Ælfric’s Abjection of the Virgin Mary

Ælfr ic c o m p o s e d not one , b u t two, homil ies o n the occas ion o f the Vi rg in M a r y ' s Nat ivi ty . T h e first, De sancta Maria, appears in the second series o f Catholic Homilies ( G o d d e n 1 9 7 9 ) , while he wrote his second , Nativitas sanctae Mariae virginis ( A s s m a n n 1 8 8 9 ) , ten years later, as an add i t ion to the first series o f Catholic Homilies. W h i l e o n e might reasonably expect a h o m i l y for this feast day to inc lude in format ion o n the early life o f M a r y as well as a d i scuss ion o f the day's prescr ibed gospel text, in b o t h cases, Ælfric 's approach to Mary ' s g i r lhood extends b e y o n d even the m o s t extreme caut ion. H i s writ ing suggests an unwill ingness to consider the mult i faceted aspects o f her saintliness that emerge f rom this apocryphal s tory because o f concern for the heretical impl icat ions that present ing this type o f sanctity m i g h t cause. T h e texts that he writes to h o n o u r her Nat iv i ty therefore have only the m o s t t enuous connect ion to her g i r lhood. However , instead o f s imply present ing the ideas with which h e is comfortable , he interweaves rationalisations o f his caut ious approach into the actual texts themselves. F r o m the informat ion that. Ælfr ic provides in his rationalisations, c o m b i n e d with the m a n n e r in which he mediates M a r y ' s youth , w e can view his writ ing choices as be ing p r o f o u n d l y inf luenced by what Ju l i a Kristeva terms the abject.