medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
According to her brief, seemingly eleventh-century Vita (BHL 7082; really a Passio), the nobly born Reineldis (d. 7th cent.?; also Raineldis, Reinelde, Renelde, Reinhild) was a daughter of St. Amalberga of Maubeuge (10. July), legendarily the mother of no fewer than five saints, and a sister of St. Gudula (8. January). She dwelt chastely on her lands, was generous to the poor, lived very frugally, and wore a hair shirt. Prompted by divine inspiration, she and Gudula traveled to the monastery at Lobbes where on account of their sex they were refused admittance. Gudula left but Reineldis remained there in prayer for three days and nights until on the third night night the doors opened miraculously, a bell rang without human agency, and the monks found her inside the church before an image of the Redeemer. Recognizing her sanctity, the abbot abased himself before Reineldis. She in turn submitted to him and endowed his community with the church of St. Peter at Saintes in what is now Belgian Hainaut as well as with five vills. Reineldis next undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; after her return she was slain at Saintes by barbarian raiders. In this perhaps not altogether trustworthy account the subdeacon Grimoald and her servant Gondulph are her companions in martyrdom. Thus far the Vita. An Elevatio at Saintes by a bishop of Cambrai was said much later to have occurred in 866. The recent scholarly consensus is that her early dossier is the work of the monastery of Lobbes, which latter seems to have received a small portion of her relics in ca. 1170 (a commemorative Translation account from Lobbes is BHL 7082b).
In the Roman Martyrology today is the day of commemoration of Sts. Reineldis of Saintes, Grimoald, and Gondulph.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Reineldis of Saintes (often shown in pilgrim attire):
a) as twice depicted by Jean Ansiel, abbot of Lobbes, in a later fifteenth-century copy of a French-language version of her Vita and Translatio (1470; Tournai, Séminaire épiscopale, Bibliothèque, Cod. __, fol. 2v):
1) second from right (at right, St. Gudula), approaching the abbey church at Lobbes:
http://balat.kikirpa.be/photo.php?path=X006761&objnr=10134980&lang=en-GB
2) second from left (at left, St. Gudula), seeking admittance to the church:
http://balat.kikirpa.be/photo.php?path=X006762&objnr=10134980&lang=en-GB
b) as portrayed in a late fifteenth-century wooden statue (ca. 1491-1500) in the église Ste.-Renelde in Saintes, a locality of Tubize (prov. Brabant wallon):
http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10025721
c) as portrayed in a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century wooden statue (ca. 1491-1510) in the église St.-Nicholas in Enghien (prov. Hainaut):
http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10020120
d) as portrayed by the Master of Elsloo in a late fifteenth- or earlier sixteenth-century wooden statue (oak; ca. 1490-1550) in the Kerk Sint-Lambertus in Neeroeteren (prov. Limburg):
http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/21735
http://tinyurl.com/5pxfgl
Best,
John Dillon
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