Ecstatic Female Sainthood and Witchcraft in the Late Middle Ages, Public Lecture by Gabor Klaniczay (CEU)

This lecture - as part of the series on "Women and Christianity" - will show, how the spectacular influence of female prophets and visionaries (such as Birgitta of Sweden, Catherine of Siena or Joan of Arc) provoked a counter-reaction: the supernatural power these religious women claimed was put down as originating from the devil (an not from God). The accounts on heavenly visions and diabolic temptations contributed to the formation of the mythology of the Witches' Sabbath, the animosity towards the vogue of female religiosity contributed to reshape the concept of the witches as principally women.