14 MEDIEVALIA20 (agosto 1995)

THE VIDA DE SANTAMARÍA EGIPCÍACA AND JULIAKRISTEVA'STHEORY OF ABJECTION

The story of Saint Mary the Egyptian is one ofthe repentant prostitute and, in its essence,reveals the age-old dichotomy of Christianattitudes toward women as revealed in the

opposition between the whore and the ma-donna, the temptress and the saint, and thefigures ofEve and the Virgin Mary. Saint Marythe Egyptian forms part of a sisterhood largelycreated and epitomized by the early ChurchFathers of sinful women who find salvation.

The popularity of the life of Saint Mary theEgyptian in Spain is attested by several manu-script versions of her story --one in verse fromthe 13th century and two in prose which datefrom the 14th century (Baños Vallejo, Lahagiografía, 63). The dissemination of thelegend from its first extant version in the sev-enth century has been widely documented. I I

I "La primera versión conocida de la leyenda está engriego, y parece deberse a Sofronio, arzobispo de Jeru-salén (m. 639), quien probablemente la compuso basán-dose en varias fuentes: De la Vida de San Pablo Eremita

escrita por San Jerónimo habría tomado el esquema ge-neral; el personaje de María pudo recogerlo de otra Ma-ría que sobrevivió milagrosamente en el desierto duran-te dieciocho años, y que aparece por ejemplo en la Vidade San Ciriaco de San Cirilo de Escitópolis; etc. Deesta obra se derivan tres versiones latinas, dos anglo-

Connie L. ScarboroughUniversity of Cincinnati

will here confine rny comments to the Spanishverse version, the Vida de Santa María Egip-cíaca.2 The VSME derives from a Western

branch of the legend of Mary the Egyptian inwhich Mary, rather than the rnbnk Gozirnas, isthe central figure.3 AIso, the verse VSME isthe earliest extant vernacular version of the

legend in the Iberían peninsula.In the Spanish verse VSME, an adaptation of

the French Vie de Sainte Marie /'Egyptienne,Mary abandons her parents' horne at the age oftwelve so that she may freely pursue her life asa prostitute. She goes to Alexandria where sheis so popular that her numerous lovers fightand die over her. One day, Mary spies a ship inthe harbor at Alexandria. The boat is full of

pilgrirns going to Jerusalern and she asks if shecan accompany thern, offering to pay for her

sajonas y varias francesas, en prosa. En verso se cono-cen dos versiones latinas y una vida rimada en francésque parece ser el precedente más inmediato del poemaespañol" (Baños Vallejo, La hagiografía, 63).

2 Hereafter, VSME. AII quotes from the VSME are frorothe edition of Manuel Alvar.

J For a complete discussion of the Eastern and Westernbranches of the legend, see Joseph T. Snow's articIe,"Notes on the Fourteenth-Century Spanish Translation".

MEDIEVALlA20 (agosto 1995) 15

passagewithherbody. Duringthevoyageshehas relations with all abroad and, upon arrivingin Jerusalem, she again begins to ply her trade.However, on the Feast of the Ascension Marytries to enter the church with the crowds of the

faithful, but a group of armed heavenly warri-ors prevent her passage. She prays fervently tothe Virgin Mary and a voice from heaven tellsher to go into the desert beyond the RiverJordan where she should assume an austere life

on penance. Mary goes out into the desertwhere she lives with no thought for the physi-cal needs or comfort of her body. A monasteryis situated on the River Jordan, at the edge ofthe desert where Mary Iives. Each year themonks from the monastery spend Lent wan-dering in the desert in spiritual preparation forEaster. After spending 47 years in solitude,Mary encounters a monk, Gozimas, who isspending the season of Lent in the desertoGozimas immediately recognizes her as a holywoman and Mary confesses her life history tohim, but she makes him swear to not repeat ituntil after her death. Mary predicts, with accu-racy, that Gozimas will be sick during thefollowing Lenten season and will notbe able toleave the monastery. After he recovers, sherequests that he bring her communion at theRiver Jordan. All happens as Mary predicts,and Gozimas gives the communion to her thenext year after which she goes back to thedesert where she dies in peace. When Lentnext arrives, Gozimas is anxious to return tothe desert to find Mary. He finds her undefiledbody with a message written in the sand in-structing him to bury the body. At that mo-ment a lion appears and helps the monk to diga grave for Mary. Upon returning to his mon-

astery,GozimassharesMary' s remarkablestorywith the monks. The brothers are very movedand rededicate themselves to the service ofGod.

