Table Of ContentMulieres suadentes – Persuasive Women
East Central and Eastern Europe
in the Middle Ages, 450–1450
General Editor
Florin Curta
VOLUME 42
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ecee
Mulieres suadentes –
Persuasive Women
Female Royal Saints in Medieval East Central
and Eastern Europe
By
Martin Homza
Translated by
Martina Fedorová & al.
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Detail of a fresco of Princess St. Olga by Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (between
1884–89, St. Vladimir’s Cathedral, Kiev). © Photograph by the author.
First published as Mulieres suadentes = Presviedčajúce ženy: Štúdie z dejín ženskej panovníckej svätosti v
strednej a vo východnej Európe v 10.–13. storočí. Copyright © 2002 LÚČ – vydavateľské družstvo Bratislava.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016059369
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Illustrations and Tables viii
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 Methodological Basis 3
2 The Phenomenon of Mulieres Suadentes (Persuasive Women):
Between the East and the West 8
1 Mulieres Suadentes 8
2 “Daughters” of St. Ludmila (?) 16
3 Christian Female Ruler Archetype of Empress St. Helena 33
1 Imitatio Helenae (et Constantini) 33
2 Other Variants of the Imitatio Helenae (et Constantini) in
Central-East Europe 49
3 Occurrence of the Name Helena within the Most Important
European Dynasties until the End of the Thirteenth Century 61
4 St. Ludmila of Bohemia, Model of Female Ruler Sainthood in
Central-East Europe? 80
1 Historical and Cultural Foundations of the Cult of St. Ludmila 80
2 Imago Sanctae Ludmilae in the Homily Factum est, an Attempt
of Analysis 89
3 St. Ludmila in the Cycle of St. Wenceslas 123
5 St. Olga: The Mother of All Princes and Tsars of Rus’ 143
6 Adelaide, Princess of Cracow and Wife of Grand Duke of Hungary Geza:
On the Problem of Fictivity and Reality in East-Central European
Medieval Narratives 169
1 An Attempt to Interpret the Role of Princess Adelaide in the
Hungarian-Polish Chronicle 169
2 Princess Adelaide and origo Regni Hungariae 200
Conclusions 211
Bibliography 217
Index 243
Acknowledgements
The original idea for this book dates back to 1995/1996, while I was studying
at the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University
in Budapest. The figure behind it was my supervisor at that time, prof. Gábor
Klaniczay. Its outcome was an MA thesis focusing on St. Ludmila of Bohemia.
Many of the ideas that paper dealt with continued to inspire me in the follow-
ing years resulting in various partial studies focusing on saint female rulers
in Central and Central-Eastern Europe. Most of them were later revised and
updated, and in 2002 became part of my first book Mulieres suadentes: Studies
from the history of female ruler sanctity in Central and East Europe in the tenth-
thirteenth centuries.1
This book is an expanded and more elaborated English version of the
mentioned papers in Slovak. The new ideas in it are mainly the merit of
Professor Hedwig Röckelein with whom I worked closely for one whole year
in the frame of a study program at the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern
Studies at Georg-August University in Göttingen (Seminar für Mittlere und
Neuere Geschichte at Georg-August Universität Göttingen) in 2007 and 2008
on a KAAD scholarship. I would also like to express my gratitude to Prof. Igor
S. Filippov from the Faculty of History at Moscow State University for his stim-
ulating suggestions concerning the study of the Hagiography of East-female
rulers and, once again, to Prof. Gábor Klaniczay for reading the draft prior to
its publication.
For the translations of the different papers into English I thank Castor E.
Sánchez, Stanislava Kuzmová, Zuzana Orságová, Nora Malinovská, and Martina
Fedorová who did the final language editing.
Special thanks to Professor Florin Curta for his offer to publish this book
within the series East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450.
Finally, I thank my wife Martina as well as my daughters Klára Fedora,
Tereza Fedora and Gréta Fedora for their support in writing this book, but also
for making my knowledge of womanhood more than merely theoretical.
1 M artin Homza, Mulieres suadentes: Presviedčajúce ženy. Štúdie z dejín ženskej panovníckej
svätosti v strednej a východnej Európe v 10.–13. storočí [Mulieres suadentes: Studies from the
history of female ruler sanctity in Central and East Europe in the tenth–thirteenth centuries]
(Bratislava: Lúč, 2002).
List of Illustrations and Tables
1 Anonymous, Theotokos (eleventh century). After The ‘Foroiuliense’
Evangeliarium [Codex Gertrudianus], fol. 41 (Italy) 23
2 Anonymous, Cunigunde (Irena) and her husband Yaropolk
(Peter) Izyaslavich are crowned by Christ (eleventh century).
After The ʻForoiulienseʼ Evangeliarium [Codex Gertrudianus],
fol. 10v. (Italy) 30
3 Anonymous, Yaropolk (Peter) Izyaslavich and his wife Cunegunda
(Irena) praying to St. Peter (eleventh century). After The ‘Foroiuliense’
Evangeliarium [Codex Gertrudianus], fol. 5v. (Italy) 31
4a–b a) The oldest images of Emperor Constantine the Great and his
mother Helena Augusta (copper coins from the fourth century) and
b) Tomb of St. Helena (fourth century). Rome (Italy) 72
5 Anonymous, St. Helena and the True Cross (beginning of the
sixteenth century), The Oltar of St. Anna in the Church of St. George,
Spišská Sobota (Slovakia) 73
6 Anonymous, Finding of the True Cross by St. Helena. Illustration
from Legenda aurea 74
7 St. Helena and St. Constantine (?) (first half of the thirteenth
century). Slavonian denarius (kuna), marten-adorned silver coin
called also the banovac (Croatia) 75
8 St. Sava, St. Constantine and St. Helena (after 1321). Monastery of
Gračanica, Kosovo-Metohija (Serbia) 76
9 Anonymous, Crowning of Emperor Otto II and Theophano, book
cover. Ivory, Holy Roman Empire, Byzantine origin (?) (982–983).
After National Museum of the Middle Ages—Cluny Thermal Baths
and Mansion, Paris (France), Cl. 392 77
10 Anonymous, St. Queen Jelena (Helena) of Anjou and her son
St. Milutin (after 1321). Monastery of Gračanica, Kosovo-Metohija
(Serbia) 78
11 Dimitrios Leussis, St. Ludmila, St. Olga, St. Helena and St. Constantine,
St. Vladimir, St. Wenceslas (a new synthesis?, after 1993). After the
fresco from the Chapel of Theotokos placed in the Complex of
the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of University of Prešov (Slovak
Republic) 79
12 Anonymous, Romanesque tympanum from the Convent of
St. George at Prague Castle (beginning of the thirteenth century),
Prague (Czech Republic) 130
