DOI article:
Vanderputten, Steven: The Mind as Cell and the Body as Cloister: Abbatial Leadership and the Issue of Stability in the Early Eleventh Century
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31468#0123
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122 | Steven Vanderputten
hibited of doing so”. ⁵⁶ This probably was exactly how Richard imagined the ideal
monastic community, where there was room for private mortification and devotional
practice. For the majority of monks, though, life in the monastery remained
a permanent condition to maintain one’s observance of the virtues of obedience
and humility; but the most talented were not bound for life to monastic stability,
and could indeed rely on their spiritual steadfastness to withdraw from communal
life and engage with the outside world. For real virtuosi like Symeon and Richard,
cenobitical life was just a transitional phase in one’s progressive withdrawal from
the world, and indeed just a stage towards an even greater form of detachment.
Assuming that this interpretation applies to the real-life Richard, we may speculate
that his embarking on the 1026 –1027 pilgrimage and subsequent withdrawal as
a hermit were intended as indicators of his ability to transcend the confines of the
cloister in pursuit of perfection, an extension as it were of the spiritual justification
of his abbatial itinerancy. Eberwin revealingly writes that “Symeon understood that
no-one could excel in the eremitical life, unless he had first learnt to subject himself
[to others] in the monastery; and that no-one could be perfect in the contemplative
life, unless he had been trained in an active one.” ⁵⁷ Contrary to the reluctant Peter
Damiani, this withdrawal did not conflict with, but enhanced, Richard’s prerogative
to contribute to the conversion of the world. Thus Richard did not go on a private
pilgrimage, but took along great numbers of pilgrims; and when he retired as a hermit,
he continued to exercize his function as abbot. Like Symeon, he saw himself
going through stages of withdrawal, from which he could emerge, each time closer
to his ideal of imitating Christ, but never discharged from his obligation to teach,
and correct. Eventually, in the later 1030s, he returned to Saint-Vanne, to resume the
care of his subjects and perform an ultimate act of self-sanctification.
Imitating Christ as a universal act of redemption
In the Vita Rodingi, Richard relied on an ambiguous discourse, sourced from hagiographic
and patristic narratives, to construct his religious leadership and his identity
as virtuoso. His intensive study of the Lives of Madalveus and Magneric, his
engagement with like-minded abbots like Eberwin, and the events and decisions
56 Eberwin of Tholey, Vita sancti Symeonis (note 54 above), col. 90: Regula autem monasterii talis erat, ut
non prohiberetur, quicumque jejunare vellet.
57 Eberwin of Tholey, Vita sancti Symeonis (note 54 above), col. 89: Intellexit nullum in eremo sibi posse
praeesse, nisi prius in monasterio didicerit subesse; nec perfectum aliquam fore in contemplative, qui
exercitatus non fuerit in activa vita.
hibited of doing so”. ⁵⁶ This probably was exactly how Richard imagined the ideal
monastic community, where there was room for private mortification and devotional
practice. For the majority of monks, though, life in the monastery remained
a permanent condition to maintain one’s observance of the virtues of obedience
and humility; but the most talented were not bound for life to monastic stability,
and could indeed rely on their spiritual steadfastness to withdraw from communal
life and engage with the outside world. For real virtuosi like Symeon and Richard,
cenobitical life was just a transitional phase in one’s progressive withdrawal from
the world, and indeed just a stage towards an even greater form of detachment.
Assuming that this interpretation applies to the real-life Richard, we may speculate
that his embarking on the 1026 –1027 pilgrimage and subsequent withdrawal as
a hermit were intended as indicators of his ability to transcend the confines of the
cloister in pursuit of perfection, an extension as it were of the spiritual justification
of his abbatial itinerancy. Eberwin revealingly writes that “Symeon understood that
no-one could excel in the eremitical life, unless he had first learnt to subject himself
[to others] in the monastery; and that no-one could be perfect in the contemplative
life, unless he had been trained in an active one.” ⁵⁷ Contrary to the reluctant Peter
Damiani, this withdrawal did not conflict with, but enhanced, Richard’s prerogative
to contribute to the conversion of the world. Thus Richard did not go on a private
pilgrimage, but took along great numbers of pilgrims; and when he retired as a hermit,
he continued to exercize his function as abbot. Like Symeon, he saw himself
going through stages of withdrawal, from which he could emerge, each time closer
to his ideal of imitating Christ, but never discharged from his obligation to teach,
and correct. Eventually, in the later 1030s, he returned to Saint-Vanne, to resume the
care of his subjects and perform an ultimate act of self-sanctification.
Imitating Christ as a universal act of redemption
In the Vita Rodingi, Richard relied on an ambiguous discourse, sourced from hagiographic
and patristic narratives, to construct his religious leadership and his identity
as virtuoso. His intensive study of the Lives of Madalveus and Magneric, his
engagement with like-minded abbots like Eberwin, and the events and decisions
56 Eberwin of Tholey, Vita sancti Symeonis (note 54 above), col. 90: Regula autem monasterii talis erat, ut
non prohiberetur, quicumque jejunare vellet.
57 Eberwin of Tholey, Vita sancti Symeonis (note 54 above), col. 89: Intellexit nullum in eremo sibi posse
praeesse, nisi prius in monasterio didicerit subesse; nec perfectum aliquam fore in contemplative, qui
exercitatus non fuerit in activa vita.