Colette of Corbie: Learning and Holiness

Chapter 4: Imitating the Model of Holiness

CHapter 4 iMitating tHe Model of Holiness In 1447, Colette still had many projects in hand that her daughters would bring to fruition over the next decades, assisted by Pierre de Vaux, their loyal collaborator. extension of tHe Colettine reforM Colette’s reform was spreading out in different directions. It was developing in new provinces, penetrating regions already receptive to her influence, and even reaching Spain through the foundation at Lézignan thanks to an unexpected chain of circumstances. Foundations in New Provinces Lorraine Saint Colette had already gained a firm foothold in Lorraine after Duke Charles II and his wife, Marguerite de Bavière, asked her to found a monastery there in 1425. Preferring ,as ever,the smaller,more isolated,and better-fortified towns, she chose Pont-à-Mousson rather than Nancy, where the Court was based. The project was delayed following the deaths of the ducal couple. A few years later, their successors , René I of Anjou and Isabelle, revived it. The monastery was completed in 1444, but not occupied immediately. Colette herself had chosen thirteen Clarisses from Gand, who CHAPTER 4 IMITATING THE MODEL OF HOLINESS In 1447, Colette still had many projects in hand that her daughters would bring to fruition over the next decades, assisted by Pierre de Vaux, their loyal collaborator. EXTENSION OF THE COLETTINE REFORM Colette’s reform was spreading out in different directions. It was developing in new provinces, penetrating regions already receptive to her influence, and even reaching Spain through the foundation at Lézignan thanks to an unexpected chain of circumstances. Foundations in New Provinces Lorraine Saint Colette had already gained a firm foothold in Lorraine after Duke Charles II and his wife, Marguerite de Bavière, asked her to found a monastery there in 1425. Preferring ,as ever,the smaller,more isolated,and better-fortified towns, she chose Pont-à-Mousson rather than Nancy, where the Court was based. The project was delayed following the deaths of the ducal couple. A few years later, their successors , René I of Anjou and Isabelle, revived it. The monastery was completed in 1444, but not occupied immediately. Colette herself had chosen thirteen Clarisses from Gand, who CHAPTER 4 IMITATING THE MODEL OF HOLINESS In 1447, Colette still had many projects in hand that her daughters would bring to fruition over the next decades, assisted by Pierre de Vaux, their loyal collaborator. EXTENSION OF THE COLETTINE REFORM Colette’s reform was spreading out in different directions. It was developing in new provinces, penetrating regions already receptive to her influence, and even reaching Spain through the foundation at Lézignan thanks to an unexpected chain of circumstances. Foundations in New Provinces Lorraine Saint Colette had already gained a firm foothold in Lorraine after Duke Charles II and his wife, Marguerite de Bavière, asked her to found a monastery there in 1425. Preferring ,as ever,the smaller,more isolated,and better-fortified towns, she chose Pont-à-Mousson rather than Nancy, where the Court was based. The project was delayed following the deaths of the ducal couple. A few years later, their successors , René I of Anjou and Isabelle, revived it. The monastery was completed in 1444, but not occupied immediately. Colette herself had chosen thirteen Clarisses from Gand, who LEARNING AND HOLINESS 432 arrived on September 21, 1447, together with Pierre de Vaux. This was six months after her death. The first abbess, Sister Méline de Sourxe, was elected according to Colette’s wishes.1 Always renowned for its holiness, the monastery attracted many vocations from the greatest families of Lorraine. In 1519, Philippa de Gueldre requested admission.2 Duchy of Brittany Ten years after the establishment at Pont-à-Mousson, Brittany accepted the reform with a foundation at Nantes in 1457, then at Dinan in 1481. The great canonization ceremonies of Saint Bernardino of Siena in 1450 had enhanced the popularity of the Franciscan family. Blessed Françoise, Duchess of Brittany, asked Calixtus III to authorize a foundation in her ducal town of Nantes (1457). But the bull set the number of sisters at eighteen and the number of priests and lay brothers serving the monastery at six, rather than four.3 The leading figures of the Duchy attended the enclosure ceremony, at which the pope’s bull was presented with great solemnity before the public notary.4 The bull laid down a very strict enclosure: The abbess and the sisters will remain...