The problem of Cross-dressing in Ælfric’s Life of St Eugenia

Abstract

Ælfric of Eynsham’s Life of St Eugenia is an account of a holy cross-dresser’s life who infiltrates and eventually heads a patriarchal community of monks in the vicinity of Alexandria and, following the exposure of her real sex, establishes a community of virgins and chaste widows in Rome. The present article attempts to reveal the narratorial masculine authority that contests Eugenia’s attempts at her own self-representation as a woman as well as counters the Latin source’s representation of Eugenia as a miles Christi.

Keywords

• ælfric of eynsham
• life of saint eugenia
• hagiography
• old english literature
• transvestite saints