Appendix: Vernacular Lives of Holy Harlots in Medieval Insular Hagiography

Summary

This appendix lists the extant vernacular lives of holy harlots originating in the British Isles during the Middle Ages. These are divided into five categories, depending on whether they were written in Old English, Anglo-Norman, Middle English, Middle Welsh, or Irish. Some information about the texts has been supplied, and, where possible, the date, author, and source(s) are listed. The most recent edition of each saint's life has also been added, alongside that of its Latin or vernacular source if available.

A. OLD ENGLISH

B. 1–3. Lives of Mary Magdalene, Pelagia, and Afra of Augsburg in the Old English Martyrology

Late ninth century

Short prose accounts drawn from diverse source material.

Edition: Christine Rauer, The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation, and Commentary (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2013).

B. 4. Pseudo-Ælfrician Life of Mary of Egypt

Late tenth century

This version is a close prose translation of a ninth-century Latin version by a deacon named Paul, itself a close translation from the early seventh-century Greek version reputedly authored by Sophronius.

Edition: Hugh Magennis (ed.), Old English Life of St Mary of Egypt, An Edition of the Old English Text with Modern English Parallel-text Translation (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002).

Edition of the closest source: the Cotton-Corpus Legendary version of the vita of Mary of Egypt is edited by Magennis in the same volume.

A. ANGLO-NORMAN

B. 5. Life of Thaïs, anonymous

c. 1160–80

This verse life was authored by an anonymous Anglo-Norman author, “most likely an Austin canon,” who also wrote translations of the Vitas Patrum, the Libellus de Antichristo, and the Visio sancti Pauli apostoli “for the moral and spiritual edification of the Templars.” The life of St Thaïs is dedicated to, and was probably commissioned by, Henri d’Arci.

Edition: R.C.D. Perman (ed.), “Henri d’Arci: The Shorter Works,” in Studies in Medieval French Presented to Alfred Ewert, ed. E.A. Francis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961), pp. 279–321.

Edition of the Latin source: Ibid.

B. 6. T Vie de Marie l’Egyptienne, anonymous

Last quarter of the twelfth century

Long verse life (1532 lines) in octosyllabic couplets, source unknown.

Edition: Peter F. Dembowski (ed.), La Vie de sainte Marie l’Egyptienne, versions en ancien et en moyen français (Geneva: Droz, 1977).