Abstract:
This article aims at analyzing some gender discussions inside the Catholic Church to the understanding of the institutionalization of female enclosure by the Christian Church in the XIIIth century. The idea of death to earthly subjects when women entered into enclosure and turned into the condition of religious Clarrisses is treated by analyzing documents from the modern period in the convents of Portugal and the Portuguese America. This discursive representations about the enclosures and the perception of cloistral deviations which permitted women with a religiosity diverse from the instituted by the Church and by the patriarchal relations are also treated.
Keywords:
Christian religiosity; Convents; Enclosures; Clarisses