c. 150–100 BC
Hebrew
200–101 BC
The Second Century BC
1 work
101–200
The Second Century
3 works
c. 120–180; survives in fragment
Greek
The Gospel of Mary
Anonymous
After the Saviour departs, Mary Magdalene comforts the frightened disciples and reports a vision she alone received; Andrew and Peter object that he would not have spoken privately to a woman.
Gnostic · Dialogue
c. 160–170
Greek
The Acts of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice
Anonymous
Two men are tried and burned at Pergamum. A woman in the crowd named Agathonice sees a vision of glory, throws off her cloak, and lays herself on the stake unasked, while the crowd shouts at her to think of her son.
Early Church · Martyr actsMatthewRevelationHebrews
c. 160–190
Greek
The Acts of Paul and Thecla
Anonymous
A young woman of Iconium breaks her engagement after hearing Paul preach chastity, survives fire and wild beasts, baptises herself, and goes off to teach.
Early Church · Acts
201–300
The Third Century
3 works
203
Latin
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity
Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis
Vibia Perpetua and an editor · Perpetua d. 203
A young Carthaginian mother's own record of her arrest, her father's pleading, her nursing infant, and four dreams — a ladder guarded by a dragon, a contest in the arena — completed by an eyewitness account of her death.
Early Church · Prison diary
c. 208
Latin
On the Veiling of Virgins
De Virginibus Velandis
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
An argument that unmarried women should be veiled in church like everyone else, opening with the claim that custom must yield to truth because Christ called himself truth and not custom.
Early Church · Treatise1 Corinthians
c. 249
Latin
On the Dress of Virgins
De Habitu Virginum
Cyprian of Carthage · c. 210–258
Advice to consecrated women on wealth, cosmetics, jewellery, and mixed bathing, arguing that a life given to God should look different from a wealthy woman's ordinary life.
Early Church · Treatise
301–400
The Fourth Century
8 works
c. 360–370
Latin
The Virgilian Cento on the Glory of Christ
Cento Vergilianus de Laudibus Christi
Faltonia Betitia Proba · c. 322 – c. 370
Creation, fall, and the life of Christ told in six hundred and ninety-four lines assembled entirely out of Virgil — every half-line lifted from the Aeneid, Georgics, or Eclogues and refitted, so that the poem says what Virgil never wrote using only words he did.
c. 350–373
Syriac
Hymns on the Nativity
Ephrem the Syrian · c. 306–373
Nativity hymns written for choirs of women to sing, turning on the paradox of the one who fills all things becoming small enough to be carried.
377
Latin
On Virgins
De Virginibus
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339 – 397
Three books addressed to his sister Marcellina, praising consecrated virginity and telling the story of Agnes, a girl of twelve who went to her execution as others go to a wedding. Ambrose has to answer parents who were locking daughters up to stop them taking the veil.
Western · Treatise1 CorinthiansMatthewSong of SongsRevelation
c. 380
Greek
On the Soul and the Resurrection
Gregory of Nyssa · c. 335–c. 395
A dialogue at his sister Macrina's deathbed, in which she takes the role Socrates played for Plato and argues him through grief to the resurrection and the final restoration of all things.
Cappadocian · Dialogue1 Corinthians
c. 381
Greek
The Life of Macrina
Gregory of Nyssa · c. 335–c. 395
A brother's account of his elder sister, who refused marriage, turned the family estate into a community, taught her brothers theology, and died in poverty by choice.
Cappadocian · Biography
c. 381–384
Latin
The Pilgrimage of Egeria
Itinerarium Egeriae
Egeria
A woman's letters home from a three-year journey to Sinai, Jerusalem, and Edessa, describing what she saw and, at length, exactly how the Jerusalem church kept Holy Week.
Western · Travel journal
370–419
Latin
The Letters
Jerome · c. 347–420
A hundred and fifty letters of scholarship, spiritual counsel, travel, and ferocious quarrel, including the dream in which he is accused of being a Ciceronian rather than a Christian.
Western · Letters
c. 300–400
Greek
The Apostolic Church Order
Anonymous
A short Egyptian order in which the apostles are made to speak in turn about bishops, presbyters, readers, and widows, with a debate over whether women may offer the eucharist.
Egyptian · Church order
401–500
The Fifth Century
2 works
c. 419–420
Greek
The Lausiac History
Palladius of Galatia · c. 363–c. 430
Portraits of the monks and nuns of Egypt and Palestine by someone who lived among them, including a good deal of frank material about failure, madness, and vanity.
Egyptian Monastic · History
c. 452
Greek
The Life of Melania the Younger
Gerontius
The life of one of the richest women in the Roman world, who liquidated estates across several provinces, freed thousands of slaves, and settled on the Mount of Olives.
Western · Biography
501–600
The Sixth Century
3 works
c. 512–534
Latin
Rule for Nuns
Regula Virginum
Caesarius of Arles · c. 470–542
A rule for a community of women written for his sister's monastery, requiring strict enclosure, insisting every nun learn to read, and forbidding the acceptance of dowries.
Western Monastic · Rule
c. 520
Latin
The Life of Saint Genevieve
Anonymous
The life of the consecrated woman who is said to have kept Paris from panic when Attila approached, and organised grain convoys during a siege.
