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Abstract
A fifth-century penitent saint often confused with Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, was a sex addict who underwent a radical conversion, literally fleeing to the desert to renounce her former life. She continues to maintain an astonishing literary presence in hagiographical texts, whether from the Middle Ages or in contemporary academic and ecclesiastical discussions. Collectively, scholars have consistently treated the obvious textual elements of conversion, male and female monastic relations, and prostitution.
Amongst the numerous vernacular translations and versions, Rutebeuf’s thirteenth-century French poetic version of Mary’s life provides crucial insights into the conversion experience and the role desire, gender and sexuality play in medieval conceptions of holiness, virtue, and spiritual transcendence. According to the Dominicans, Albert the Great and Thomas of Aquinas, the body and its passions hindered the Christian’s journey from sin to virtue, from incontinence to sanctity. Mary of Egypt presents a model for righteous conduct and opportunities for moralization in that she spurned and metamorphosed her body through radical penance and ascetic practices.
This project examines Rutebeuf’s version of Mary of Egypt in order to explore the ambiguous status of the holy body driven by transcendent desire, that is, an intense longing for the spiritual other. Current scholarship suggests that this is a neglected area of Rutebeuf’s text. A detailed analysis of Rutebeuf’s poetic version traces Mary’s physical transformation from a body encumbered by erotic desire to a being whose corporeal deformation paradoxically represents union with the divine, revealing a new understanding of the redeemed body and the importance of virtue. Ultimately, Rutebeuf’s account of Mary of Egypt’s story dramatizes how desire, the body and gender threaten both the domain of the sacred and profane.