Much recent research has illuminated medieval secular life and lifestyles with renewed attention to the economic and social history of medieval households. New editions of household rolls and account books have appeared, together with further studies of kin groups and the demographics of household, and intensified awareness of the household as a site of cultural patronage. Current scholarship on medieval women has also produced numerous studies of the devotional reading of medieval women, of medieval female communities, and the history of medieval professed and laywomen's religious lives. However we know of no study uniting the household and medieval women's religious activities as a focus of enquiry. The present volume thus at once addresses a field of vigorous scholarship while offering a distinctive and powerful focus for the history of medieval women.