Western · Biography
c. 566–569
Syriac
Lives of the Eastern Saints
John of Ephesus · c. 507–c. 588
Fifty-eight portraits of Syrian ascetics the author knew, many of them women, and many living in hiding during the persecution of anti-Chalcedonians.
Miaphysite · Biography
601–700
The Seventh Century
3 works
c. 650–680
Latin
The Life of Brigid
Cogitosus · 7th century
The life of the abbess of Kildare, full of miracles of provision — butter multiplied, beer for churches — and a description of her double monastery of men and women.
Celtic · Biography
c. 685–695
Latin
On Virginity
De Virginitate
Aldhelm · c. 639–709
A double work in prose and verse for the nuns of Barking, praising virginity through a gallery of biblical and patristic examples, in an extravagantly ornate Latin.
Anglo-Saxon · Treatise
697
Latin
The Law of the Innocents
Cáin Adomnáin
Adomnán of Iona · c. 624–704
A law promulgated at a synod of Irish and Pictish kings and clergy, imposing heavy penalties for killing or wounding women, children, and clerics in war.
Celtic · Law
701–800
The Eighth Century
2 works
c. 716–754
Latin
The Letters
Boniface · c. 675–754
The correspondence of an English missionary among the Germans — requests for books and warm clothing, appeals to Rome, complaints about wandering bishops, and letters to and from abbesses at home.
Anglo-Saxon · Letters
c. 778–780
Latin
The Life of Willibald
Hodoeporicon
Hugeburc of Heidenheim · 8th century
An account of a seven-year pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem and back, taken down from the traveller's own dictation, including his arrest as a spy and a smuggled jar of balsam.
Anglo-Saxon · Travel
801–900
The Ninth Century
3 works
c. 836
Latin
The Life of Leoba
Rudolf of Fulda · d. 865
The English abbess whom Boniface summoned to Germany, learned in scripture and canon law, consulted by bishops, and buried beside him at his own request.
Western · Biography
841–843
Latin
Handbook for William
Liber Manualis
Dhuoda · c. 803–c. 843
A noblewoman writes to a son held as a hostage at court, on God, on loyalty, on choosing counsellors, and on praying for a family she may not see again.
Western · Handbook
c. 830–860
Greek
901–1000
The Tenth Century
3 works
c. 955–965
Latin
The Legends
Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim · c. 935–c. 1002
Eight narrative poems in leonine hexameters on saints and on the Virgin, including a version of the Theophilus legend in which a man sells his soul and is rescued by Mary.
Western · Poetry
c. 960–970
Latin
The Plays
Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim · c. 935–c. 1002
Six comedies written in imitation of Terence but with chaste heroines instead of seduced ones, including a courtesan converted by a hermit and virgins martyred under Diocletian.
Western · Drama
c. 965–975
Old English
The Old English Rule of Saint Benedict
Æthelwold of Winchester · c. 904–984
Benedict's rule in English, made so that nuns and monks without Latin could hear their own rule and understand what they had promised.
Anglo-Saxon · Translation
1001–1100
The Eleventh Century
1 work
c. 1080–1083
Latin
The Book of Encouragement
Liber Confortatorius
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin · c. 1035–c. 1107
A long letter of consolation from a monk to a young woman who has enclosed herself as an anchoress, mixing spiritual counsel with unmistakable personal grief at the separation.
Western · Letter
1101–1200
The Twelfth Century
14 works
c. 1132–1135
Latin
The Letters
Heloise · c. 1100–1164
An abbess writes to the man she loved: that she would rather be his mistress than an empress, that she obeys him and not God, and then asks him for a rule for her nuns.
Western Monastic · Letters
c. 1148
Greek
The Alexiad
Anna Komnene · 1083–1153
A daughter's history of her father's reign, including the arrival of the First Crusade described as an unwelcome flood of armed and unpredictable Latins.
Byzantine · History
c. 1151
Latin
The Play of the Virtues
Ordo Virtutum
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
A sung drama in which a soul is pulled between sixteen Virtues, who sing, and the Devil, who can only shout because he has no music.
Western Monastic · Drama
1141–1151
Latin
Scivias
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
Twenty-six visions of creation, redemption, and the church, each described and then explained by a voice from heaven, and illustrated under her direction.
Western Monastic · Visions
c. 1140–1160
Latin
The Life of Christina of Markyate
Anonymous
A young Englishwoman refuses the marriage her parents arranged, escapes disguised as a man, and lives hidden in a tiny cell for years before founding her own community.
Western · Biography
c. 1150–1158
Latin
The Natural History
Physica
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
Nine books on plants, elements, trees, stones, fish, birds, animals, and metals, giving the properties and medicinal uses of each.
Western Monastic · Natural science
c. 1150–1170
Latin
Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations
Symphonia
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
Seventy-seven liturgical songs with soaring melodies of her own composition, in a Latin full of invented images — greenness, viridity, the fiery breath of the Spirit.
Western Monastic · Hymns
c. 1150–1160
Latin
Causes and Cures
Causae et Curae
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
A medical handbook on the humours, digestion, sleep, conception, and remedies, including frank descriptions of sexual physiology from a woman's viewpoint.
Western Monastic · Medicine