Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

that, as Caesarius had expected, the nuns themselves chose her successor on the basis of
her spiritual qualities. 109 However, the Rule also makes plain the more worldly qualities
the new abbess should be expected to possess: ‘elect a holy and spiritual nun, who can
effectively guard the rule of the monastery, and who shall be able to converse wisely with
those who come to her, and with edification and humility and with holy affection’. 110 The
monastery needed an abbess who was endowed with not only spiritual but also worldly
authority and practical wisdom. The community may have considered the aristocratic
Rusticula to be a good candidate despite her youth.
Following Rusticula’s election as abbess, three major themes or events are
depicted in her vita: her activities as abbess, including major building projects; an
accusation of treason against king Clothar II; and an extended description of her death.
Each of these illuminate aspects of the life of the community and the relationship
between the community and Caesarius’ regula.
Rusticula’s building work seems to have spanned a long period of her abbacy. It
included ‘temples’ [templa] in honour of unspecified saints, a church initially dedicated
to the Holy Cross and subsequently to the Archangel Michael, and ultimately a ‘temple of
sparkling beauty’, which had seven altars dedicated to the Holy Cross, Gabriel, Raphael,
Thomas, Maurice, Sebastian and Pontius. 111 Rusticula’s dedication to the Holy Cross is
noteworthy, and may stem from the connection between Arles and Radegund’s
community of Holy Cross in Poitiers. 112 As will be discussed below, several of
Rusticula’s miracles were performed with the aid of an actual relic of the Holy Cross,
which similarly may have come from Poitiers. This would imply a continuing close
relationship between the two communities, in which valuable objects were circulated. 113
It seems equally probable that if the nuns at Holy Cross sent the community in Arles a
piece of their most precious relic, the nuns of St John may in turn have parted with a relic
109 RV 61.
110 RV 61, tr. McCarthy, 190.
111 Vita Rusticulae 8.
112 Riché believes that this interest resulted from Radegund’s putative visit to Arles in c.570, see ‘La Vita S.
Rusticulae’, 372. Whether this visit ever indeed took place, it would appear likely that ongoing connections
and communication between the two communities suggested the dedication to Rusticula.
113 See SWDA, 127, n.27.
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