Constance Stoney

“ On the other hand, the double monastery seems always to have flourished wherever the fervour of the Irish missionaries penetrated. Perhaps, as Montalembert [14] suggests, the ideal atmosphere of divine simplicity and single-mindedness which characterised them, was particularly favorable to the growth of such an institution.
S. Columbanus dedicated Burgundofara, or Fara, as a child, to the religious life; and she afterwards founded the monastery of Brie to the south-east of Paris, which we learn from Jonas, who was a monk there, and from Bede, was a double monastery. ”

“ Most of our knowledge of the community comes from the Life of S. Lioba [31] ('the beloved') , who was educated there during the reign of the Abbess Tetta, another sister of the royal founder. The author of S. Lioba's Life describes the arrangement at Wimborne. He says that there were two monasteries there, one for clerks and the other for [29] women. The two houses were surrounded by high walls and the monastery was well endowed. No nun could obtain permission to go to the monks' house, and no man might enter the nuns' convent, except the priests who came to celebrate in their church. ”

“ Among them was a Northumbrian princess, Hereswith, [14] whose sister was Hild, the most famous of English abbesses.
The prevalence and influence of the double monastery in England may perhaps be better understood by a reference to the position of women generally in Anglo-Saxon society. Nothing astonished the Romans more than the austere chastity of the Germanic women, and the religious respect paid by men to them, and nowhere has their influence been more fully recognised or more enduring than among the Anglo-Saxons. ”

“ When Boniface was establishing religious houses in Germany he sent to Abbess Tetta, asking that Lioba might be allowed to come over and help him. She went, and Boniface put the monastery of Bischofsheim on the Tauber, a tributary of the Main, under her care. Here she carried on the traditions of Wimborne, for she taught and encouraged learning in every way. Her rule was sane and wise. Her biographer says of her, "She was careful always not to teach others what she herself did not practise. ”

“ Adamnan continues "The unknown one has told me that he visited each cell and each bed, and found the monks, either wrapt in slothful sleep, or awake, eating irregular meals and engaged in senseless gossip; while the nuns employ their leisure in wearing garments of excessive fineness, either to attire themselves, as if they were the brides of men, or to bestow them on people outside." ”

“ DOUBLE MONASTERIES. The system of double monasteries, or monasteries for both men and women, is as old as that of Christian monasticism itself, though the phrase "monasteria duplicia" [1] dates from about the C6. The term was also sometimes applied to twin monasteries for men; Bede uses it in this sense with reference to Wearmouth and Yarrow, while he generally speaks of a double monastery as "monasterium virginum." ”

“ One gathers from this that there was not a common church for both sides of the community, as was often the case. The abbess gave any necessary orders to the monks through a window. No woman was admitted to the community unless she undertook not to attempt to leave it except for very urgent reasons and by permission of the abbess.
Some idea of its size may be gathered from the fact that there were five hundred nuns at Wimborne. That strength and tact were needed to rule them is shown by one amusing if lamentable episode. ”

“ I have composed the little verses written below, according to the rules of prosody, not from pride, but from a desire to cultivate the beginnings of a slender genius, and because I wanted your help. I learnt the art from Eadburga, my mistress, who devotes herself unceasingly to searching Divine Law. ”

“ Hild reigned thirty years at Whitby and died after many years of suffering, during which she never failed to teach her flock, both in public and in private. All that we know of her character, indicates a strong and vivid personality, a mind keenly alive to the necessities of the age, and a will vigorous enough to be successful in providing for them where opportunity occurred. ”

“ With the exception of regulations concerning dress, both monks and nuns observed the same rule which S. Pachomius wrote for them [3] . It was very [5] simple. There were to be twelve prayers said during the day, twelve at twilight, twelve at night, and a psalm at each meal. Mass was celebrated on Saturday and Sunday. Meals were to be eaten all together and the amount of food was unlimited. A monk could eat or fast as he pleased, but the more he ate, the more work must he do. They were to sleep three in a cell. ”

“ Then Bede relates how the cow-herd sang songs before unknown to him, in praise of "the Creator, the Glorious Father of men, who first created for the sons of earth, the heaven for a roof, and then the middle world as a floor for men, the Guardian of the Heavenly Kingdom." When the abbess Hild heard of the miracle, she instructed him in the presence of many learned men to turn into verse a portion of the Scriptures. ”

“ This monastery included both a hospital and a school, under the energetic rule of its first abbess.
Hildelith succeeded Aethelburg, and it was for her and her companions that the scholar Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, wrote his work, "De Laudibus Virginitatis." [29] He speaks of the nunnery as a hive where the nuns work like little bees, for they collect everywhere material for study. Their industry is not confined to the study of Holy Scripture. ”

“ Several chapters in Bede's Ecclesiastical History are devoted to stories of the double monastery at Barking, which was one of the most famous. It was founded by Erconwald, who afterwards became bishop of London. He built one for [27] himself at Chertsey, and one for his sister Aethelburg at Barking, and, as Bede says, "established them both in regular discipline of the best kind." ”

“ So, on an estate which she owned at Poitiers, she founded a nunnery dedicated to the Holy Name, and, probably at the same time, the house for men, separated from the convent by the town wall and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was in S. Mary's that Rhadagund was buried and after her death, her name was added to the dedication. Beside this evidence of association between the two houses, the only other is the correspondence of Rhadagund and the Abbess Agnes with the poet Fortunatus, who was probably a monk of S. Mary's. ”

“ He stipulates that all joining the community shall, on their entry, renounce all claims to outside property. Only those women are to enter who accept the rule of their own accord and are prepared to live in perfect equality and without servants. Much attention is paid in the rule to the instruction of the nuns ”

“ He adds that two daughters of King Anna of East Anglia, "though strangers, were for their virtue made abbesses of the monastery of Brie."
Little is known of Andelys, except that it was founded by Queen Clotilda. At Chelles, founded by Queen Bathilda in 662, ten miles from Paris, on the river Marne, many famous persons, both men and women, received their education. ”