Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

vocation sufficient to uphold her during the intense experience of Columbanian
monasticism, an idea further suggested by the story of Deurechild, upon whose death her
mother, who had entered at the same time, could no longer bear to live in the monastery
without her. 243
The central tenets of the Columbanian rules are reinforced by several of the
stories. Most important among these is the necessity of confession: according to the rule,
the nuns were to confess three times a day. 244 The problems of the escaping nuns are
caused by their initial reluctance to confess. Another sister, Wilsinda, saw the pollution of
those souls who were not confessing enough on her deathbed, at which several of the
nuns there prostrated themselves and confessed to Burgundofara. 245 Another sin was that
of pride. Two young girls saw the mouth of Domma filled with gold when she sang in
choir and told her of this phenomenon. When describing Domma’s subsequent death
Jonas states explicitly that she would have merited the glory of a good end if she had not
forfeited it through the sins of pride and arrogance. 246
The role of the abbess in these stories of miracles and visions is an ambiguous
one, which may largely be explained by the fact that Burgundofara was still alive when
Jonas was writing: he could not risk instilling the same vice of pride in her that he had
just described in others. 247 Burgundofara is a figure whose presence is always felt but
who is never actually present: she is often described as hurrying to attend a death from
elsewhere in the complex. 248 She was the recipient of confessions but only once actively
sought them. 249 At the same time, two of the stories seek to bolster her position as head of
the community. The nun Leudeberta was warned in a dream that she would soon die, and
that she should therefore not dismiss or ignore the advice of Burgundofara, since she
243
VCD II:15.
244
However, see below regarding the rule likely to have been used at Eboriac; Stancliffe, ‘Jonas’s Life of
Columbanus’, 214. If it was the Waldebertian rule, cap. 6 expresses the need to confess thrice daily and
prescribes the times to do so.
245
VCD II:17.
246
VCD II:16.
247
Wood, ‘The Vita Columbani and Merovingian Hagiography’, 67.
248
eg VCD II:11.
249
In the story of the escaping nuns: VCD II:19.
125