The Last Fetter: A Girardian Reading of Aelred of Rievaulx's De Quadam Miraculum Mirabili

摘要

Aelred of Rievaulx's De quadam miraculum mirabili relates the story of a Gilbertine nun raped by a brother in her community. She becomes pregnant and is brutally persecuted by her sisters. The text provides Aelred's interpretation of events as conveyed to him by certain elders in the community. This article finds features of what René Girard identified as ‘persecution texts’ in the elder's account. Despite a certain ambivalence toward the victim, Aelred's theological aim in the interpretation he gives to events is to replace envy with gratitude. The text reveals a partial breakdown in the mechanism of sacred violence under pressure from gospel values.