Wanda Zemler-Cizewski: ‘The Only Menstruating Animal’: Muliebria According to Rupert of Deutz and his Sources
Unlike other patristic and medieval exegetes of Genesis 1-3, Rupert of Deutz includes within his comments on Genesis 3, 16 a description of the suffering caused by menstruation among the travails imposed upon the woman. To understand his rationale for doing so, the present study traces his comments on passages in Genesis and Leviticus where menstruation is mentioned, with the intention of uncovering his sources and the information that he derives from them. Chief among his sources is Gregory the Great’s letter eight to Augustine of Canterbury on admission into church and reception of the sacrament for women who are menstruating or recovering from childbirth. Hence, Rupert’s perspective on menstruation recognizes both that is it debilitating and painful to women, but also that it is a natural function, so that menstruating women should not be shunned as unclean or excluded from places of worship.
Keywords: Genesis – Leviticus – Woman/women – Menstruation/menopause – Gregory the Great – niddah