Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

first of September; on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from September to November;
every day apart from Saturday and feast days from then until Christmas; for the seven
days before Epiphany; and finally on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from Epiphany
to Lent. 32 The monks were to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays from Easter to September;
every day from September to Christmas, and the two weeks before Lent, aside from
Sundays; from Christmas until this two-week period, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays;
during Lent itself, every day apart from Sunday. 33 The monks were clearly expected to
spend longer periods fasting. 34 The authority over fasting – a facet of monastic life of
vital importance – given to the abbess may reflect Caesarius’ respect for the wisdom and
piety of Caesaria. An alternative interpretation, suggested by Bonnie Effros in her study
of the relationship between communities and food, is that Caesarius discouraged
excessive fasting among the nuns of St John to ensure that they had no opportunity to
indulge in ‘heroic feats’ of asceticism which might gain them a following within the
community. 35 A certain measure of both impulses probably governed Caesarius’
directives.
The second major difference between the two rules lies in the area of claustration.
In the Regula virginum, Caesarius stipulates that each nun ‘must never, up to the time of
her death, go out of the monastery’. 36 Certain groups of people were permitted to enter,
subject to strict conditions: priests, the bishop and the provisor; workmen; close family
and visiting dedicated women. 37 These requirements differed for monks. Echoing
Cassian’s reminder of the Egyptian monks who ‘persevere in the monastery until bent
with age’, 38 monks were to be received on condition that they persevered until death:
there is no mention of never setting foot outside the monastery. 39 The only prohibited
32
RV 67.
33
Reg. Mon. 22.
34
‘Fasting’, in this context, meant only three dishes at each meal (Reg. Mon. 22).
35
B. Effros Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul (Palgrave: New York, 2002),
at 45.
36
RV 2, tr. M.C. McCarthy (ed.) The Rule for Nuns of St. Caesarius of Arles: A Translation with a Critical
Introduction (Washington, 1960), at 171.
37
RV 36 (priests and workmen); 39 (religious women); 40 (relatives).
38
‘…ad incuruam senectam in coenobio perseuerent’, Cassian, De institutis coenobiorum, IV, 2. Eng.
trans. P. Schaff and H. Wace (eds.) NPNF (2 nd series) XI (Edinburgh, repr. 1998), 201-290.
39
Reg. Mon. 1: ‘ea condicione excipiatur, ut usque mortem suam ibi perseveret.’
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