Perhaps one of the most celebrated female hermits was Eve of Wilton,
best known from a letter, the Liber confortatorius, to her by Goscelin
of St Bertin, ca. 1082-3. Eve had been a nun of the English Wilton
Abbey, but left a few years before Goscelin's letter to become an
anchoress in the anchorhold of Saint-Laurent in Angers.
Twenty years later, she joined Herve, an ascetic former monk of la
Trinite, Vendome (and sometime follower of Robert of Arbrissel
[I had to work him in somehow, he typed with a grin...]) in the cell
of Saint-Eutrope. A letter of Geoffrey of Vendome celebrates the
beauty of their holy life together -- which seems to indicate that
they had separate cells (e.g., Roger of St Albans only saw Christina
of Markyate once during their reclusive life together). Hilary of
Orleans, one of Abelard's students at the first incarnation of the
Paraclete, wrote a poem about Herve & Eve's life together at
Saint-Eutrope, and how their love "was not in this world, but in
Christ."
See: C. H. Talbot, ed., "The Liber confortatorius of Goscelin of St
Bertin," Analecta monastica 3 (=Studia Anselmiana 37) 1955, 1-117.
Andre Wilmart, "Eve et Goscelin" Revue Benedictine 46 (1934) 414-38
and RB 50 (1938) 42-83.
Geoffrey of Vendome Ep. 4:48 (PL 157:184-6) -- compare with his
letter to Robert of Arbrissel, condemning him for living with women,
ep. 4:47, (PL 157:181-4).
For Hilary, see the edition of his poems by N. M. Haring, "Die
Gedichte und Mysterienspiele des Hilarius von Orleans" Studi
medievali 17 (1976) 928.
And generally, P. J. F. Rosuf, "The Anchoress in the 12th & 13th
centuries" and Jean Leclercq, "Solitude and Solidarity: Medieval
Women Recluses" both in Medieval Religious Women II: Peaceweavers,
edd. L. T. Shank & J. A. Nichols (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1987) and
Penelope D. Johnson's Equal in Monastic Profession (Chicago UP, 1991).
As I recall, there is a little about female hermits in Henrietta
Leyser's Hermits and the New Monasticism.
tot ziens,
j
JON PORTER
Department of History
University of Nottingham
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