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E06516: Aldhelm, in his prose On Virginity, addresses in his opening salutation ten nuns at the monastery at Barking (south-east Britain), four of whom are seemingly named after saints: Justina/Ioustina (virgin and martyr of Antioch, S01704), Scholastica (nun of central Italy, ob. c. 543, S01728), Eulalia (probably the virgin and martyr of Mérida, S00407; or perhaps the one of Barcelona, S02047), and Thekla (follower of the Apostle Paul, S00092). Written in Latin in southern Britain, c. 675/686.

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posted on 2018-09-16, 00:00 authored by bsavill

Aldhelm, prose On Virginity – salutation

REVERENTISSIMIS CHRISTI VIRGINIBVS OMNIQVE DEVOTAE GERMANITATIS AFFECTV VENERANDIS ET NON SOLVM CORPORALIS PVDICITIAE PRAECONIO CELEBRANDIS, QVOD PLVRIMORVM EST, VERVM ETIAM SPIRITALIS CASTIMONIAE GRATIA GLORIFICANDIS, QVOD PAVCORVM EST, HILDILITHAE, REGVLARIS DISCIPLINAE ET MONASTICAE CONVERSATIONIS MAGISTRAE, SIMVLQVE IVSTINAE AC CVTHBVRGAE NEC NON OSBVRGAE CONTRIBVLIBVS NECESSITVDINVM NEXIBVS CONGLVTINATAE, ALDGITHAE AC SCOLASTICAE, HIDBVRGAE ET BERNGITHAE, EVLALIAE AC TECLAE, RVMORE SANCTITATIS CONCORDITER ECCLESIAM ORNANTIBVS, ALDHELMVS, SEGNIS CHRISTI CRVCICOLA ET SVPPLEX ECCLESIAE BERNACVLVS, OPTABILEM PERPETVAE PROSPERITATIS SALVTEM.

'To the most venerated virgins of Christ, (who are) to be venerated with every affection of devoted brotherhood, and to be celebrated not only for the distinction of (their) corporeal chastity, which is (the achievement) of many, but also to be glorified on account of (their) spiritual purity, which is the achievement of few: Hildelith, teacher of the regular discipline and of the monastic way of life; and likewise Justina and Cuthburg; and Osburg too, related (to me) by family bonds of kinship; Aldgith and Scholastica, Hidburg and Berngith, Eulalia and Thecla – (to all these nuns) unitedly ornamenting the Church through the renown of their sanctity, Aldhelm, dilatory worshipper of Christ and humble servant of the Church, (sends his) best wishes for perpetual prosperity.'

Text: Ehwald 1919, 228-9. Translation: Lapidge and Herren 1979, 59.

History

Evidence ID

E06516

Saint Name

Kyprianos and Ioustina/Justina, martyrs of Antioch : S01704 Scholastica (nun of central Italy, ob. c. 543) : S01728 Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Barcelona (Spain) : S02047 Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Mérida : S00407 Thekla, follower of the Apo

Saint Name in Source

Iustina Scolastica Eulalia Eulalia Tecla

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

675

Evidence not after

686

Activity not before

675

Activity not after

686

Place of Evidence - Region

Britain and Ireland

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

St Albans St Albans Verulamium

Major author/Major anonymous work

Aldhelm

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Explicit naming a child, or oneself, after a saint

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits Women

Source

Aldhelm’s prose treatise On Virginity (De Virginitate), for Abbess Hildelith and the nuns of Barking (south-east Britain), survives in twenty manuscripts, the earliest of which are 9th c. Together with its later, poetic counterpart, it forms what Bede described in 731 as a ‘twinned work’ (opus geminatum), although there is a notable difference between the content and style of the two sections, the second part constituting more than a straightforward ‘versification’ of the first (see E06659). Aldhelm (ob. 709/10) appears to have been a son of Centwine, king of the Gewisse or West Saxons (south-west Britain) from 676 until 682/5, when he abdicated and retired to a monastery. We do not know when Aldhelm himself took religious vows, but he definitely attended, perhaps for many years, Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian’s school at Canterbury (from shortly after 670?), and possibly studied at the Irish foundation of Iona, off the coast of north-west Britain (perhaps in the 660s?). Around 682/6 he became abbot of the West Saxon monastery of Malmesbury, and in 689 probably accompanied King Cædwalla on his pilgrimage to Rome (see E05710 and E06661). In 705/6 he was appointed ‘bishop west of the wood’ in his home kingdom (later identifiable with the diocese of Sherborne). (For all aspects of Aldhelm’s career see now Lapidge, 2007.) At the core of On Virginity is a lengthy catalogue of exemplary virgins, first men (Old Testament prophets; New Testament figures; martyrs and other saints of the Roman Empire), then women (Mary; martyrs and other saints of the Empire), followed by some remarks on a group of non-virginal, Old Testament sancti who in some sense prefigured Christ. As with Bede in his Marytrology (725/31), Aldhelm makes good use of Roman Martyrdoms and Acts in his accounts of many post-Biblical saints. Although he does not seem to have had the same range of hagiographical material at hand as Bede later would at the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow (north-east Britain), his use of the texts is more creative, and he extensively reworks them in his characteristically florid prose style. The prose On Virginity presents difficulties with dating, but the author’s reference to himself in its preface as only a ‘servant’ (bernaculus) of the Church would seem to place it before his abbacy in 682/6 (ibid., 67-9). Meanwhile – if the twelfth-century chronicler John of Worcester is correct – Aldhelm’s chief dedicatee Hildelith only appears to have taken control over Barking in 675, thus allowing us to date the work cautiously to somewhere within 675/86. This is significant, since it suggests that the many Martyrdoms which Aldhelm used among his sources (including several translated from the Greek) were available to him in southern Britain before his probable visit to Rome in 689.

Discussion

The practice of adopting saints' names appears (at least in our surviving sources) to have been rare throughout the history of Anglo-Saxon England, especially in the case of women (the bishops Willibrord/Clement and Wynfreth/Boniface are obvious exceptions, but they appear to have only adopted these names in continental contexts, following papal directions). This early indication of the use of names such as Justina, Scholastica, Eulalia and Thekla among the nuns of Barking is therefore striking, and can probably be understood as in some sense an explicitly cultic practice. All four named saints appear later in the poem as exemplary virgins, both in prose (E06580, E06626, E06627) and verse(E06659). It is interesting that in both cases Eulalia, Thekla and Scholastica are grouped together.

Bibliography

Edition: Ehwald, R., Aldhelmi opera (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 15; Berlin, 1919). Translation: Lapidge, M., and Herren, M., Aldhelm, The Prose Works (Cambridge, 1979). Further reading: Lapidge, M., "The Career of Aldhelm," Anglo-Saxon England 36 (2007), 15-69.

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Keywords

S01704 S01728 S02047 S00407 S00092 History

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