There is no published account of the history of religious women in England before the Norman Conquest. Yet, female saints and abbesses, such as Hild of Whitby or Edith of Wilton, are among the most celebrated women recorded in Anglo-Saxon sources and their stories are of popular interest. This book offers the first general and critical assessment of female religious communities in early medieval England. It transforms our understanding of the different modes of religious vocation and institutional provision and thereby gives early medieval women’s history a new foundation.

'An extremely useful job has been done in evaluating a wide range of evidence...' History ’...a scholarly work, based on detailed research...This is an important book.’ English Historical Review, June 2001 'Sarah Foot has made an important contribution to the study of Anglo-Saxon religious women...' Journal of Ecclesiastical History '... thorough, thoughtful, and (...) highly original... specialists will (...) be grateful to Foot for both her meticulous assembly of evidence and her fascinating conclusions and conjectures.' Speculum 'The book's copious footnotes and thirty-two page bibliography offer much to scholar and student... As a work of scholarship (...) Foot's accomplishment is significant... Scholars and students will find much to explore, engage, and evaluate...' ABR

Sarah Foot is Lecturer in medieval history at the Department of History, University of Sheffield.