Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

‘Who can ever describe, good God, holy creator, what sort of expression, what sort of
appearance, what sort of character [he had]? Holy father, we miss your instruction, your
beauty, your expression, your character, your knowledge, and the charm you (among
others) had as a special gift from the Lord.’ 101 Not only had Radegund brought the rule of
Caesarius to Holy Cross, her community constructed her sanctity on the pattern of his.
Baudonivia could describe the female founder of Holy Cross in exactly the same
language in which the male founder of St John had been described. Clearly both
Baudonivia and Fortunatus used and adapted the models of sanctity that were available to
them, of whom perhaps the most obvious is Martin of Tours. However, Baudonivia’s
particular use of the Vita Caesarii shows a desire to align Holy Cross even more strongly
with Arles and Caesarian monasticism, and to distance her monastery from the episcopal
power politics of Poitiers. 102 The defensive use of the RV at Holy Cross brings to the fore
issues that female communities could face, even those founded by queens, and suggests
possible reasons for selecting a particular rule.
Arles in successive generations: the vita Rusticulae
With the death of Caesaria II in the 550s, the leadership of the monastery of St
John ceased to be the exclusive preserve of the family of the Caesarii. However, before
moving away from the current focus on St John, there remains one last source which can
shed light on practices at the monastery in the generations after Caesarius’ death. 103 A
vita of the fourth abbess, Rusticula, was written soon after her death in 632, at the
dulcidinem, quam specialem a domino inter ceteros homines habuit. Krusch (ed.) MGH SRM 2:391.
Krusch notes several instances where Baudonivia’s text is taken from the Vita Caesarii; these were
augmented by W.E. Klingshirn, ‘Caesarius’ monastery for women in Arles and the composition and
function of the Vita Caesarii’ Revue Bénédictine 100 (1990) 441-81, at 476-80. Fortunatus does not cite
from the vita Caesarii at all.
101 V.Caes II.35: Nam qualem vultum, deus bone, plasmator sancte, qualem faciem, qualem personam, quis
potest unquam exponere? Nos vero desideramus in te, sancte pater, doctrinam, formam, vultum, personam,
scientiam, dulcedinem, quam specialem a domino inter ceteros homines habuisti. Morin II, 339.
102 See also S. Coates, ‘Regendering Radegund?’, 45-6.
103 Indeed, a historian of the monastery writing for one of its seventeenth-century abbesses claims that the
early nuns at St John were far more interested in deeds than in words: ‘Je pourrois bien dire au sujet de
sainte Liliola, sans offencer la vérité, que les premières Religieuses du celebre monastère de Saint Césaire
ont pris un plus grand soin de se faire elles-mêmes des saintes, que non pas d’écrire les actions des autres’
(f.14). This fascinating document, now Arles, Bibl. Munic. ms. 168, is unedited.
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