Benedicta Ward in her book Harlots of theDesert, has shown how the early histories ofprostitutes who repent of their way of life andafterwards follow the rigors of extreme asceti-cism fit into a wider context of monastic con-

version during the early Christian periodoWhilecognizantofthehagiographictraditions

to which the VSME conforms, its associationwith the composite figure of Mary Magdalenefrom the New Testament, and the monastic at-mosphere in which it was most probably pro-duced,westillmustaskwhyelementsof thestoryof the repentantprostitute were so appealing tochurchmen advocatingthe ascetic life.

Perhaps one reason is that elements of therepentant whore's story embody the universalexperience of abjection together with the basisfor the Christian concept of sin. Julia Kristevain her book, Powers of Horror, elaborates thetheory of abjection. An application of thistheory to the VSME proves most valuable iniIIuminating the story's appeal to those advo-cating the ascetic live. Structurally, the poem isa study in contrasts: Mary's lascivious lifebefore her conversion in Jerusalem as opposedto her life of extreme asceticism and depriva-tion in the desert; her physical beauty as sheplies her trade as prostitute as opposed to heroutwardly hideous appearance after 47 years ofmartyrdom; her haughty arrogance and amo-rality as a prostitute and her humility and truerepentance as an anchorite. Firstly, the poems' svividdescriptionsofthe physicalchangeswhichoccur in Mary's body lend themselves to

16

Kristeva's analysis of abjection. Abjection, asused by Kristeva, may be defined as "the sub-ject's reaction to the failure of the subject/object opposition to express adequately thesubject's corporeality and its tenuous bodilyboundaries" (Grosz, Sexual Subversions, 70).Since Mary's spiritual drama, as portrayed inthe VSME, is intimately bound to her use andabuse of her corporeality, her experience ofabjection seems paramount to an understand-ing of her perceptions of her own body and itsfunctions as well as the monk Gozimas' reac-

tion to her physical appearance. According toKristeva, a child's entry into the production ofdiscourse, into signification, is possible onlywhen bodily processes and sexual drives enterinto a kind of stable subjectivity in which thesefunctionsbecomelinkedtosignifiers.Anaware-ness of bodily defilement is a prerequisite forwhatshetermsclaimingone' s "cleanandproperbody", that is, the child's constitution as speak-ing subject (Grosz, Sexual Subversions, 71).Thus Mary' s recognition of corporeality,whether in using her body' s capacity for sexualactivity as a means for material gain or mini-mizing all bodily concern and awareness as anact of penance, relates well to Kristeva' s notionthat what is considered impure in one's bodycan never by fully obliterated. Mary is keenlyaware that her efforts at mortification in and of

themselves are insufficient to redeem her pre-vious life:

Que fe aquí huna doliosa,que por ell yermo va rencurosapor los pecados que fizo grandes,que son tan suzios e tan pesantes,de que he yo gran repitenr;ia

MEDIEVALlA20 (agosto 1995)

e só aquí en penitencia.

(vol. 2, 88, vv. 1013-1018)

"It is impossible to exclude ... psychicallyand socially threatening elements with anyfinality. The subject's recognition of this im-possibility provokes the sensation Kristevadescribes as abjection" (Grosz, SexualSuberversions, 71-72). Whether as prostituteor anchorite, Mary experiences a certain stablesubjective identity, but the abject is alwayspresent and manifests itself unpredictably(Grosz, Sexual Subversions, 72). Mary's expe-riences the abject when confronted by the heav-enly guards at the temple' s gates in krusalem.This celestial intervention shatters her masteryover the abject, her subjective identity andstability. Likewise, in the desert, ~fter a soli-tary life of 47 years, she encounters Gozimasand feels compelled to confess her formerconduct, that is, her former relationship to herbody, and, with this confession, admit to therepressed, admit that her present denial ofbodily comfort and necessities is but anotherunstable identity she has adopted. "Abjectioninvolves the paradoxically necessary but im-possible desire to transcend corporeality"(Grosz, Sexual Subversions, 72).

