Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

The early part of Teridius’ letter reminds Caesaria of their long relationship,
begun when Caesaria entered ‘in diebus adolescentiae tuae’, and Teridius, a young man
still too interested in earthly pleasures, ‘qui per abrupta voluptatem lasciviamque
vagabatur’, knew only her name and not her face. 55 The purpose of the letter was to
advise the new abbess on spiritual and practical matters.
This letter, from a deacon to an abbess, raises questions of hierarchy and gender.
With what authority did Teridius, a lowly member of the bishop’s household, write to the
admittedly younger but perhaps the most spiritually authoritative woman in Arles? This
issue seems to have occurred to Teridius as well. At the start of the letter, he sets out his
position vis-à-vis Caesaria, to whom he refers as ‘oh lady whom I venerate for your
virginity and merits, but who is my daughter in Christ due to my ordination and my
rank’. 56 Was Teridius modelling himself on his more famous uncle, and his letter Vereor,
perhaps in a hope of following in his episcopal footsteps? O Profundum throws into relief
the questions brought up concerning the relationship between Caesarius and Caesaria, the
binary pairing of the previous generation. De Vogüé, in his study of Teridius’ letter,
suggests that it may be the earliest surviving example of advice given to a woman on
ascetic government. 57 It was addressed to Caesaria II on her assumption of abbatial
authority, and yet the ways and means of governing a community cannot have been
foreign to one of the Caesarii. The new abbess had grown up in the community; her aunt
was the abbess; her uncle the revered bishop and founder. The younger Caesaria could
never have been just another nun in St John. And yet, when she became abbess, the
deacon Teridius wrote to her in a way that asserted his authority over her by advising her
on matters in which she must have been well versed. The writing of the letter appears
even more superfluous when its production is set against the composition of the Regula
virginum. The references to Augustinian practices, together with the absence of
references to Caesarian innovations such as the salutatorium, put the writing of the letter
55 O Profundum 1, de Vogüé, Œuvres pour les moniales, 418-20.
56 O Profundum, praef. Own trans., from de Vogüé, Œuvres pour les moniales, 418-9: o venerabilis mihi
integritate quidem et meritis domina, sed ordine ac gradibus in Christo filia.
57 De Vogüé, Œuvres pour les moines, 401.
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