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Caesaria, abbess of Arles

Overview

Title social-status
Abbess of Arles
Date of Death
561

Biography

Caesaria was the second abbess of that name, succeeding the Caesaria for whom her brother, Caesarius of Arles, founded the monastery inside the city walls of Arles and wrote a rule.  He revised the Rule for the second Caesaria in 534 and sent sermons at her request, with some diffidence, since  he was not sure he had anything to offer someone who spent her time in diligent  meditation on divine volumes ("sciam te divinis voluminibus assidua meditatione vacare"). 
When Queen Radegunde of Thuringia entered monastic life, she sought the Rule for the house she founded at Poitiers in 550.  The second Caesaria sent the Rule along with a letter of encouragement.  For the Rule, see Sancti Caesarii, Regula Sanctarum Virginum aliaque opuscola, ed. Germanus Morin (Bonn:  Petrus Hanstein, 1933)  and Maria McCarthy, The Rule for Nuns of St. Caesarius of Arles (Washington:  Catholic University, 1960).