The Life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence: Translated from the Occitan with Introduction, Notes and Interpretive Essay (Library of Medieval Women)

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The Life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence: Translated from the Occitan with Introduction, Notes and Interpretive Essay (Library of Medieval Women)

The Life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence: Translated from the Occitan with Introduction, Notes and Interpretive Essay (Library of Medieval Women)

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This is the first translation into English of an intriguing text that deserves to be better known. Douceline of Digne, born around 1215/16, was the younger sister of Hugh of Digne, the famous Franciscan preacher and proto-spiritual. While she was in her early 20s, Douceline made a vow of virginity in the hands of her brother and established a community of "beguines" on the Roubaud river close to Hyeres, near her brother's Franciscan convent. By about 1250, she had moved the original beguine house within the walls of Hyeres and founded another community in Marseilles, where she died as head of both houses in 1274. The Life of "Saint" Douceline was written around 1300 (more on that date below) in Occitan. It is preserved in a single manuscript, Paris, B.N., fonds francais. no. 13503, which on paleographical grounds can be dated to the [early?] fourteenth century. The Life has received little attention so far from historians but enjoys a certain reputation in Occitan studies thanks to its 1879 edition with a translation in French and copious documentation by canon J. - H. Albanes, a noted church historian and Provencal scholar. (R. Gout brought out a new edition with a few minor corrections and a new French translation in 1927.)

Among his works is the "Tractus de triplici via in sapientiam perveniendi", attributed to him by Bartholomew of Pisa in his "Conformities" (not to be confounded with the "Incendium Amoris" of Bonaventure, which in several codices bears a similar title). He likewise drew up a set of rules or constitutions for his sister, Douceline of Digne, and other pious women, who formed a sort of religious community known as the Dames de Roubans, with Douceline as their superior.Secondly there is the relationship between Douceline's small beguine congregation and the later beguins (male and female) of southern France, those adherents of Peter John Olivi, who along with various spiritual Franciscans were often persecuted as heretics from the 1290s onward. Was Douceline, like her brother, a proto-spiritual and therefore a beguin(e) in the sense of the term as it was understood in the south around 1300? Or did she pursue a beguine life solely modeled upon the example of the northern beguines--who also ran into trouble with the Inquisition albeit for wholly different reasons? Much of the answer hinges on our understanding of Hugh, whose Joachimite sympathies cannot be doubted but who remains a rather elusive figure. Garay and Jeay usefully point out, however, that the Life brims with Franciscan themes--more so, I should think, than did northern beguine vitae-- and includes echoes of Joachimite prophetic language. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. La vida de la benaurada sancta Doucelina has survived in a single, unique manuscript, which is now housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, fonds français 13503. [1] Joseph Hyacinthe Albanès translated the work into French in 1879; an English translation was made in 2001.

His close friend Salimbene refers to him in his Chronicles as "one of the most renowned clerics of the world a great preacher and in favour both among the clergy and the people; ever ready to dispute, he was possessed of a fluent speech, and a voice like that of a trumpet; he was a spiritual man ultra modum, so that on hearing him preach one would believe that he was listening to another St. Paul or another Elias." Salimbene also tells us that he was called Hugh of Bareol and that the Lombards knew him as Hugh of Montepesulano. Find sources: "Hugh of Digne"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( April 2014) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Yet the author of the Life was surely not a Franciscan but a beguine, whom Garay and Jeay, following Albanes, identify as the noble lady Phillipine Porcellet, Douceline's successor as head of the congregation. Again I find Albanes precise identification not entirely conclusive; nevertheless, the Life's author was undoubtedly a beguine member of Douceline's community, which may explain why it was written in Occitan rather than in Latin. Since we do not exactly have a wealth of contemporary vitae definitely written by a woman, the Life for this fact alone is well worth our attention, and the present editors do an excellent job sketching out ways in which the author's gender may have affected her work.Douceline of Digne ( c. 1215/1216 – 1274) was the founder of the Beguines of Marseilles and the subject of a vita that survives today, The Life of Douceline de Digne. [1] Life [ edit ] Douceline was born shortly after the death of Mary of Oignies, in 1215 or 1216, to a wealthy family, likely in the town of Digne in Provence, in the south of France. Her father, a wealthy merchant called Bérenguier (or Bérenger), was from Digne and her mother, Hugue, was from Barjols where the family lived when Douceline was a child. When her mother died around 1230, Douceline moved to Hyères with her father, probably to be closer to her brother Hugh who was a member of the town’s Franciscan monastery. Hugh was to become a well-known Franciscan theologian and preacher and was to have a significant role in assisting Douceline. A second brother died young leaving two daughters, Douceline and Marie, who later followed their aunt’s ways of life. [1]

The precise date of the Life may be of some importance in this matter. Garay and Jeay do not discuss the question in detail, accepting Albanes's opinion that a primitive version was written shortly before 1 September 1297, when it was read for the first time in her congregation on the occasion of her feast, and that the surviving version, duly amplified with subsequent miracles, dates from about 1315. Interested readers, consulting Albanes, may not entirely be convinced by the chanoine's tortuous argument which I shall not repeat here, but that there must have been two versions, one dated from some time after 1289, the other from the second decade of the fourteenth century, can indeed be deduced from internal evidence. This places us well after Douceline's death and firmly within the most turbulent period of beguine history. The Life must therefore be understood as a defensive move aimed at protecting Douceline's congregation and by implication, others among the southern French beguins, stressing their orthodoxy, good standing within the community, and support from royalty--Douceline's connections with Charles of Anjou, count of Provence and king of Sicily are highlighted--, while its Joachimite trends were muted enough so as not to have offended authorities. It is even possible that the first Life was written not in response to an established popular cult but rather as a means for launching it. The Life cites the wrong day of the week for Douceline's death (Garay and Jeay do not note the error), which strongly suggests her liturgical commemoration had only hesitant beginnings, to say the least. Along with the beguines of Hyeres and Marseilles the most immediate beneficiaries of the cult must have been the Franciscans of the latter city, in whose church Douceline was buried and who after 1297 also guarded the remains of the Franciscan saint Louis of Toulouse, Charles of Anjou's grandson (not to be confused with St Louis IX of France, canonized in that same year). A biographical sketch of Hugh of Digne in Spanish which is of indifferent critical value, was published in the "Chronica Seraphica" by Damian Carnejo. He asserts that Hugh of Digne died at Marseilles, where his remains now rest in the Franciscan church of that city beside those of his sister Douceline. The Life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence (review) The Life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence (review) Salimbene considers that the writings of the Abbot Joachim of Flora influenced Hugh of Digne. He certainly took an active and prominent part in the movement of the Franciscan Spirituals. This is evidenced not only from his preaching, but more particularly from his exposition of the Rule of St. Francis and from his other ascetical writings.Douceline de Digne, founder of the beguine community of the Ladies of Roubaud in Provence, was an important woman mystic of her time; contextual material includes comparison with the beguines of northern Europe. Hugh of Digne (b. at Digne, south-east France, date uncertain; d. at Marseilles about 1285) [1] was a Provençal Franciscan ascetical writer.



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