Dating the Translations of Barking’s Abbess-Saints by Goscelin of Saint-Bertin and Abbess Ælfgifu
Sometime in the last two decades of the eleventh century, the Flemish hagiographer Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (c. 1035-d. after 1114) assembled a dossier of Latin saints’ Lives, Translations, Matins Lessons, and chronicled events for the Benedictine nuns at Barking Abbey in Essex, England, at the behe...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brepols
2022
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| In: |
The journal of medieval monastic studies
Year: 2022, Volume: 11, Pages: 97-130 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KBF British Isles KCA Monasticism; religious orders KCD Hagiography; saints |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Sometime in the last two decades of the eleventh century, the Flemish hagiographer Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (c. 1035-d. after 1114) assembled a dossier of Latin saints’ Lives, Translations, Matins Lessons, and chronicled events for the Benedictine nuns at Barking Abbey in Essex, England, at the behest of their abbess Ælfgifu (c. 1047-c. 1114) to memorialize the community’s three most treasured saints: Barking’s founder and first abbess, Æthelburh (d. after 686); her immediate successor, Hildelith (d. after 716); and her later successor Wulfhild (d. after 996). Ælfgifu’s request was, in large part, occasioned by the major building project that she had undertaken to raze the abbey’s old church and to construct a new one. Her project necessitated the translation of the three abbess-saints to temporary resting places until the new church was completed. The aim of this article is to determine when this translation most likely occurred on the basis of the available evidence internal and external to Goscelin’s dossier. Establishing these dates is essential to efforts being made by scholars to reconstruct Goscelin’s hagiographical career with greater precision and to give due recognition to the extraordinary achievements of Ælfgifu’s abbacy. |
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| ISSN: | 2034-3523 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of medieval monastic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1484/J.JMMS.5.130743 |