Women in Purple

Aelia Pulcheria was the daughter of a very influential mother, the Empress Eudoxia who was criticized by John Chrysostom for her unorthodox Christian devotion.  He publicly denounced Eudoxia’s lifestyle in his sermons: “You who are in the flesh make war against the incorporeal one.  You who enjoy baths and perfumes and sex with a male do battle with the pure and untouched church.”[1]  

I can't help but think that Eudoxia is given an unfair assessment here . . . I mean Chrysostom doesn't like women generally, so how can we expect him to praise those who bathe, take note of personal hygiene or enjoy their role as wife and mother - especially when they threaten his authority.  Eudoxia was an extremely popular model of lay Christian devotion and was often seen worshipping amongst the common townspeople.  

Now Pulcheria her daughter, as a young orphaned teenage girl, assumed responsibility for her brother's imperial training (age 13) and dedicated herself to a life of virginal asceticism (age 14).  She is unduly influenced from an early age by patristic influences and carries on their agenda in the imperial household.  She is well known for her instrumental role in sanctioning the findings of the Council of Ephesus that proclaimed Mary Theotokos in 431 and literally shifted the way that female sanctity was defined by the Church.  

I have to admit to a love/dislike relationship with this woman.  

I like Pulcheria because:

She strategically places herself in a position of power and influence.

She heads the Theodosian household at an early age and makes a decent success of it.

She can't help that she is essentially a puppet, used according to the distorted view of women by some of the patristic Fathers.

I dislike Pulcheria - or at least the portrayal of Pulcheria because:

She seems to privilege the ascetic model for female devotion despite the incredible legacy of matrons in her family.

She seems to promote the iconography of Mary in a way that excludes the majority of late antique Christian women (wives and mothers) from the model of holiness.

OK, so now that you are completely bored with this post - let me just say this:

I think it is important for scholars to tread lightly with criticisms of people from the past -- lay out the facts as clearly as possible, but realize that life circumstances and "Images" of individuals are often obscured according to other's agenda.   In this case, I think there is something pivotally askew in presenting wives and mothers as less worthy than the holy virginal ascetics -- Oh, Pulcheria, I think your purple shoes would be very difficult to walk in and I promise to try to write you justly.

[1] HOLUM, K. G. 1982. Theodosian empresses: women and imperial dominion in late antiquity, Berkeley, University of California Press.