Ordering Women's Lives by Julie Ann Smith

Author:Julie Ann Smith [Smith, Julie Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781351913546
Google: aa-oDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-12-05T16:19:34+00:00

COLUMBANIAN MONASTICISM

Back in Gaul, in the later sixth century a new influence was brought to the burgeoning interest in monasticism. The monk, Columbanus, brought the Irish form of ascetic life to the mission fields of Neustria and Austrasia c.591. He established a monastic centre at Luxeuil from where a network of religious houses was founded for men and women under the impetus of Merovingian aristocratic families who seem to have been eager to enter into the ascetic life or to derive the spiritual benefits accruing to its patronage. Part of the appeal which lay in Columbanian monasticism for Frankish aristocratic families was the retention of familial interests in the properties with which their foundations were endowed. The lands, and indeed the monasteries themselves, remained part of their dynastic patrimonies and the recruits were largely from the same families. Abbacies were usually vested in members of founding families or in appointments which suited their political and economic interests. Many such foundations enjoyed only temporary existences with estates being reabsorbed into secular holdings or redirected for other purposes of patronage.

The rule of Columbanus which was developed at Luxeuil was the basis for the rules established in daughter houses throughout the mission fields of Neustria and Austrasia.64 Several nunneries were established as part of the Columbanian movement and these communities followed rules based in the Columbanian tradition. This rural form of monasticism with its active purpose of conversion required that the religious, both women and men, interact with the surrounding communities. The strict requirement of claustration contained in rules such as that of Caesarius would have been detrimental for such a ministry. Like its eastern forebears, the Columbanian rule did not emphasise daily practice rather it was a guide for the interior, spiritual life. The practical life of a community was formulated upon the ideas of the founder and subsequent leadership, and developed to suit local conditions (including such variables as physical environment and accommodations, status of members, piety of both founders and membership). Over time these formulations and expectations for daily practice acquired the status of custom. Columbanus founded no nunneries though many were founded by his followers and he did not compile a rule specifically for nuns; this would be undertaken by Waldebert, third abbot of his mother house at Luxeuil.65

When Columbanus left Gaul for Italy his place as abbot of Luxeuil was taken over by Eustatius. Waldebert was a member of the Luxeuil community under the abbacy of Eustatius and became third abbot in 629. He was instrumental in the assimilation of the Benedictine rule to that of Columbanus. The resulting mixed rule incorporated elements of the daily practice of Benedict with the more penitential elements favoured by the monastery’s founder.66 Ultimately the Benedictine rule would completely supplant Waldebert’s compilation which, while recognising the need for guidance of daily routines, had also sought to sustain something of Columbanian asceticism which still bore traces of the desert tradition. The mixed rule of Waldebert continued to be observed in many Frankish monasteries from the time it was instituted at Luxeuil until the reforms of the reign of Louis the Pious.

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