Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

of Caesarius, although there is no extant evidence for this. A further facet of Rusticula’s
building activity is her interest in other saints. Caesarius had made no provision for the
celebration of the holy dead through either the possession of physical relics or liturgical
commemoration; indeed, the absence of relics may have been a way of avoiding the need
for public entry into the monastery. 114 It may be significant in this context that Rusticula
only added altars to the four named saints ‘after some years’, as enough time had elapsed
for memories of Caesarius’ tradition to have faded. Rusticula’s saints are a mixture of the
universal and the local. The apostle Thomas and Sebastian are of course Biblical and
patristic; Maurice is probably the leader of the Theban Legion of the same name, whose
relics were held at the monastery of Agaune in Burgundy; and Pontius, a third-century
martyr of Cimiez near Nice. 115 In and of itself, the amount of building work carried out
under Rusticula suggests a sizeable, healthy community with funds to spare for such a
large project.
The very size, importance, relative wealth and visibility of the community,
however, made its abbess a noteworthy figure in the political sphere. Rusticula’s
biographer Florentius makes no reference to any participation in matters outside the
monastery, with the result that her arrest comes as even more of an apparent outrage. 116
In fact, Rusticula’s role in political events may have been bequeathed to her by her
predecessor Liliola. Riché points out that Liliola’s agreement to imprison Theudechild on
behalf on Guntram established links between the kings of Burgundy and the monastery.
In 613, king Clothar defeated the army of Sigebert II of Austrasia and Burgundy at
Châlons-sur-Marne, and pursued the royal family. The young Childebert, Sigebert’s
brother, escaped, and Riché suggests that he either fled to Arles or was believed by
Clothar to have done so. 117 In any case, efforts were made to extract Rusticula from the
114 The burial of the holy dead within monastery precincts was a practice only developing in the sixth
century: see J.M.H. Smith, ‘Women at the tomb: Access to relic shrines in the early middle ages’ in
Mitchell, K. and Wood, I. (eds.), The World of Gregory of Tours (Leiden, 2002) 163-180, at 171.
115 D.H. Farmer The Oxford Dictionary of Saints 3 rd ed. (Oxford, 1992).
116 The vita’s author, Florentius, only identifies himself in the preface as a priest of Tricastina, now Saint-
Paul-Trois-Chateaux, about thirty kilometres from Vaison. Riché, ‘La Vita S. Rusticulae’, 375-6,
speculates that he may have fulfilled some function in the monastery, perhaps as almoner, or had been
brought up there.
117 Riché, ‘La Vita S. Rusticulae’, 373-4. For more on royal dynastic relations, see I. Wood, The
Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 (London, 1994), at 140-4.
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