St. Elisabeth of Thuringia
A Psychological Study (1931)
9789463725804
286 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
Only twelve years after German women had been granted voting rights, the German medievalist Elisabeth Busse-Wilson, a first-wave feminist activist and scholar, challenged centuries of silence about violence against women by taking on the case of the most famous European saint, the young Elisabeth of Thuringia (1207–1231). Married at a very young age, St. Elisabeth soon fell under the spell of the notorious confessor and inquisitor Konrad von Marburg. His brutal treatment of the young woman was erased from the cult of St. Elisabeth to protect male privilege both in the church and society at large.
Published to coincide with the 700-year anniversary of her death, Busse-Wilson’s study caused a storm of controversy. Translated for the first time into English, this book reintroduces to a contemporary audience this long-forgotten but still provocative and timely classic.
Author Bio
Elisabeth Johanna Auguste Busse-Wilson (1890-1974) was a German historian. She was one of the first generation of German women to receive a university education.
Alicia Spencer-Hall is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London. Their research interests include: medieval hagiography, disability, gender, digital culture, and film and media studies. Her first monograph, Medieval Saints and Modern Screens: Divine Visions as Cinematic Experience was published by Amsterdam University Press in 2018, and is now available Open Access. Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography, a collection co-edited with Blake Gutt, was published in 2021. Shortlisted for the Transgender Non-Fiction award at the 34th Lambda Literary Awards, the volume is now also available Open Access. Their second monograph, Medieval Twitter, was published by Arc Humanities Press in 2024.
Ulrike Wiethaus is Professor Emerita in the Department for the Study of Religions at Wake Forest University. Her research interests focus on the history of Christian spirituality with an emphasis on gender justice and political history, and most recently, historic trauma, religion, and the long-term impact of US colonialism.
