The monastic communities of Wilton and Barking during the middle of the 10th and the first half of the 11th centuries in the hagiographic heritage of Gosсelin of Canterbury

Abstract

This article explores the status of the monastic communities of Barking and Wilton and the fate of their noble nuns during the transition period from the Early to High Middle Ages, based on the study of the lives of St. Edith and St. Wulfhild, composed in the late 1070s and 1080s by Goscelin, an Anglo-Norman hagiographer. He assigned particular value and credibility to the women’s testimony and drew extensively on the local monastic traditions established by the first half of the 11th century. During St. Edith’s stay at Wilton, the community was more protected from external pressure than Barking. St. Edith, who was the daughter and sister of two Anglo-Saxon rulers, did not always observe the St. Benedict’s Rule required for monastic orders. However, this could not prevent the rapid spread of her cult. The findings demonstrate that the historical memory of both communities developed and preserved an image of the miracle-working female saints, which was not typical of early Anglo-Saxon hagiography, that became central to the local veneration in the 11th century. Another important feature of the hagiological ideas and monastic practices of the late Saxon convents was the key role of an active type of sanctity, which emphasizes service to others as a core value.