When Gozimas and Mary meet the secondtime, the monk offers her communion and theanchoress prays to Holy Mary to intervene onher behalf with her Son. She requests that her"galardón" (vol. 2, 100, v. 1278) for her yearsof service in the desert should be to die in the

Virgin'scompany (vol. 2,100, vv. 1279-1288).At this moment of prayer, after having con-fessed and received communion, Mary experi-ences the abject, the space inhabited by the

MEDlEVALlA20 (agosto 1995) 17

death drive (Grosz, Sexual Subversions, 73).Shewants to die andenjoy the heavenly rewardfor her extreme act of penance. "[T]he abjectis a condition of the unified, thetic subject, yetis intolerable to it. Even at times of its greatestcohesion [Mary's 47-year dedication to theascetic life] , the subject teeters on the brink ofa yawning hole which threatens to draw it intoit. This abyss marks the place of the genesis andobliteration of the subject, for it is a spaceinhabited by the death drive..." (Grosz, SexualSubversions, 73). Since the abject insists on thesubject's necessary relation to death andcorporeality, Mary realizes that the denial ofher bodily well-being has still not allowed herto escape its ultimate destiny.

However, since the VSME maintains sucha strict duality of reverse proportion betweenthe saint' s physical appearance and her spir-itual health (Le. when she is considered beau-tiful her soul is corrupt and when her bodyhas become hideous her spiritual being isbeautiful) we must venture into Kristeva'sanalysis of the abject with relation to ChristianprincipIes.

In an important chapter in Powers ofHorrorentitled ".. .Qui tollis peccata mundi," KristevaexpIains how, in Christian narrative, abjectionis no Ionger considered exterior as, for exam-pIe, it had been in ludaic tradition wheredefilement was based on dietary taboos, con-tact with Iepers, etc., but rather interior, Le.that it is permanent and comes from within(113). The Christian interiorization of impu-rity is at the core of the Egyptian' s story. HerIegend quite c1earlyexemplifies the teachingfound in the GospeI of StoMatthew (23:27):"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-

.

crites! for ye are like unto whited sepuJchres,which indeed appear beautiful outward, butare within full of dead men' s bones, and ofall unc1eanliness." Kristeva observes that

"[t]hrough the process of interiorization,defilement will blend with guilt... But out ofthe merger with the more material, object-likeabomination, a new category will be estab-lished-Sin" (116). And it is precisely therealization of Sin, of guilt, that strikes Marywhen she is prevented from entering the tem-ple in Jerusalem. Being cognizant of Sin, ofinterior impurity, leads the saint into her lifeof penance in the desert and this naggingconsciousness ultimately reveals itself in herconfession to Gozimas, and most particularlyfor our discussion here, in her receivingcommunion. Kristeva discusses the Eucharist

as part of the tendency in Christianity towardinteriorizing and spiritualizing the abject(Powers of Horror, 118). In Kristeva' s terms,for the Christian, the Eucharist is catharsis:"divine nourishment, the body of Christ,assuming the guise of a natural food (bread),signifies me both as divided (flesh and spirit)and infinitely lapsing. I am divided and laps-ing with respect to my ideal, Christ, whoseintrojection by means of numerous commun-ions sanctifies me while reminding me of myincompletion. Because it identified abjectionas a fantasy of devouring, Christianity effectsits abreaction. Henceforth reconciled with it,the Christian subject, completely absorbedinto the symbolic, is no longer a being ofabjection but a lapsing subject" (Powers ofHorror, 118-119). For Mary, the figure ofthe repentant whore who epitomizes thelapsed subject, the Eucharist she receives from

18 MEDlEVALIA20 (agosto 1995)

the hands of Gozimas after her years alonein the desert without the solace of communion

is the ultimate prerequisite to death. Thebeing of abjection, defined as Mary living insolitude, subjecting her body to the elements,depriving it of food and comfort, in essence,denying her own corporeality, experiencespleasure, a sense of reintegration with her spir-itual self after consuming the Host: "CuandoMaría fue comulgada, / alegre fue e bien pa-gada..." (vol. 2, 100, vv. 1273-1274). HerChristian "fantasy of devouring" has been ful-filled and she is now capable of integratingherphysical need for devouring with a sense ofspiritual self as lapsed subject in need of rec-onciliation with the Divine.

