Economies of Sainthood: Disrupting the Discourse of Female Hagiography

Abstract

Kathleen McPhillips undertakes a critical appraisal of traditional hagiographies of women saints. Her critical reading of the depiction of Mary MacKillop, a recently canonized Australian nun, indicates that Mary did not conform to conventional ideals of patience, humility, or of submission to male clerical authority. McPhillips raises questions concerning the production of a “masculinized” version of female sainthood and wonders how its normative constraints can be disrupted by a transgressive mode of reading. While such a reading is not, in the strict sense of the term, a gift, it promotes deeper and more realistic insights.