Epistemology of the Cloister: Knowledge, Identity, and Place in Old French Saints’ Lives

Mais li peres ne s’ariesta; L’enfant viesti et atourna Tout autresi conme .j. garcon; De retourner en sa maison Se paine plus tost que il puet; De son pais se tourne et muet. Par ses journees tant ala Que a s’abeie rasena, Ou li frere li font grant joie, Et li abbes l’enfant fiestoie, Demande conment est ses nons. Li pere dist en son respons: “Marins apieller le poes, De peu li est ses nons mues.”

(Vie et office de sainte Marine, 182.1.21–34)

[The father delayed no longer; He clothed and readied the child Exactly like a boy; He strives to return to his abbey As soon as he can; He turns his back on his land and sets off, Traveling so far during his days’ journeying That he came back to his abbey, Where the brothers joyfully welcome him And the abbot delights in the child, Asking what its name is. The father said in reply: “You can call him Marin, His name is changed only a little (by it).”]

L’ordene qu’ele at voét tenrat tote sa vie, Mais semblant de nonain ele ne porrat mie; Ans gerpirat trestot l’abit de feminie Et s’en irat az mones de la sainte abeïe Et vestirat dras d’ome, qu’ele n’i soit coisie. Sa volenté afferme, puis si l’at aconplie. Gette dras de nonain et prent chevalerie. . . . Par matin, ans ke pot, est a la glise alee. A l’abeïe en vait, u ele astoit privee.

(La Vie de sainte Euphrosine, ll. 486–92, 509–10)

[The order to which she had dedicated herself she remained with her whole life, But she could never have the appearance of a nun; Rather, she completely abandoned female dress And went to the monks of the holy abbey And put on men’s clothing, so she might not be discovered. She strengthens her resolve, then carries it out. She casts off nun’s clothing and dresses as a knight. . . . In the morning, as soon as she could, she went to the church. She goes to the abbey, where she was (later) an inhabitant.]

Place is often of central importance in hagiography. As remarked some time ago by Michel de Certeau, “La vie de saint est une composition de lieux” [The saint’s life is a composition of places]: that is, hagiographic literature not only represents saintly biography in terms of the transition between different locations but also focuses upon a central place that orders the text and the truth it is designed to expose. ¹ In de Certeau’s view, the movements of both text and saint revolve around this central place as a means of showing a truth that lies outside discourse—a truth that the text is able to designate but never fully make present. Moreover, the representation of contrary spaces (the world versus the sacred place, the outside versus the inside) and the way these spaces are brought into contact in the text indicate a spiritual place that de Certeau describes as a non-lieu (nonplace). In so doing, the saint’s life locates the Christian community and provides it with a foundation for its articulation as such. In thus pointing to the connection between place and the function of hagiography as a literature that both teaches its audience and communicates a truth that it aims to reveal rather than represent, de Certeau’s analysis draws attention to the importance of place in saints’ lives as a device for structuring and transmitting particular kinds of knowledge and understanding.

Similar connections between knowledge and symbolic space are attested elsewhere in medieval literature and culture and have been profitably examined by others. ² However, the epistemological importance of space in hagiography—that is, the significance of space as a means of structuring and exploring knowledge and understanding—has arguably not been sufficiently reflected in the critical attention that has been paid to this enormously significant corpus of religious texts. As de Certeau’s work demonstrates, the...