Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

permission, she went to Trier where her aunt lived, and there learnt ‘the rule’. 44 Based on
its suitability for urban monasticism, McNamara notes the likelihood that, although not
specified, this was the rule of Caesarius. 45 Even more strikingly, the author of
Glodesind’s vita appears to have access to a copy of the vita Caesarii. The passage of the
vita concerning her entry to dedicated life is also couched in terms very similar to those
of the vita Caesarii in its discussion of the reason for Glodesind’s stay: ‘Living there
[Trier] with her [aunt] monastically, she learned the holy rule. Thus having been taught
herself, she might give instruction to other nuns.’ The vita Caesarii reads ‘He [Caesarius]
recalled from a monastery in Marseille his venerable sister Caesaria whom he had sent
there to learn what she would teach, and to be a pupil before becoming a teacher.’ 46 This
would also serve to reinforce McNamara’s suggestion that the rule at Glodesind’s
monastery may have been Caesarius’. One interesting point here is the emphasis laid by
both authors – three centuries apart – on the necessity for practical training in religious
life, even in a context where a written rule seems to have been available and current.
Clearly the importance of written texts as the bedrock of coenobitic knowledge can be
overstated. The transmission of practical experience between religious women forms an
essential (but often unnoticed) counterpart to the circulation of written texts, and although
44 External sources do not suggest an obvious contender for the identity of this anonymous religious
establishment. The editors of Glodesind’s Life in the Acta sanctorum suggest a lifespan for the saint of
c.578 to c.608. The closest known possibility in terms of date would seem to be the monastery of St
Symphorien, founded in c.630 by Modoaldus, bishop of Trier, for his sister Severa (Cottineau, II, col.
3213). However, it seems far more likely that Glodesind and her aunt lived in a small monastery which did
not survive for long after their deaths, thereby leaving no trace in record. It also seems likely that the author
of the vita would have identified the community if it had still been in existence.
45 SWDA, 140.
46 Vita Antiquior Glodesindis 12: ibique una cum ea religiosissime degens, sacram didicit Regulam; ut &
seipsam instrueret, ac ceteris sanctimonialibus normam daret. The corresponding passage from the Vita
Caesarii, c. 35, reads ‘Evocat e massiliensi monasterio venerabilem germanam suam Caesariam, quam
inibi ideo direxerat, ut disceret quod doceret, et prius esset discipula quam magistra...’ The discernable
manuscript transmission of the Vita Caesarii does not reveal which monasteries may have had access to the
text in the early middle ages. None of the seven extant manuscripts (Orléans, Bibl. Munic. ms. 173, Paris
BN mss. Lat. 5295, 5298, 11749, 11759, Rome Bibl. Angelicae ms. 1269, Copenhagen, Kongelige
Bibliotek, ms. Thott 135) dates prior to the eleventh century. Of these, Orléans, Bibl. Munic., ms. 173
(dating to the eleventh century) belonged to Fleury, and Paris BN Lat. 11759 (fourteenth century) belonged
to Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Of course, the clear quotations from both the Vita Caesarii and the Regula
virginum in Baudonivia’s Vita Radegundis demonstrates the Poitiers nun’s knowledge of the texts (see
above, 91-3), and similarly, there is no actual manuscript evidence for the presence of the Vita Caesarii or
the Regula at Holy Cross. Textual references may often be the best evidence we possess for plotting the
spread of another text.
140