Thousands and Thousands of Lovers

Anna Harrison is professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches courses in the history of Christian late antiquity and the Middle Ages. She is currently at work on a monograph titled Paradox: Bernard of Clairvaux's On Loving God and its Influence.

"This book offers an astonishingly rich reconstruction of the visionary, communal, personal, and literary lives of the nuns of Helfta. It rests on a rich knowledge of their teachings and writings but understands these as born as much from communal experience and insight as the visions or writings of unusually graced individuals. Amidst a larger interpretive literature, much of it not in English, this book follows upon Caroline Walker Bynum’s pioneering introduction of these materials to English-speaking readers a generation ago. It is an attractive and compelling general reflection on the lives and writings of these women, yet thoughtfully focused. Readers will find themselves immersed in its narrative flow as well as its host of illuming and learned notes."John H. Van Engen, Andrew V. Tackes Professor of Medieval History, Emeritus, University of Notre Dame

• ContentsAbbreviations  ixAcknowledgments  xiiiPreface  xvIntroduction  xxviiPART ONEThe NunsChapter 1“Oh! What Treasure Is in This Book?”:Writing, Reading, and Community 3Chapter 2“A Queen Is Magnanimous at Her King’s Banquet”:Relationships among the Nuns 57Chapter 3“Tears and Sighs”:Community in Illness, Death, and Grief 116Chapter 4“I Am Wholly Your Own”:Liturgy and Community 161 PART TWOWithin and Beyond the CloisterChapter 5“A Husband Enjoys His Wife More Freely in Private”:The Nuns and the Clergy 215Chapter 6“The People Are Also My Members”:Community Within and Beyond the Monastery 257PART THREEThe Living and the DeadChapter 7“Give Her All That Is Yours”:Community and the Population of Purgatory 301Chapter 8“Unite Yourself with His Family”:Community with Mary and the Saints 353Epilogue 433Bibliography 439Index 479