Thesis title: Roman Image of the Christian Woman from the 4th to the 7th century
This thesis examines female religious agency in late antique Rome (4th-7th centuries CE), demonstrating that women actively shaped sacred spaces despite increasing ecclesiastical restrictions. Through analysis of material culture—including votive offerings, funerary art, and spatial arrangements in basilicas—the research questions the traditional narrative of passive female submission to clerical authority. The study explores how aristocratic women like Marcella established important ascetic communities where intellectual engagement with Scripture flourished, creating spheres of influence that operated alongside male ecclesiastical structures. The research presents evidence that women served as deaconesses, teachers, and performers of religious rituals well into the 6th century, with ecclesiastical prohibitions paradoxically confirming their activities. Finally, the study identifies an important rhetorical shift whereby real women were gradually replaced by idealized virgin martyrs in ecclesiastical narratives—a transformation that coincided with Rome's changing social landscape and the centralization of religious authority under papal administration.