this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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He would have known about the Theotokos and a large number of other Saintly women venerated in the Orthodox liturgical calendar, of which there are icons depicting all over Mt. Athos, so while he may have never met another women in the flesh the title is a little misleading
Would depictions have been that great, though? The baggy, flowing robes are a given, so was his idea "like men but with more hair?"
If we're talking the medieval kind of art and before, hoo boy, he does not know what a woman looks like any more than they did
The differences in depictions between male and female Saints in Byzantine iconography are definitely different enough to distinguish. But downplaying the human form is a big part of the point of these icons. “Orthodox icons, unlike Western (Latin/Roman Catholic) pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event.”
So while he may not anatomically “know” what a woman looks like, his understanding of scripture and holy tradition as well as the icons he was able to see would be more than enough to understand Biblical femininity as a Greek Orthodox monk of the Great Schema. He would have considered lacking the knowledge of the female form a blessing, as one less passion to potentially tempt him. While that line of thinking is foreign to the modern world, we’re talking about Mt. Athos here.
Reminds me a lot of the *Vivian Girls"*artwork by Henry Darger. Possibly NSFW image