In her new book, Medieval Holy Women and the Desire for Death, Comparative Literature professor Jessica Barr questions the hagiographic commonplace that devout Christian women yearned for death as the quickest way of reaching their beloved, Christ. Placing medieval women’s religious writings (spiritual treatises, visionary narratives, autobiographical reflections) in dialogue with theology and hagiography, Barr seeks to elucidate the ways in which medieval people anticipated or experienced biological death on a personal level. In narrating their spiritual lives within the framework of deeply held Christian beliefs, medieval women mystics illustrate how theology and experience converge—and, not infrequently, diverge.
Medieval Holy Women and the Desire for Death was published in February 2026 by the University of Notre Dame Press; find it here.