A letter from Radegund of Thuringia (561-67?)

Translated letter:

To the holy lords most worthy in their apostolic see, fathers in Christ, all the bishops, Radegund sinner. The beginning of a suitable plan moves to its end more forcefully when it is transmitted to the ears of all the fathers, doctors and shepherds, for the flock committed to them, and is commended to their understanding: whose participation might produce the assistance of charity, the counsel of power, the support of prayer. And ever since I, loosed of the secular chains with divine mercy providing and inspiring, was translated to the rule of voluntary religion, with Christ leading me, thinking with the zeal of a mind disposed to the benefit of other women, how my desires for the others might be fulfilled, with the Lord directing me, and the most excellent lord king Chlothar giving me the means, I established a monastery of girls in the city of Poitiers and endowed the institution with a donation as far as royal munificence granted me. Moreover for the congregation collected through me for Christ, I received the rule under which holy Caesaria lived, which the solicitude of blessed Caesarius, bishop of Arles brought together fittingly from the institution of the holy Fathers. With the consent of the blessed men of this city, that is the other pontiffs, I installed as abbess by election of our congregation my lady and sister Agnes, whom I had raised and educated from an early age in the place of a daughter and committed myself to obeying her authority after God according to the rule. To whom, observing apostolic form, I like the other sisters gave over by charter what earthly substance we were seen to possess, reserving nothing of our own in the monastery, out of fear of Ananias and Sapphira.1 But since the moments or times of the human condition are uncertain, indeed with the world running to its end, when some people desire to serve more their own than the divine will, led by zeal for God and as devout survivor, I offer this page of my intention to your apostolcy. And since I could not do it in person, I prostrate myself through the proxy of the letter as if humbled at your feet, conjuring you through the Father and Son and holy Spirit and the day of fearsome justice, let no tyrant oppose but the legitimate king crown you representing [me]: that if by chance after my death any person or pontiff of that place or power of a prince or any other, which we do not believe would happen, tried to disturb the congregation, by malevolent persuasion or judicial move, either to break the rule or [impose] another abbess than my sister Agnes, whom the benediction of the most blessed Germanus consecrated with his brothers present; or that congregation, which can not happen, should attempt to change by complaint either the power within the monastery or in [possession of] the things of the monastery, whatever person or pontiff of the place would attempt by a new privilege beyond what the previous bishops or others had while I was alive; or anyone tried to leave outside the rule; or about the things which the most excellent lord Chlothar, or the most excellent lords kings his sons conferred, and I with the permission of his command gave over to the possession of the monastery, and of which I obtained confirmation by the authority of the most excellent lords, kings Charibert, Guntram, Chilperic, and Sigibert, with the sacrament/oath and the subscription of their hands [their signatures/signs]; or should any prince or pontiff or powerful person or anyone among the sisters dare to diminish or attempt to revoke to themselves by sacrilegious oath those things which others conferred for the benefit of their souls or the sisters there from their own possessions, let them incur your sanction and that of your successors after God, through my prayer and the will of Christ. Let such plunderers and despoilers of the poor be held outside your grace, so that with you opposing no one may diminish or change anything in the rule of the possessions of the monastery. I also beseech you that when God shall have wished our lady sister Agnes to depart the world, that abbess from our congregation should be ordained in her place who is pleasing to God and them, to keep the rule and take nothing away from the resolution of holiness. For never should her own will or that of anyone else take precedence. Which if, may it not be, anyone should wish to act against the command of God and the authority of kings about the aforewritten conditions commended before God and his saints by prayer, to diminish either in person or substance, or attempt to do harm to my above-mentioned sister abbess Agnes, let him incur the judgment of God, the holy cross, the blessed Mary, and the blessed confessors Hilary and Martin, to whom I gave over my sisters to be held in care, after God, and let him find them his opponents and persecutors. And you also, blessed pontiff, and your successors, whom I diligently take as patrons in the cause of God if, may it not be, there should be one who would attempt to do something against this, let it not be displeasing, in order to repel and confound the enemy of God, to have recourse to the king who shall oversee this place at that time, or to the city of Poitiers, for the thing commended to you before the Lord; and labor as actors against the injustice of others and defenders of justice, for no Catholic king may permit such wickedness to be done in his time in any way, nor permit to be undone what was confirmed by the will of God and me and their kings. Likewise, through the king whose kingdom has no end and at whose command kingdoms exist, who made them to live or reign, I conjure the princes whom God will have ordered for the governance of the people after my death that they order the monastery which I had constructed by permission and support of the lords kings, their father or grandfather, and ordered by the rule, and endowed, to govern with Agnes as abbess, under their protection and word, that they permit nothing pertaining to our monastery or our oftmentioned abbess, be harmed, or disturbed, or diminished or changed. But rather that in the view of God and the lord bishops, with me as suppliant before the redeemer of the people, they order, as I commend to them, that it be defended and enriched, that they protect the servants of God in his honor that they may be joined with the defender of the poor and the spouse of virgins perpetually in the eternal kingdom. I also conjure you, holy pontiffs and most excellent lord kings, and the whole Christian people, through the catholic faith in which you were baptized and the churches you maintain, that in the church which we began to build in honor of Mary, the holy mother of the lord, where many of our sisters are laid to rest, whether it is complete or not, when God shall have ordered me to depart from this light, my body be buried there. And if anyone should wish or attempt to do anything else, let him incur divine vengeance through the cross of Christ and blessed Mary, and with you intervening, may I deserve to obtain a little place of burial with the congregation of sisters in the place of that church. And that this my prayer, which I have subscribed with my own hand, be preserved in the archive of the universal Church, I beg, pouring our tears: that if necessity should demand that they ask for your defense against any bad people, that my sister abbess Agnes or her congregation be supported in their need by the pious pastoral solicitude of your mercy; let them not consider themselves left destitute by me, for whom God prepared the protection of your grace. Recalling this before all your eyes through him who from the glorious cross commended the Virgin his mother to the blessed apostle John, that that command of the Lord that was fulfilled by him, so may it be with you what I, unworthy and humble, commend to my lords fathers of the Church and apostolic men; that when you have preserved worthily what I entrusted to you, you deserve to share the worthy example, whose apostolic mandate you carry out.

