In Samuel’s Image

Early medieval religious communities were filled with monks and nuns who spent almost their entire lives within the monastic confines. Many had arrived in childhood, through an irrevocable act of parental sacrifice (oblatio). According to Benedict's Rule, parents were to donate their sons “to God in the monastery”, following the biblical example of Hannah offering her son Samuel at the Temple.From the twelfth century onwards, this once widespread practice became increasingly controversial. Why did parents give away their children? Were they driven by economic necessity?This book argues that child oblation was anything but a religious disguise for abandoning superfluous offspring. Instead, it was a sacrifice, and should be viewed within the context of gift-giving, religious and otherwise, which assumed such a central importance in early medieval societies.

"...excellente étude, fort bien documentée…" L. Wankenne, Revue bénédictine, 1996. "Die Ausführungen bestechen durch große Quellenkenntnis, lebendige Schilderung und die Berücksichtigung des aktuellen Forschungsstandes..." M.S., Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 1996. "an important, well-informed, and most thought-provoking book, which easily sustained this reader's interest from beginning to end." Alain J. Stoclet, Speculum, 1998.

Mayke de Jong received a doctorate from the University of Amsterdam (1986) and is presently Professor of Medieval History at Utrecht University. She has published on a range of early medieval topics, notably monasticism and political ritual.