Psychology feminine holiness

Abstract

Feminine holiness is a subject as complex as it is interesting–not least because of the very definition of the term–, in many occasions extraordinary and many others bitter, which has sparked interest throughout history, especially after the progress made on modernity.

Objective

The main objective is less to show whether there is a psychiatric, infectious, neurological or any other form of pathological disorder linked to the behaviour of female saints, rather to evaluate all the psychological and social aspects that result in holiness as a mental state being largely a female attribute.

Material and methods

For this, we have tested from birth to death, in what is possible, the lives of sixty religious women, through biographies and autobiographies since they were servants, pious or holy according to ecclesiastical terminology. This set was unavoidable to select twelve cases, which are set out exhaustively in this study.

Results and discussion

Limiting ourselves to a purely psychiatric view, we can show the presence of psychopathology associated with exceptional states of consciousness, as would be ecstatic and mystical experience itself, present in most cases. We also found common psychological profiles, out of the sixty biographies and autobiographies of religious women analyzed: e.g. pain is used as a means of atonement and a way of removing the guilt of sin. We rule out major psychiatric disorders in the Santas we have analyzed. The behaviors they presented, even sometimes excessive, cannot be included in any of the current major psychiatric disorders.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.