Original letter:

Domnis sanctis et apostolica sede dignissimis, in Christo patribus, omnibus episcopis, Radegundis peccatrix. Congruae provisionis tunc roborabiliter ad effectum tendit exordium, cum generalibus patribus, medicis ac pastoribus, ovilis sibi commissi causa auribus traditur, cujus sensibus commendatur: quorum participatio de charitate, consilium de potestate, suffragium de oratione ministrare poterit interventum. Et quoniam olim vinclis laicalibus absoluta, divina providente et inspirante clementia, ad religionis normam visa sum voluntarie, duce Christo, translata, haec pronae mentis studio cogitans etiam de aliarum profectibus, ut, annuntiante Domino, mea desideria efficerentur reliquis profutura, instituente atque remunerante praecellentissimo domno rege Chlothario, monasterium puellarum Pictava urbe constitui, conditumque, quantum mihi munificentia regalis est largita, facta donatione dotavi: insuper congregationi per me Christo praestante collectae, regulam sub qua sancta Caesaria deguit: quam sollicitudo beati Caesarii antistitis Arelatensis ex institutione sanctorum Patrum convenienter collegit, ascivi. Cui consentientibus beatissimis vel hujus civitatis, vel reliquis pontificibus, electione etiam nostrae congregationis domnam et sororem meam Agnetem, quam ab ineunte aetate loco filiae colui et educavi, abbatissam institui, ac me post Deum ejus ordinationi regulariter obedituram commisi. Cuique, formam apostolicam observantes, tam ego quam sorores de substantia terrena quae possidere videbamur, factis chartis tradidimus, metu Ananiae et Saphirae, in monasterio positae nihil propriam reservantes. Sed quoniam incerta sunt humanae conditionis momenta vel tempora, quippe mundo in finem currente, cum aliqui magis propriae quam divinae cupiant voluntati servire, zelo ducta Dei hanc suggestionis meae paginam, apostolatus vestri in Christi nomine superstes porrigo vel devota. Et quia praesens non valui, quasi vestris provoluta vestigiis, epistolae vicarietate prosternor, conjurans per Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum, ac diem tremendi justicii, sic repraesentatos vos non tyrannus oppugnet, sed legitimus rex coronet: ut si casu post meum obitum quaecunque persona, vel loci ejusdem pontifex, seu potestas principis, vel alius aliquis, quod nec fieri credimus, congregationem, vel suasu malivolo, vel impulsu judiciario perturbare tentaverit, aut regulam frangere, seu abbatissam alteram quam sororem meam Agnetem, quam beatissimi Germani praesentibus suis fratribus benedictio consecravit; aut ipsa congregatio, quod fieri non potest, habita murmuratione mutare contenderit, vel quasdam dominationes in monasterio, vel rebus monasterii, quaecunque persona vel pontifex loci, praeter quas antecessores episcopi, aut alii me superstite habuerunt, novo privilegio quicunque affectare voluerit, aut extra regulam exinde egredi quis tentaverit, seu de rebus, quas in me praecellentissimus domnus Chlotharius, vel praecellentissimi domni reges filii sui contulerunt: et ego ex ejus praeceptionis permisso, monasterio tradidi possidendum, et per auctoritates praecellentissimorum domnorum regum, Chariberti, Guntehramni, Chilperici et Sigiberti, cum sacramenti interpositione, et suarum manuum subscriptionibus obtinui confirmari: aut ex his quae alii pro animarum suarum remedio, vel sorores ibidem de rebus propriis contulerunt, aliquis princeps, aut pontifex, aut potens, aut de sororibus cujuslibet personae ausi minuere, aut sibimet ad proprietatem revocare sacrilego voto contenderit, ita vestram sanctitatem successorumque vestorum post Deum, pro mea supplicatione et Christi voluntate, incurrat: ut sicut praedones et spoliatores pauperum extra gratiam vestram habeantur, nunquam de nostra regula, vel de rebus monasterii, obsistentibus vobis, imminuere valeat aliquid aut mutare. Hoc etiam deprecans ut cum Deus praedictam domnam sororem nostram Agnetem de saeculo migrare voluerit, illa in loco ejus abbatissa de nostra congregatione debeat ordinari, quae Deo et ipsi placuerit, custodiens regulam, et nihil de proposito sanctitatis imminuat. Nam numquam propria aut cujuscunque voluntas praecipitet. Quod si, quod absit, contra Dei mandatum et auctoritatem regum aliquis de suprascriptis conditionibus coram Domino et sanctis ejus precabiliter commendatis agere, aut de persona aut substantia minuenda voluerit, aut memoratae sorori meae