Sainted Women of the Dark Ages.

The names of these women, with the exception of Genovefa (i.e., Genevieve) the patroness of Paris, would be little known to most people who are not scholars of the period. The fact that they are little known does not mean that they are devoid of interest. The editor's point, in a helpful survey, is that themes dear to later hagiography are less common in these sixth- and seventh-century accounts. Little time is spent on virginity (many were married and widowed) or on the pursuit of poverty. These women came from the aristocratic classes and found their vocation as nuns and abbesses of monasteries which were often under royal patronage.

Most of the vitae emphasized the power of the saint (that was a sign that she was a saint) during her lifetime. The biographers also liked to point out that their ascetical lives were a new form of martyrdom. This was a topos that goes all the way back to Athanasius's Life of Anthony: the ascetic life as a daily martyrdom. Beyond that, these women were seen as exemplars of the Christian life. Their way of living was a not-too-subtle contrast to the warrior virtues of their fathers, former husbands, brothers, and relatives.

At least two of these vitae were written by women who knew their subject at close hand. The others, despite some literary touching up in Carolingian times, speak clearly of a time when Christianity moved into Western Europe energized by these remarkable women who were part of its success. The seventh-century vitae reflect women who were more domesticated and controlled by the increasing power of the hierarchy but the sixth-century vitae reflect women who were clearly powerful in their own right and in their capacity to affect society directly. Their stories are interesting in themselves and, by extension, for the light they shed on the role of women in the church.

Robert Ellsberg's anthology of the writings of Dorothy Day is a reprint of a collection first published under the title By Little and by Little (Knopf, 1983). It is wonderful to have it back in print since so many of Day' s works are out of print. Ellsberg has selected from her columns, essays (some first appeared in this magazine), and books (e.g., her estimable life of the Little Flower).