Page 2 - Artículo 7
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Año XXV, Número 46, julio 2025
Depósito Legal M-34.164-2001
ISSN 1695-6214
De Elionor, a sor Isabel de Villena, con Vita Christi para dignificación de la mujer
Abstract
Elionor de Villena, Enrique de Villena’s daughter, was orphaned at the age of four,
and became the guardianship of her second cousin, the queen consort of Aragón, María
de Castilla. At the age of sixteen, she left the court to take the habit of the Clarisas in the
convent refunded by her second cousin, taking the name of Sister Isabel de Villena,
seventeen years later she became abbess of the Trinity convent of Valencia. She writes
a book for her sisters in the congregation, to improve their formation and devotion, Vita
Christi, the title alone tells us little, there are many Lifes of Christ published, what is so
special about it, that five hundred years later we are still talking about it? Well, in a plain
and very peculiar language, Sister Isabel de Villena dignifies the role of women,
equalizes their role before the ecclesiastical hierarchies, vindicating a role that her own
religion has relegated, this vindication of women goes beyond the walls of the
ecclesiastical to form part of the social, and transcends time to be current in the present
moment.
Keywords
Isabel de Villena, Trinity Convent of Valencia, Vita Christi, María de Castilla,
Dignity of woman
1º Las mujeres en la Edad Media.
Antes de comenzar de lleno en la historia de nuestro personaje, vamos a
hacer una breve descripción de cual era en entrono social para las mujeres, en el cual
se desenvolvió Isabel de Villena.
Gracias a multitud de trabajos realizados, sobre todo desde mediados del
siglo pasado, se ha podido demostrar cual era el papel real de la mujer en la Edad
Media, a pesar del empeño de algunos, que durante siglos han pretendido justificar un
papel inmóvil de la mujer. La voz femenina se oye en las fuentes históricas, y nos dicen
Historia Digital, XXV, 46, (2025). ISSN 1695-6214 © Manuel Casamitjana Peiró, 2025 P á g i n a | 170
