missionaries among the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic people of the same period. Some women, moreover, chiefly from the 12th century on, had a real teaching role in the Church, for example, Hildegard of Bingen, who was called a “prophetess”, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Mechtild of Hackeborn, Gertrude, Catherine of Genoa and others. St. Catherine of Siena was recently granted, along with St. Teresa of Avila, the official title of Doctor of the Church.3 This public recognition has, like many canonizations, a