Female hospitallers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

"Female Hospitallers in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries" is an analysis of the presence of female members in the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, who were associated with the order as lay sisters involved in hospital care, as women devoted to the liturgy, and as commanders. The study gives special attention to the differences among types of female association, the accommodation of female religious, the cooperation between men and women (or lack thereof), and motivation. It is the first large-scale study of women in the military orders in English and first serious attempt to relate the study of military orders to the framework of the study of female monasticism.; With predominantly archival sources as her evidence, the author argues that, (1) the female members of the Hospital of Saint John were not an anomaly to the order but formed an integral part of the order, as they contributed financially, physically, socially, and above all, spiritually; (2) the Hospital of Saint John was, in comparison to other religious orders, remarkably open to receiving and accommodating women. Some of these women associated as fully-professed religious, others as lay associates or semi-religious; consorores, donatas, or the like, depending on when or where the association was made. At the end of the twelfth century and in line with a general trend in the history of monasticism, the Order of Saint John began to segregate the women from the men and established religious houses specifically for them. However, this segregation was never complete, and unlike most other religious orders, the Hospitallers continued to welcome female association in male, female, and mixed-sex congregations throughout the thirteenth century. Its positive attitude towards women was only matched by other Augustinian institutions, and points at a difference between Augustinian and Cistercian-Benedictine oriented military religious orders.