Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Caesarius’ words imply a close and ongoing relationship with the nuns of the community,
overseeing, questioning, making changes and learning from the women’s reports of their
experiences. Undoubtedly this connection was emotional as well as practical: when close
to death, at the age of seventy-three, Caesarius had himself moved into the monastery, ‘to
console the anxious women who were not sleeping because of their suspicion that he was
about to pass away’. 193 His niece, the second Caesaria, was singled out for special
attention: ‘in his usual charming way he addressed the venerable Caesaria, mother of over
two hundred girls, and he consoled her and urged her to strive for the reward of her
celestial vocation’. 194
Yet clearly, Caesarius’ awareness of what living under the rule really meant and
involved could not be of the same order as that of the women living under it. On the one
hand, Caesarius had a number of responsibilities, however close to his heart the
monastery was. He undertook an extended visit to Rome in 513 and made tours of
parishes in his diocese. Even the time taken to prepare his preaching would have limited
the time he had available for the monastery. 195 On the other, the elder Caesaria had
herself asked her brother to stay away from the community even before the Regula
virginum had been drafted. 196 Again, the experience of the abbess and the nuns was vital
in shaping the final draft of the Regula. Caesaria II was steeped in coenobitic life in a
way her aunt had probably not been. She had probably been one of the earliest entrants to
the monastery; her cousin Teridius, writing some years later, recalled how she had
entered ‘in diebus adolescentiae tuae’. 197 Caesaria secunda’s destiny was probably
always that of abbess. The monastery’s origins were firmly rooted in Caesarius’ own
family; the natural choice to succeed the first Caesaria was the second. Contrary to the
Regula virginum itself, Teridius’ letter to his cousin and abbess makes no mention of an
election; clearly such a democratic process was only intended to apply once all of the
Caesarii were gone.
193
V.Caes, II, 47.
194
V.Caes, II, 47.
195
For Rome, V.Caes I, 36-42; parish tours, I, 47; preaching, I, 54-55, 59.
196
Vereor 1.
197
In the letter O Profundum, ed. and tr. de Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales, 418.
69