Jakob von Vitrys »Vita Mariae Oigniacensis«: Zu Herkunft und Eigenart der ersten Beginen (review)

This work was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the theological faculty at the University of Göttingen in 2008. After a survey of the relevant literature, the study is divided into three main parts: the author, James of Vitry (d. 1240); the structure, date, genre, purpose, and audience of the Vita (written 1215); and the spirituality represented in the Vita.The author's thesis is that James de Vitry and his heroine, Blessed Mary of Oignies (d. 1213), were deeply influenced by the pastoral aims of the circle of the Parisian master, Peter the Chanter, and developed a form of urban, female, and lay spirituality that emphasized imitatio of and compassio for the suffering Christ and service to the sick.

The author develops her thesis in an orderly and thorough fashion. She describes pastoral reforms advocated by Peter the Chanter and his associates, which reached Marie and the other holy women of Brabant directly or indirectly through preachers like James of Vitry and Fulk of Neuilly, and others such as John of Nivelles. Their preaching aimed at penitence and reform and was strongly critical of usury, banking, and clerical negligence. Mary of Oignies and her husband, whose families seem to have been well-off members of the commercial class of Nivelles, gave away their wealth and for at least a decade and probably longer served the sick in a leper hospital in Willambrouck near Nivelles. They lived together as brother and sister until around 1207 when Mary took up residence on the grounds of the monastery of Augustinian Canons at Oignies, founded in 1187 by Giles of Walcourt and his family. Shortly after Mary went to Oignies, James of Vitry interrupted his studies at Paris and joined the community there. He came under Mary's influence and became a strong advocate of the mulieres religiosae.

In the author's account, Mary and other mulieres religiosae heeded the reform preachers' call to conversion from lives stained by ill-gotten wealth, followed the naked Christ, embraced his sufferings in their own bodies, and served his suffering brothers and sisters. They then spent the final years of their lives in prayer and contemplation accompanied by mystical experience, but without becoming professed religious. James of Vitry wrote the Vita primarily to counter lay and critical criticisms of the mulieres religiosae and to gain the support of his clerical peers for this new way of life as well as to offer examples to inspire them to more dedicated pastoral ministry and to use in popular preaching.

Although much of what the author writes will be familiar to those who know the life of Mary of Oignies, they will certainly find new ideas and information. She is especially good at placing the Vita in its historical context. For example, the section on service to the sick is well done and helps redress the overemphasis on Mary's last years in both James of Vitry's Vita and the Supplement to it by Thomas of Cantimpré. The author is nonjudgmental and is not under the spell of any particular critical theory. That is refreshing, but it also means she does not engage with some issues of interest to English-speaking feminist scholars. It is therefore helpful to read this book in conjunction with the introduction by Anneke Mulder-Bakker to Mary of Oignies, Mother of Salvation (Turnhout, 2006).Vera von der Osten-Sacken's bibliography, which does not include works by Caroline Bynum or Walter Simons, extends to about 2003, although an appendix makes use of Suzan Folkert's study in Mulder-Bakker's volume of the manuscript tradition of the Vita Mariae. The manuscripts indicate a strong interest in Mary's Vita among Cistercians, a group that James de Vitry...