Colette of Corbie (1381–1447): Learning and Holiness (review)

Elisabeth Lopez offers a broad survey of the many historical sources that pertain to various aspects of the life of St. Colette of Corbie. Extensive appendices enhance the collection of these historical sources. These appendices offer access to the historical sources utilized through the use of chronologies, tables of various foundations, maps, glossaries, an exhaustive index of names and places, an inventory of archives, and an extensive bibliography. Anyone who wishes to engage in a study of Colette now has a rich resource with which to begin. Lopez has collected and identified the significance of the multiple and varied sources. These include the hagiographies, Colette’s Constitutions, her letters, letters written to her, and significant papal documents. This is actually a good resource for the study of reform movements in general in the early-fifteenth century, especially in France. These sources also are pertinent to the Franciscan Observant reform.

A most valuable part of this collection of studies is found in the first part, which reviews and compares the two Vitae of Colette. This was offered in a parallel study of the two texts, the one by Pierre de Vaux written c. 1447 and the other by Sister Perrine written in 1477. The former was a Colletine friar who was Colette’s friend and spiritual director; the latter was one of Colette’s sisters who lived with her for many years. This comparison of these two Vitae demonstrates the many factors that enter into the writing of a vita. Subsequent sections of part 1 draw out the differences between the two Vitae, and the reader thereby gains some insight into multiple aspects of the concept of sainthood that emerged in the fifteenth century. The author allows the reader to see the development of Colette’s notion of sanctity. Her “spirituality actually moves away from the mystical toward a solid piety that encourages a virtuous life . . . rather than attempting to return to the origins of its own [St. Clare’s] spirituality” (p. 96). Thus, Colette’s “form of sanctity is demonstrated by a set of fixed, pre-determined evidential data” (p. 129).

The second part reviews Colette’s letters, identifying themes and purposes and analyzing her Constitutions. The emphasis in her writings differs in a number of ways from the emphasis found in the vitae. In reading these letters and Constitutions, the reader enters into her connection with currents of the Observant reform and thus learns why she wanted her own Colettine friars:

[She] provided for each monastery a number of Colettine friars, responsible for celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, collecting alms and acting on behalf of the nuns with the outside world . . . the right to dismiss any particular friar from his position belonged to Colette.

(p. 190)

In the consideration of the Constitutions, the author gives a survey of the earlier legislative texts of Popes Innocent IV and Urban VI. This helps contextualize the uniqueness of Colette’s vision. The author points out that “Colette took a different view, with minute detail indicating rather a certain dogmatism rather than a supernatural, creative freedom” (p. 247). Even William of Casals wrote in a letter to Colette, “I am afraid of imposing too heavy a burden on your sisters” (p. 265).

The third part surveys Colette’s relationships with the world. She was well connected to the House of Bourbon, the House of Savoy, and the House of Burgundy. She visited Pope Benedict XIII and received confirmation of privileges from the Pisan Pope John XXIII. She engaged St. John Capistrano as legate of Pope Eugene IV and firmly defended her independence from the Observants who were concerned that this nun could “take friars away from obedience to the vicar of the Observants” (p. 332). The manner in which she engaged males in high places proved her strength and her independent spirit. By the time she died in 1447, “she had founded...