Several hagiographical texts from Late Antiquity feature female saints that teach, e.g. Macrina, Melania and Syncletica. With a comparative analysis, this paper explores how the women and their voices are presented, and how these women are given authority in different ways, for instance by speaking with words of the Scripture or by speaking against certain biblical interpretations. One example is the teaching of Olympias. In the Life of Olympias from the fifth century, we see that Scripture is the essence of her teaching. Her hagiographer lets Olympias’ voice completely blend with Paul’s as he begins to recount Olympias’ teaching. However, once in the text it is made very explicit that the Scriptures are not always read at face value, but according to a principle that further
ascetic and monastic ways of life. In the third chapter of the Life, Olympias is said to have spoken against reading her own life in the light of a certain Bible-verse, i.e. 1 Timothy 5:14: “I wish young widows to marry [and] run a household”.In the hagiographical discourse, holy women are used
literarily as agents to promote ascetic teachings that rethink exegesis and rhetoric.
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