Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

This is apparent, not only in Caesaria’s vocabulary, but in the range of texts upon
which she draws. Her main source is of course the Regula virginum, but the whole gamut
of Caesarian writing is referred to at some point. The letter is punctuated with references
to Caesarius’ sermons, and repetition of the same scriptural citations as Caesarius used.
Caesaria also alludes to the vita Caesarii, suggesting not only that she herself was
familiar with the text but that she expected Radegund and Agnes to have some
knowledge of it too. Early in the letter, she repeats the same citation that the authors of
the vita put into Caesarius’ mouth in Book I, chapter 46: ‘”The meditation of my heart is
always in your sight”’ [Ps. 19:14]. 72 Perhaps more tellingly, she later describes the nuns
of Holy Cross by the same word, benedictas, ‘blessed women’, that the vita Caesarii uses
for the women of St John, again in the ‘speech’ of Caesarius himself. 73 Although these
may be only slight indications of such knowledge of the vita, it remains highly likely that
the Life of Caesarius, the originator of their rule, would have been accessible to the nuns
at Holy Cross, and even more so that Baudonivia had read it. Moreover, a likely
candidate for sending it to them was Caesaria II herself.
The most revealing of the additional texts of which Caesaria makes use, however,
is the letter Vereor. The abbess quotes from it on two occasions at the end of her letter.
The first of these, concerning entry to the monastery, Dom de Vogüé ascribes to a
‘masculine version’; as discussed previously, Caesarius’ regula monachorum is
concluded by an extended extract from Vereor. 74 This similarity in structure between the
rule for monks and Caesaria’s letter to Radegund are evident. This suggests that Caesaria
had access to a copy of the regula monachorum which she used alongside a copy of the
original Vereor, the Regula virginum and the Vita Caesarii. This in itself is not
surprising, as the nuns of St John doubtless had copies of everything Caesarius wrote or
preached. Again, however, it reiterates the fluidity of the gender of texts within the
community at Arles.
72
Noted by de Vogüé, Œuvres pour les moniales, 478. V.Caes I.46, tr. Klingshirn, Life, Testament, Letters,
32-33.
73
De Vogüé, Œuvres pour les moniales, 488; V.Caes, II.26.
74
De Vogüé, Œuvres pour les moines, 178-9.
88