Stabat Mater dolorosa – Gender and the Significance of Compassion in the Middle Ages

At the heart of the research project is an exploration of the meanings of the concept of compassion in the Middle Ages. Its specific focus is to find out what role gender plays in the meaning of compassion in the development of the expression of sympathy. Compassion, Lat. compassio, is often associated with the "feminine" way of feeling and partly for this reason it has remained marginalised in medieval studies. The aim of the research is to analyse the significance of compassion in medieval practices and demonstrate its importance as a unifying, peace-building force for humanity, and one of the keys to interpreting medieval culture.