Main content

Leoba

Episode 21 of 30

Barbara Yorke tells the story of Leoba, the 8th-century British-born nun who became a pioneering abbess in Germany, filling a role more typically held by men.

The return of the major series which rediscovers the Anglo-Saxons through vivid portraits of thirty individuals - women as well as men, famous and humble - written and presented by leading historians, archaeologists and enthusiasts in the field.

21.Leoba

Barbara Yorke tells the story of Leoba, the 8th century British-born nun who became a pioneering abbess in Germany, filling a role more typically held by men.

Leoba is the best-recorded of all the early Ango-Saxon women whose lives were changed and inspired by Christianity, and while she may be largely forgotten in Britain, she is still worshipped as a saint in Catholic areas of Germany today.

Barbara Yorke's Essay is a timely reflection on the power of such abbesses, who lived at a time before the church began to deny such power to women.

Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Mon 8 Apr 2013 22:45

Broadcast

  • Mon 8 Apr 2013 22:45

Featured in...

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast