Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

of texts composed by a charismatic bishop with knowledge of earlier monastic writings
and practices, Caesaria and her nuns were themselves engaged on a process of finding,
and helping to describe, the best way to live.
The Caesarian texts
i) Vereor
The first text which Caesarius produced for the nascent community was the letter
Vereor, addressed to his ‘holy sister abbess Caesaria’ [Caesariae sanctae sorori
abbatissae] and her community. 127 The dating of the letter, and its relationship to the
Regula, are uncertain. De Vogüé and Courreau, who have made the most thorough
analysis of the text, suggest that the lack of references to cloister, together with a
particular emphasis on the need for changing dress and surrendering possessions on
entry, indicate a religious community in its early stages, for which formal boundaries had
not yet been established. 128 They tentatively suggest that the letter was composed at some
date before the formal foundation of St John in 512, and before the writing of the Regula
virginum. However, they also allow for the possibility that the letter was intended to have
a wider circulation than simply the nuns of the community in Arles. The relative lack of
specific instructions in the letter would have broadened its applicability. If this were the
case, a date of composition later than 512 could not be excluded. 129 However, Klingshirn
posits a narrowing of this range of dates. He suggests that Caesarius would not have used
the integrity of the church plate as a metaphor (in chapter 5 of the letter) after he himself
had removed some of it for the redemption of captives in 508, as described by his vita
[I.32]. 130 Klingshirn suggests that Vereor, predating the rule, should therefore be seen as
part of the long tradition of writing letters of guidance to women living relatively
informal ascetic lives, such as those of Jerome. It is therefore most likely that Caesarius
127
Morin II, 134-44; de Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales 294-337. Eng. tr Klingshirn, Life, Testament,
Letters 127-139.
128
De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales, 283.
129
De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales, 283.
130
Klingshirn, Life, Testament, Letters, 128.
55