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Introduction to the Source

This spiritual biography was written between 1450 and 1479 by Hermann Greven (Hermannus Gresgenius), a Carthusian monk in Cologne. It is part of a martyrology, or catalogue of martyrs and saints, authored by Greven and based on a ninth-century text by the monk Usuard. The present translation is based on the Latin edition in the Acta sanctorum. More information on the text and the original manuscript is available here.

Introduction to the Text

This spiritual biography (or vita) concerns the life and sanctity of a woman named Haseka, a recluse in the church of Schermbeck, in today’s North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The author praises Haseka’s pious way of life and inclination against human company before describing a miracle in which Haseka (through God’s intervention) changes rancid butter into fresh, and then relating the conflict between monasteries over the right to bury Haseka’s dead body. Once finally buried, Haseka appears to a widow in her sleep. The vita ends by foretelling the popular veneration of this holy recluse.

As a recluse, Haseka adopted a type of religious life which centred around her physical enclosure inside a small dwelling. This form of life existed throughout the European Middle Ages; terms for such enclosed, devotional people include anchorite, anchoress, and solitary. In the later Middle Ages it was common, as in Haseka’s case, for women recluses to live in a house or cell attached to a parish church. The recluse was expected to lead an exemplary holy life and pray for the souls of those who offered her donations and alms. Frequently, recluses could also exercise a kind of charismatic authority, offering advice or teachings to interested passersby.

Since recluses were bound to their dwellings, they needed the support of outsiders to stay alive and to minister to their daily needs. It is interesting to note the prominent role played by Haseka’s attendant in this spiritual biography. The author calls her “Sister Berta”, and does not call her a servant as such but rather “ministra”. He also portrays her as very close to the recluse: Berta has influence over Haseka’s goods (when she tries to remove the rancid butter), and eats with her at the same table. Both Berta, the recluse’s attendant, and the nameless, pious widow, to whom the postmortem Haseka appears, suggest a rich landscape of non-cloistered religious women, existing alongside recluses and monasteries in this period.

Further Reading

Grundmann, Herbert. “Deutsche Eremiten, Einsiedler und Klausner im Hochmittelalter (10.–12. Jahrhundert).” Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, vol. 45, no. 1, 1963, pp. 60–73.

McAvoy, Liz Herbert, and Cate Gunn, editors. Medieval Anchorites in their Communities. D.S. Brewer, 2017.

L’Hermite-Leclercq, Paulette. “Le reclus dans la ville au bas Moyen Âge.” Journal des savants, vol. 3, no. 1, 1988, pp. 219–62.

Moncion, Laura. “Between Servant and Disciple: Recluses’ Attendants in Three Medieval Rules for Recluses.” We Are All Servants: The Diversity of Service in Premodern Europe, edited by Isabelle Cochelin and Diane Wolfthal, forthcoming.

Mulder-Bakker, Anneke. “Devoted Holiness in the Lay World.” The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, edited by Judith Bennett and Ruth Mazo Karras, Oxford UP, 2013, pp. 464–79.

Mulder-Bakker, Anneke. Lives of the Anchoresses: The Rise of the Urban Recluse in Medieval Europe. U of Pennsylvania P, 2005.

Signori, Gabriela. “Recluses in German-speaking Lands.” Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe, edited by Liz Herbert McAvoy, Boydell, 2010, pp. 43–61.

Credits

Transcription from Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, vel a catholicis scriptoribus celebrantur. Editio novissima. Ed. Joanne Carnandet. 26 January, vol. 3, 373–374. Paris: V. Palmé, 1863., Translation by Laura Moncion, Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Danny Smith