Venerunt sorores in Skæningiam : Om de svenska systrakonventen inom Predikarorden under medeltiden

Sammanfattning: During the later part of the 13th century, two female convents of the Dominican order were founded in the realm of Sweden, both in the diocese of Linköping. The Dominican order first came to Sweden as early as in the 1220’s, and the history of the brothers’ convents has been described to a much greater extent – at least up to the end of the 14th century –than the history of the sisters. Therefore, a conclusive history of the female convents is still lacking. In this master thesis, I aim to describe the foundation and the history of the Swedish sisters of the Order of Preachers from around 1270 to the closing of the convents in the Reformation Era, around 1540, and also attempt to clarify who the benefactors of the convents were. In part due to the fervour of the reformators, there is a substantial deficiency when it comes to source material pertaining to the Dominican order’s history in Sweden and especially concerning the sisters’ convents. I will therefore try to compile all available relevant source material, in order to build a comprehensive picture of the history of the convents. This is however not enough when it comes to describing the everyday life of the sisters. To this end, it becomes necessary to partake of research concerning the female convents of the Order of Preachers and the spiritual development in the rest of Europe, mainly in France, Germany and Italy, and compare it to what the Swedish source material can reveal. This research will also be used as a comparison with prominent features in the Swedish convents. Primarily the Swedish source material consists of charters and annals, but there are also some literary sources that will come into consideration. The theoretical framework discusses the possibilities of applying gender theory to the history of the sisters’ convents, furthermore a sociological approach to networks of families as well as any possible mentalities that could have influenced medieval women in their decision to enter a monastery. Certain modern research on Swedish female monasteries of different orders, or with a different historical aim from the one applied in this thesis, will also be discussed. The conclusions reached are that a modified version of gender theory might possibly be applied to the results, furthermore that there were visible connections between the patrons of the convents even though they are difficult to interpret, and that the mentality of women has to be taken into consideration when trying to outline the history of medieval monasteries. Another conclusion is that there still remains a great academic effort to establish and write the history of the Order of Preachers in Sweden in the middle ages, and the Orders’ impact on society, in its entirety.