UPDATE – Due to weather-related travel delays that are preventing Dr. Wolf from arriving in Bemidji, this lecture has been postponed until April 10. The time and location are unchanged — the lecture will begin at 7 p.m. April 10 in Hagg-Sauer Hall 112.

A central part of the legend of St. Barbara, patron saint of artillerymen and all who work with cannons and explosives, is the account of her passion. In the late Third or early Fourth Century, legend says she was imprisoned, stripped of her clothes and cruelly tortured before being executed.

Kirsten Wolf, guest lecturer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will explore views and interpretations of the legend of St. Barbara and other legends of female martyr-saints as part of Bemidji State University’s Honors Council Lecture Series.

Her presentation, “The Severed Breast: A Topos in the Legends of Female Virgin Martyrs,” will be held Apr. 9 at 7 p.m. in Hagg-Sauer 112. Honors Council lectures are open to everyone free of charge. …will be held April 10 at 7 p.m. in Hagg-Sauer 112. Honors Council lectures are open to everyone free of charge.

While St. Barbara’s physical sufferings may have seemed spectacular, they are by no means unique from the legends told of other female martyrs, Wolf says.

“Indeed, most of the sufferings resemble accounts of sadomasochistic tortures by pagan tormentors in the lives of other female saints,” she said. “A number of scholars have commented on the apparently sexual orientation of the tortures. The possibility that the legends are a by-product of some libidinal restraint that generates vivid sensual fantasizing cannot be excluded.”

However, Wolf’s lecture lecture seeks to demonstrate that the legends of female virgin martyr saints and the description of their sufferings could be interpreted more as a reflection of the medieval theology of womanhood and male views of the female body.

About Kirsten Wolf
Kirsten Wolf is Kim Nilsson Professor, Torger Thompson Chair, and chair of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, she teaches Old Norse and Scandinavian linguistics. She also has worked extensively on hagiography and edited several works on the lives of Old Norse saints. Her most-recent book is entitled “The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic Prose.”

Wolf has a bachelor’s degree in Icelandic, with a minor in Norwegian, from the University of Iceland. She has a master’s degree in Scandinavian languages and a doctorate from University College London.

About the Honors Council Lecture Series
The Honors Council Lecture Series is hosted by the Bemidji State University Honors Council. The council is the advisory group to the honors program composed of 12 faculty members representing each of the university’s colleges. Student representatives are also elected to the council by their cohorts for one-year terms.

Contacts
• Kari Caughey, BSU honors program
• Dr. Kirsten Wolf, professor and department chair of Scandinavian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Bemidji State University, located in northern Minnesota’s lake district, occupies a wooded campus along the shore of Lake Bemidji. Enrolling nearly 5,000 students, Bemidji State offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and nine graduate programs encompassing arts, sciences and select professional programs. BSU is a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and has a faculty and staff of more than 550. University signature themes include environmental stewardship, civic engagement and global and multi-cultural understanding.