that they were both female rituals in which women played the central roles. In
both instances, women wore white and paraded in the streets. She sees the two
rites as instances in which women were able to express their femininity and
their place in society as mothers.^72 Gibson also points to one of the issues that
has troubled Christian scholars with respect to both the individual churching
ceremony and the Marian ritual:^73 If Mary was a virgin at the time of the con-
ception, why was she in need of purification? Some of the answers offered to
this question in the medieval period enlighten the individual churching cere-
mony. Some theologians explained that if Mary, who was a virgin, needed to
be purified, then all other women who give birth are unquestionably in need
of purification.^74 Paula Reider has suggested that the way in which the me-
dieval churching rite was conducted, displayed and emphasized the belief that
the parturient had to be removed from society and purified before she could
return to the normal social order. Women who gave birth in socially question-
able circumstances often remained unchurched; this emphasized the breach
of the social order.^75
Other scholars have reminded us that medieval theologians often provided
other reasons for the churching of women. Gregory the Great (540 – 604) and
his followers objected to seeing churching as a rite of purification from birth.
Instead, he and others argued that if the parturient was being purified, it was
an act of purification from intercourse and the pleasures of the flesh.^76 They
also suggested that churching was a rite of thanksgiving, expressing gratitude
for the fact that the woman had survived childbirth. Still others argued that the
purification of women after birth was a “folk custom,” and that while the gen-
eral public thought women had to be purified after birth, medieval scholars
and clergy did not.^77
These disagreements over the purpose of churching are clearly conveyed in
the liturgy of the churching ritual. Most versions of the ritual from the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries address the issue of purification and refer to the im-
pure blood of childbirth, as well as to Mary as the inspiration for the rite. In
the fifteenth century, a new version of the prayer for the service appeared,
which presented a new blessing, omitting the New Testament references. The
common name of the ritual then became the more neutral Ordo ad intro-
ducendam mulierem. Only in one case is the ritual referred to as Ordo ad pu-
rificandum mulierem.^78
It is not clear if the churching of women was universal throughout the Mid-
dle Ages. Rieder has argued that, while in the early Middle Ages all women
were churched, this was not the case in the High Middle Ages.^79 Other schol-
ars have assumed that the churching of women was routine practice for most
women and have suggested that this practice became especially important in
the thirteenth century as part of the growing devotion to the Virgin Mary.^80 In
fifteenth-century Germany, churching was common practice, though not con-
sidered an obligation; rather, it was a consuetude(custom).^81
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
#1