This elegant volume contains a critical edition of the Latin text of the Life of Helia along with an English translation by Marco Conti, three appendices (the manuscript tradition of the text, the Psalter and the Vetus Isaiah used by the author of the text), various indices and a bibliography, as well as a thorough introduction and commentary by Virginia Burrus. Publication of this text in the Oxford Early Christian Texts series is a welcome addition to the corpus of Christian ascetic sources and the lively scholarship on late antique Christian asceticism. Amongst intriguing late antique texts, Helia is a good candidate for being the most obscure and least known: a Vita that is not a life but a ‘domestic’ between Helia and her mother about the relative merits of virginity or marriage in front of a bishop in provincial Dyrrachium (now Durazzo in Albania); an Acta martyrum that does not recount a martyrdom but a defence of virginity before a provincial judge; a biblical commentary that is not a biblical commentary but ascetic propaganda. Prepared by two experts on Priscillian, asceticism, gender and (female) hagiography, the Life of Helia is a treat for any student of late antique Christianity, biblical studies and postmodern literary criticism alike. It shows with particular acuity the scarcity and random nature of the extant sources deriving from a stunningly prolific polemic on marriage and virginity in the late fourth and early fifth centuries.

The editorial scheme is intelligent and thoroughly justified. Virginia Burrus sets the pace with a general introduction discussing the provenance, religious context and historical background to the text as well as the issues of gender and genre at play. First published in 1909 by the head librarian of the Royal Monastery of the Escorial from a sixteenth-century codex reproducing a medieval collection of women's saints, the Life of Helia was originally thought to be a Latin translation of a Greek ascetic text or a remake of the Life of Thecla. It immediately posits questions concerning the transmission of the text, and the preservation of the memory of late ancient women ascetics from such different walks of life as Melania the Younger and Mary of Egypt in large thematic collections in the early modern period. Burrus makes an excellent job of presenting the challenges of the text and of contextualising it within a Spanish Priscillianist milieu, vividly reconstructing the ascetic circles made up of male clerics and women, spellbound by the pull of virginity and ‘dreaming of apostles’. While she cautiously rejects an earlier, confident identification of the author of the Life of Helia with Theodora, a Spanish correspondent of Jerome, she maintains the Priscillianist origin of the tractate and points out its convergences with the composition and with the grand ascetic themes of Jerome and Ambrose, such as ‘immaculate fertility’ and ‘virgin marriage’. Burrus explains issues of gender in Helia's intriguing dialogue and her references to patristic authors in the production of ascetic meaning in a vivid and highly readable scholarly prose lacking the ‘pomo-speak’ that often characterises her work. No less than a performance of ‘competitive proof-texting’, the Life of Helia shows both the continuity and the discontinuity between the Old Testament and the Gospels concerning marriage and virginity, arguing for their literal meaning in the first case and their spiritual meaning in the latter. Burrus' fine analysis highlights the creativity of the hagiographical genre in late antiquity, the innovative use of the virginal voice and of biblical interpretation supported by patristic references. The text is not only a debate on the respective merits of virginity and marriage, but also on authority: will the authority of the mother or that of the bishop ultimately prevail? The issues and the structure of the polemic recognised not only the ascetic episcopal leadership promoted by Priscillian, but resonate more generally with Spain's weak episcopal network. How can urban bishops expand their power through the rural ascetic piety of the landed elite? Exploiting recent work on the Spanish villa culture by Kim Bowes, Burrus is able to point out the tensions between clerical and social leaders, showing the grounding of power through ties of friendship and patronage. A polemic between mother and daughter set in faraway Albania thus becomes an exciting treatise on episcopal power and Roman authority.

The English translation of the text is careful and enjoyable. It reads very well and as far as could be judged is faultless. The indices and commentaries complement perfectly a competent piece of scholarship that makes us rethink some of the fundamental assumptions that we often bring to the study of the Priscillianist movement. This is a book that every student interested in early Christian ascetic spirituality, biblical interpretation, social history and gender should read.