The formation of Christianity as a state religion in Western Europe was the beginning of nearly two millennia of denigrating sex work and sex workers. The anti-sexual pleasure and misogynous creed of early Christianity forced upon it a dichotomous response to prostitution at best. On the one hand condemnation; on the other the principle of the "necessary evil" to explain the "natural" lust of men and the "evil incarnate" of women.
One of the Church"s founding fathers and the creator of the concept of Original Sin, St Augustine, expressed this in his writings that clearly divided women into madonnas and whores:. Let them be with matrons and you will produce contamination and worth".
There was another credence in Christian ideology that was given particular attention during the early Church period: redemption for the sinner. Taking its cue from the Magdalene, the Church was therefore prepared to forgive its prostitutes provided they gave up their profession and sought God"s grace. In fact, the penitential whore became the Church"s classic redemption and its perfect vehicle for a female object lesson. Not surprisingly, throughout the 4 th to 6 th centuries a string of prostitutes found a way out of their sinful life doomed to eternal damnation by seeking Church forgiveness, and some even became saints posthumously due to their extreme latter-day holiness.
Mary worked in an Alexandria brothel for 17 years from the age of 12 before one of her clients introduced her to the words of Jesus, and thereafter she sought penance in solitude for 47 years in the desert living on nothing more than water and just three loaves of bread.
Pelagia was a notable courtesan in Antioch until she was converted to Christianity by Bishop Nonnus and traveled to Jerusalem with him disguised as a monk and dwelt there for the rest of her life as a "eunuch". Thais sought penance by being walled up in a convent cell for three years fed through a hole with bread and water and only released when her room was filled with her excrement. Afra, Digna, Eunomia. Eutopia and Theodota were all martyred for their newly-adopted Christian beliefs.
