In a mix of misinterpreted Greek philosophy and shameful Biblical reasoning, Saint Augustine (AD 354–430) and others blamed the passions and appetites of the female body for distancing women from the religious life. Free of the chains of the menstrual cycle, childbirth, and breastfeeding, only men could properly control and tap into the rational aspect of the soul that liberated the male species from their own irrational physicality, connecting them to a spiritual heaven.
