Practise and the Periculoso in the Convent of Odivelas (Lisbon): Royal Statutes and Female Enclaustration in Medieval Portugal (c. 1295-1319)

The monastery of Odivelas, located within the environs of Lisbon, was founded by King D. Dinis in 1295, a royal initiative implemented in the wake of the celebration of the Concordat of 1289 by which the monarch overcame the conflict between the Portuguese Crown and Rome and secured the lifting
of the interdict on the kingdom. This pious act, along with the grandeur of tthe monastic building itself, strengthened the image of a magnanimous and legitimate sovereign embodied in a work that guaranteed the perpetuation and glorification of his memory. This article analyses the exceptionality of the statutes of the monastery of Odivelas in the Cistercian female context in
Portugal, as well as the evolution of this legislation over time, taking account of changes introduced in 1306 when they were revised by founder Dinis, and in 1319 following his decision to be entombed in the monastery (1318). Further, to enable a deeper understanding of these statutes and their context, we will examine the tradition subsisting in other contemporary Cistercian nunneries in the kingdom of Portugal in conjunction with the reformist current which, far from being a novelty, was rooted in promotion of the strict observance of time-honoured female monastic enclaustration, and which was expressed in the decretal Periculoso of 1298.