Christina of Markyate

IN the middle ages any man, or woman, who wished to discipline themselves according to the principles developed in the early days of monasticism in Egypt had to withdraw from the world. This was true whether the experiment of asceticism was to be pursued in community or in isolation, as hermit, anchorite or recluse. Yet however extreme was the degree of withdrawal from contact with society, the world affected, and was affected by, the one who withdrew. This general thesis is amply illustrated by the surviving evidence for the life of Christina of Markyate who first spent some sixteen years as a recluse and then perhaps as many as thirty five as a nun, after her profession at St Albans around 1131. In one way or another she renounced the world for over fifty of her allotted three score years and ten.