This lecture was hosted by the one and only Dr. Catherine in Avignon, France. This lecture was about how the women of St. Catherine expressed their agency and their female power in different ways, and how having the chance to choose is the most liberating thing for a woman. Catherine did a good job at drawing in sisters of all kinds. They drew in the wealthy, and they even drew in the distant.
The convent was set in the city with large walls surrounding the property, and the sisters would hardly ever interact with the public. Although they rarely ever interacted with the public, the city of Avignon as a whole worked to keep the convent running. Catherine was heavily supported across the entire city.
Sometimes, nuns seem to get a bad rap. People see them as women who lose their identity in order to become a bride of Christ. They are seen as women who have a dismal history. Axen has recognized this, and recognized the beauty in their sisterhood.
She has spent an admiringly large amount of time researching the convent, the abbess, and the nuns of St. Catherine by reading and translating charters, which are documents that show all of the sisters of St. Charters list the names of the sisters, and their role in the convent since there was a hierarchy of the sisters.
The abbess is on the top tier of the hierarchy, and she speaks on behalf of the rest of the nuns and in defense of their space. So, Abbess Tiburga, who was the abbess for a while according to the charters, included the rest of the nuns in fights against the Parish Priests. This is where their female agency comes in. Nuns profess themselves to the convent, which gives the assumption that a woman becomes a nun because she wants to.