Another element associated with ingestionwhich embodies the Christian interiorization

of abjection involves the three loaves whichMary initialIy takes with her into the desertoAfter she hears the voice of God which in-

structs her to do penance in the "yermo" be-yond the River Jordan, Mary encounters apilgrim who gives her three loaves of bread;miraculously these three loaves keep her aliveduring the 47 years she dwells in the desertoOne is of course reminded of the New Testa-

ment miracle in which Christ multiplies theloaves and the fishes. With reference to theBiblical miracle, Kristeva notes that "Severallines of thought appear to converge on thatarticle of multiplication. If there is, on the onehand, a concern for 'satisfying' the hunger ofthe greatest possible number, it is...to the spiritthat the food seems destined, forJesus does notcease calling upon understanding to decipherthe meaning of his action. Satisfied physi-ological hunger gives way to unsatiable spir-

itual hunger, a striving for what 'it couldpossibly mean'" (Powers of Horror, 117).Kristeva's emphasis on the metaphoricalmeaning of the multiplication of the bread inthe Biblical miracle is equalIy present, andindeed reminiscent of it, in the VSME--i.e.,"that multiplication of dietary objects alsoconstitute(s] (taking into account the inwarddisplacement of emphasis) a sort of invitationto multiply, if not relativize, conscience it-seIL." (Powercs of Horror, 118). It is pre-cisely Mary's conscience, her feeling of guiltover her former life, that is multiplied in thedesert together with the meager amount of foodwhich sustains her for nearIy half a century.

Another Christological paralIel which ap-pears in the VSME is the saint walking onthe .surface of the River Jordan in order toreceive communion from Gozimas. Thesaint's identification with Christ reaches, inthis scene, a kind of climax, but the identi-fication remains incomplete due precisely toher condition of sin: "Sin, even if its remis-sion is always promised, remains the rockwhere one endures the human condition as

separate: body and spirit, body jettisonedfrom the spirit; as a condition that is impos-sible, irreconcilable, and, by that very tokenreal" (Powers of Horror, 120). Even thoughMary has renounced her body in favor of alife totalIy dedicated to the spirit, it is. herown corporeality that served as instrument ofher sin and, although momentarily suspendedfrom its earthly restraints as she findsherselfcapable of walking upon the surface of theriver, she reaches the far shore as a body inneed of spiritual food, communion, to insurethe remission of her sins.

MEDlEVALIA20 (agosto 1995) 19

In Powers of Horror Kristeva treats themulti-faceted Christian concept of sin, espe-cially with regard to its link to desires of theflesh. Original sin, as conceived by Christianthought, belongs to both sexes; "but its rootand basic representation is nothing other thanfeminine temptation" (126). Thus after Eveentices Adam to eat of the Forbidden Fruit,he falls victim to covetous desires, not theleast of which is the desire for woman--sexualcovetousness (Powers of Horror, 127). Andit is precisely this most basic manifestation ofsin that is at the root of Mary' s life as a harlot.But in terms of abjection, and in terms of thedidactic intent of the story of the saint' s life,her sin, meant for remission is absorbed, i.e.,it is not designated "as other, as something tobe ejected, orseparated, but as the most pro-pitious place for communication--as the pointwhere the scales are tipped towards purespirituality" (Powers of Horror, 127). It isMary's familiarity with and incorporation ofher sin which allows for its "recognition...[as] an evil whose power is in direct ratio tothe holiness that identifies it as such, and intowhich it can convert" (Powers of Horror,123).

In a sense the magnitude of her sin allows foran equally magnanimous outpouring of for-

giveness, of holiness. The interiorization ofabjection "becomes the requisite for areconcili-ation, in the mind, between the flesh and thelaw" (Powers of Horror, 127-28).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

BAÑosVALLEJO,FERNANDO,La Hagiografía co-mo género literario en la Edad Media, Ovie-do: Departamento de Filología Española,1989.

GROSZ,ELIZABETH,Sexual Subversions: ThreeFrench Feminists, Sydney: Allen & Unwin,1989.

KRISTEvA,JULIA,Powers of Horror: An Essay 011Abjection, translated by Leon S. Roudiez,New York: Columbia UP, 1982.

SNOW,JOSEPHT., "Notes on the Fourteenth-Cen-

.tury Spanish Translation of Paul the Deacon'sVita Sanctae Mariae Aegyptiacae, Meretri-cis", en Jane E. Connolly, et al. eds., Saintsand their Authors: Studies in Medieval Hagi-ography in Honor of John K. Walsh, Madi-son: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies,1990.

Vida de Santa María Egipciaca. estudio, voca-bulario, edición de Manuel Alvar, 2 vols., Ma-drid: CSIC, 1972.

WARO,BENEDICTA.Harlots of the Desert, Kala-mazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987 (Cister-cian Studies Series, 106).