The Spirituality of the Mothers of the Church

How to Register?

Participation in the course takes place after completing two steps:

1. Pay the fee of 30 Euros at the link:
2. Complete your registration at the link:

ATTENTION: Use the same email address for both steps of the registration (payment and enrollment).
Registration grants the right to attend the live or recorded classes and to receive a certificate from Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (ULHT), upon approval in the assessments.

ABOUT THE COURSE:

In the 4th century, Christianity shifted from being an undesirable and persecuted religion to being accepted and later becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire. All these transformations affected the Church and Christians in different ways. House gatherings were replaced by worship in luxurious public venues. The female gender began to be associated with movements considered heretical. Texts forbidding women from speaking or teaching publicly were written by the Fathers of the Church. Despite this, women financially and spiritually supported several religious leaders, studied the Scriptures, wrote theological treatises, and taught both women and men. Some women went into the deserts seeking a spirituality closer to primitive Christianity, while others decided to continue acting within Roman society. It is in this ecclesial context that the “Mothers of the Church” of the 4th century lived and bore witness to their faith. In this course, we will study the lives of these “Mothers of the Church” and the way they and their communities exercised ecclesial authority in this important period of Christian history. We will see how their witness and authority influenced the Christian communities of their time and how they still influence contemporary spirituality.

WHO IS THE COURSE FOR?

The course is open to everyone: curious learners, scholars in general and those interested in the history of Christianity, students and teachers of religious studies and theology, religious leaders, pastors, laypeople, those engaged in the religious/ecclesial field, pastoral workers, educators, and community leaders.

ARE THERE ANY PREREQUISITES?

There are no prerequisites to take the course, only the desire to learn and an openness to dialogue with other participants.

WHEN DOES IT START?

The course begins on October 18, 2025. It lasts for 4 Saturdays, ending on November 8.

HOW DO THE CLASSES TAKE PLACE?

The classes will be held live on Saturdays at 2 p.m. (Brazil) / 6 p.m. (Portugal) via the Zoom platform. Each class will last 1 hour of lecture, followed by 30 minutes for questions and discussions. Classes will be recorded and made available on the course page for students to access.

HOW IS THE ASSESSMENT DONE?

The assessment is organized into two parts:

• Completion of the exercises for each class (4)
• Preparation of a short learning report at the end of the module, 1 to 3 pages long.

The final grade of the course will have the following weighting:

• Exercises – 40%
• Final Report – 60%

The course ends on November 8, 2025.
The final report must be submitted in pdf or doc format by November 22, 2025.

COURSE PROGRAM:

Class 1: The social, historical, and theological context of the “Mothers of the Church”.
Summary: The context of the Church and women in the 4th century.

Class 2: The spirituality of the “Mothers of the Church” and sacred spaces.
Summary: The sacred spaces in Palestine and the mothers: Helena, Melania the Elder, and Egeria.

Class 3: The spirituality of the “Mothers of the Church” and the Scriptures.
Summary: The study of the Scriptures and the theology of the mothers: Proba, Marcella, Paula, and Eustochium.

Class 4: The spirituality of the “Mothers of the Church” in Christian service and witness.
Summary: The female diaconate and the family and social witness of the mothers: Olympias, Fabiola, Macrina, Marcellina, Monica, and Melania the Younger.

SUGGESTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ALMEIDA, Rute Salviano. Feminine Voices in the Early Christianity. Viçosa:
Ultimato, 2021.
AQUILINA, Mike and Christopher Bailey. “Mothers of the Church: The Witness of
Early Christian Women”. Our Sunday Visitor, 2012.
AQUILINA, Mike and Christopher Bailey. “Mothers of the Church – the witness of the early Christians”. São Paulo: Loyola, 2018.
COOPER, Kate. “Band of Angels: The Forgotten World of Early Christian Women”.
New York: The Overlook Press, 2013.
KADEL, Andrew. “Matrology: A Bibliography of Writings by Christian Women from
the First to the Fifteenth Centuries”. New York: Continuum, 1995.
MILLER, Patricia Cox. “Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts”.
The Catholic University of America Press, 2005.
PEDRÓS, María Sira Carrasquer. Eastern Mothers: Matrology I: Anthropology,
Prehistory, History (Orientale Lumen) Monte Carmelo, 2008.
PEDRÓS, María Sira Carrasquer. Early Western Mothers (Centuries I-VII). Sociocultural Genesis – Spirituality (Orientale Lumen) Monte Carmelo, 2008.
PETERSEN, Joan M. “Handmaids of the Lord: Contemporary Descriptions of Feminine
Asceticism in the First Six Christian Centuries”. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian
Publications, 1996.
RIBEIRO, Lidice Meyer Pinto. Christianity in the Feminine – the presence of women in the life of the Church. São Paulo: Mundo Cristão, 2025.
WHITE, Caroline. “Lives of Roman Christian Women”. London; New York: Penguin,
2010

MEET THE PROFESSOR:

Lidice Meyer Pinto Ribeiro holds a Post-Doctorate in Anthropology and History from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She earned her PhD in Anthropology from the University of São Paulo and holds a Master’s degree in Ethnobotany from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro/National Museum, Brazil. She is a professor in the Master’s Program in Religious Studies at Universidade Lusófona in Portugal, at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Portugal, and at the Open University of Psychology and Self-Knowledge in Brazil. She is a researcher at the Chair of Global Studies of the Open University of Lisbon (CIPSH). She is also a member of the Institute of Contemporary Christianity (ICC), the Portuguese Society for the History of Protestantism (SPHP), an evaluator for the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), and a reviewer for various international academic journals.

She worked for over 20 years at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil, coordinating the Graduate Program in Theology, Philosophy, and Pedagogy, and as a professor in the Master’s Program in Religious Studies, in the undergraduate program in Theology, and other courses.

She is a commentator and consultant on issues of religion and anthropology in social media, TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. In Brazil, she has participated as an interviewee or consultant in various specials for the television networks Bandeirantes, Record, Globo, SBT, Cultura, and Brasil.

In recent years, she has dedicated herself to Biblical Anthropology, with special emphasis on the study of women in the Bible and Christianity, teaching various courses on this topic.

She has published books and articles in the fields of religion, history, anthropology, and ethnobotany. She has conducted research in Rome (Vatican Secret Archives, Archivio Storico di Propaganda Fide, and the Gregorian University), Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the United States, and Brazil. Her most recent book: Cristianismo no Feminino, Mundo Cristão Publishing.

Web-page: www.lidicemeyer.pro

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