bishop's jurisdiction, ergo needing authorization.]

In Christ,
Andrew