Mapping the Church and Asceticism in Ostrogothic Italy 489
asceticism in the city.47 After a phase that was probably characterized by struc
tural informality and fluidity of movement, female ascetics, at least in the West,
were organized for two centuries according to two models of settlement, which
were maintained in the Ostrogothic period. The first model was composed of
urban housing units, capable of accommodating two or three young women
in addition to an owner and one or more widows (univirae). Examples include
Marcella, Albina, Melania Senior, Paula, and the other women known from
the correspondence of Jerome, as well as the sister of Ambrose, Marcellina,
her friend from Verona, the virgins residing in Vercelli, Emona, Bologna, and
still others.48 The second model of female ascetic settlement was an actual
monastery (monasterium). Beyond the Holy Land, these were typically estab
lished in suburban areas close to large cities, such as the monastic communi
ties that Melania the Younger organized around 408 on her properties in Sicily
and Campania.49 Accordingly, their dimensions were such that they were able
to accommodate more diverse social elements, including former slaves, give
assistance to the poor, and offer hospitality to travelers and pilgrims. From the
outset, therefore, the foundation of monasteries had resulted in donations and
bequests of land rents, which potentially made these centres new economic
units. Yet without such resources they could not survive (indeed, many did
not) nor expand due to hosting an increasing number of groups of ascetics;
nor could their founders maintain control, bequeathing the monasterium to
their daughters and relatives.50
On female monasteries in Italy during the Ostrogothic period we have the
isolated testimony of Pope Pelagius I who spoke about one such community
in Capua.51 For the remaining female monasteries, the main evidence comes
from the era of Gregory the Great. Next to those the pope himself built on his
Sicilian properties, other monasteries dated back to an earlier age and almost
all of these had a founder of senatorial rank.52 Most were in rural areas, located
on the estates of noblewomen who had left part of their land to the church,
47 Jerome, Ep. 127.5, ed. Labourt, vol. 7, pp. 140–1. Jerome’s reconstruction may be tenden
tious, as he intended to place the rise of a religious inclination in Marcella prior to
Melania the Elder; see Pricoco, “Aspetti culturali del primo monachesimo d’Occidente”,
p. 189, n. 1.
48 Consolino, “Tradizionalismo e trasgressione nell’élite senatoria romana”, pp. 65–125.
49 Lizzi, “Una società esortata all’ascetismo”; Lizzi Testa, Senatori, popolo, papi, pp. 115–20.
50 Clark, Ascetic Piety and Women’s Faith, pp. 209–28.
51 Pelag., Ep. 49, ed. Gassò/Battle, pp. 130–1. Better evidence is available for female monaster
ies in Ostrogothic Gaul, particularly the community of Caesaria the Elder at Arles. For this
see Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles, pp. 117–23.
52 Rizzo, Papa Gregorio Magno e la nobiltà in Sicilia, p. 228.