Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

presence within it of Donatus’ mother, the foundress of the community. Married to
Waldelen, the duke of Transjura, Flavia built the monastery after the death of her
husband, and entered it with her daughter and Donatus’ sister Siruda. Like Radegund,
Flavia chose to appoint another woman as abbess, and to live quietly among the
congregation; in time, she chose her daughter Siruda as the second abbess. 180
Donatus used Caesarian legislation in several areas, including those of new
entrants, disputes, work and dress, external relations and the selection of a new abbess.
His use of the Regula virginum is particularly interesting in terms of its circulation. He
draws from the original Regula virginum, but not from its Recapitulatio, which would
suggest either that the original text – longer and more detailed, even if somewhat less
coherently organised that the Recapitulatio – was deemed to be superior, or that the
‘original’ Caesarian text was circulated without its package of amendments. It seems
unlikely that the text would have been sent out from Arles without the Recapitulatio,
given that Caesarius’ intention was that the latter text should take precedence in
regulating the nuns’ lives at St John, so this may indicate that an early version of the
Regula virginum was in circulation prior to the composition of the Recapitulatio.
The respect Donatus evidently has for the women of Jussamoutier may also be a
recognition of Flavia’s connections with the figure of Columbanus. In around 590,
Columbanus had arrived in Gaul from Leinster and settled in Burgundy, where he
founded a number of monastic houses. These were governed by two rules: the
complementary Regula monachorum, intended to guide the spiritual formation of the
individual monk, and the Regula coenobialis, directing the conduct of the community. 181
Columbanus wrote two rules for the monasteries he founded: Annegray, Luxeuil,
Fontaines, and Bobbio. Called the Regula monachorum and the Regula coenobialis, they
were intended to govern two different but complementary aspects of monastic life: the
180
Jonas of Bobbio, Vita Columbani 22, PL 87: 1025. See also McNamara and Halborg, The Ordeal of
Community, 31.
181
Both rules are in G.S.M. Walker (ed.) Sancti Columbani Opera (Dublin, 1957). See also J.B. Stevenson,
‘The Monastic Rules of Columbanus’ in M. Lapidge (ed.) Columbanus: Studies on the Latin Writings
(Woodbridge, 1997) 203-216.
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