Agneti abbatissae molestias aliquas inferre tentaverit, Dei, et sanctae crucis, et beatae Mariae incurrat judicium, et beatos confessores Hilarium et Martinum, quibus post Deum sorores meas tradidi detendendas, ipsos habeat contradictores et persecutores. Te quoque, beate pontifex, successoresque vestros, quos patronos in causa Dei diligenter ascisco, si, quod absit, exstiterit qui contra haec aliquid moliri tentaverit, pro repellendo et confutando Dei hoste, non pigeat ad regem, quem eo tempore locus iste respexerit, vel ad Pictavam civitatem, pro re vobis ante Dominum commendata percurrere, et contra aliorum injustitiam exsecutores et defensores justitiae laborare: ut tale nefas nullo modo suis admitti temporibus rex patiatur catholicus, nec convelli permittat quod Dei, et mea, et regum ipsorum voluntate firmatum est. Simul etiam principes, quos Deus pro gubernatione populi post decessum meum superesse praeceperit, conjuro per regem cujus regni non erit finis, et ad cujus nutum regna consistunt, qui eis donavit ipsum vivere vel regnare, ut monasterium quod ex permisso et solatio domnorum regum, patris vel avi eorum construxisse visa sum, et ordinasse regulariter, vel dotasse, sub sua tuitione et sermone, una cum Agnete abbatissa jubeant gubernare, et a nullo neque saepe dictam abbatissam nostram, neque aliquid ad nostrum monasterium pertinens molestari, aut inquietari, vel exinde imminui, aut aliquid mutari permittant; sed magis pro Dei intuitu una cum domnis episcopis, ipsi, me supplicante coram redemptore gentium, sicut eis commendo, defensari jubeant et muniri, ut in cujus honore Dei famulas protegunt, cum defensore pauperum et Sponso Virginum perpetualiter aeterno socientur in regno. Illud quoque vos sanctos pontifices, et praecellentissimos domnos reges, et universum populum Christianum, conjuro per fidem catholicam in qua baptizati estis, et Ecclesias quas conservatis, ut in basilica quam in sanctae Mariae Dominicae genitricis honorem coepimus aedificare, ubi etiam multae sorores nostrae conditae sunt in requie, sive perfecta, sive imperfecta, cum me Deus de hac luce migrare praeceperit, corpusculum meum ibi debeat sepeliri. Quod si quis aliud inde voluerit aut fieri tentaverit, obtinente cruce Christi et beata Maria, divinam ultionem incurrat, et vobis intercurrentibus, in loco ipsius basilicae merear cum sororum congregatione obtinere loculum sepulturae. Et ut haec supplicatio mea, quam manu propria subscripsi, in universalis Ecclesiae archivo servetur, effusis cum lacrimis deprecor: quatenus si contra improbos aliquos necessitas exegerit, ut vestra defensione soror mea Agnes abbatissa, vel congregatio ejus, quo succurri sibi poposcerint, vestrae misericordiae pia consolatio opem pastorali sollicitudine subministret; nec de me destitutas se proclament, quibus Deus praesidium vestrae gratiae praeparavit. Illud vobis in omnibus ante oculos revocantes, per ipsum, qui de cruce gloriosa Virginem suam genitricem beato Joanni apostolo commendavit, ut qualiter ab illo completum est Domini mandatum, sic sit apud vos quod indigna et humilis domnis meis Ecclesiae patribus et viris apostolicis commendo: quod cum dignanter servaveritis depositum, meritis participes cujus impletis mandatum apostolicum, digne reparetis exemplum.

Historical context:

This letter, declaring her intention to help other women in establishing the monastery, the system she instituted for it, and her intetions for its future, is cited by Gregory of Tours in book 9 of his History of the Franks. It occurs within a discussion of a recent rebellion in the convent and the difficulties Radegund had so often with with bishop Maroveus, who only assumed responsibility for the convent after her death but still gave the nuns trouble. When the bishops excommunicated the rebellious nuns, a mob attacked the bishops and drove them out of the church. The bishops appealed to king Guntram who said he supported them but failed to resolve the dispute. The Mother Superior against whom the nuns had rebelled read out and sent a copy of Radegund's letters to the bishops of her time.

Scholarly notes:

1. Ananias and Sapphira are a married couple who sell property and decide to hide some of the sales money from the apostles. Peter condemns each of them in turn for holding the money back from God and they are struck dead, Acts 5:1-10.

Printed source:

PL 71, c.522-25.

Date:

561-67?