Antonia Anstatt

Research Topic

Holy Couples: Sainthood, Marriages, and Gender, c. 1100–1500

Supervisor: Professor Julia Smith

My doctoral research focuses on the central and late medieval cults of holy couples: saints who were married to another saint. I focus on three case studies: Emperor Henry II (d. 1024) and Cunigunde of Luxembourg (d. 1033); Landgrave Louis IV of Thuringia (d. 1227) and Elizabeth of Hungary (d. 1231); and Count Elzear of Sabran (d. 1323) and Dauphine of Puimichel (d. 1360). Using a large variety of sources in Latin and different vernacular languages from the period between the saints' deaths and the Reformation, I trace the construction and interaction of sainthood and gender in these cases, and how the saints' marriages were perceived within their cults. In a second step, I compare the cults of these six saints and draw out common themes and differences, which will allow me to gain wider insights into different perceptions and ideas of marriage and family, gendered sainthood, and chaste marriages in the later Middle Ages.

My wider research interests include religious, cultural, and gender history in western Europe (especially Germany, France, and England) in the central and later Middle Ages.

I came to Oxford in 2019 for my Master of Philosophy in Medieval History. Before that, I completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and Management at the Ruhr-University Bochum, which included semesters abroad in Shanghai and Seville.

In 2022, my first article, 'Empress and Virgin: St Cunigunde and Female Sainthood in the Early Thirteenth Century', was awarded the German History Society Postgraduate Essay Prize. It was subsequently published in vol. 41/2 of German History (2023). 

My doctoral research is supported by the 'Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes'.