Colette of Corbie: Learning and Holiness

Chapter 6: Hagiography and History The Canonization Process

CHapter 6 HagiograpHy and History tHe Canonization proCess As monasteries were established with the support of the great houses, the influence of the model of sanctity represented by Colette spread beyond the circle of her own foundations and her reform was extended. In the eighteenth century, at the request of successive groups of petitioners, the Church began to consider all the circumstances surrounding Colette’s sanctity and her influence – her personal story, her work, her life through the history of her daughters, and the trust of ordinary people in her intercession. fifteentH and sixteentH Centuries The Legenda of Pierre de Vaux The works written during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were either translations of the Legenda of Pierre de Vaux or else a summary of the text itself, evidence that the biography written by Colette’s confessor had been treated from the outset as an essential document. In 1450, Étienne de Juilly (Stephano Juliaco), a Franciscan, translated it into Latin. His version was used as the basis for later translations or studies. Laurent Surius, a Carthusian, published de CHAPTER 6 HAGIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY THE CANONIZATION PROCESS As monasteries were established with the support of the great houses, the influence of the model of sanctity represented by Colette spread beyond the circle of her own foundations and her reform was extended. In the eighteenth century, at the request of successive groups of petitioners, the Church began to consider all the circumstances surrounding Colette’s sanctity and her influence – her personal story, her work, her life through the history of her daughters, and the trust of ordinary people in her intercession. FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES The Legenda of Pierre de Vaux The works written during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were either translations of the Legenda of Pierre de Vaux or else a summary of the text itself, evidence that the biography written by Colette’s confessor had been treated from the outset as an essential document. In 1450, Étienne de Juilly (Stephano Juliaco), a Franciscan, translated it into Latin. His version was used as the basis for later translations or studies. Laurent Surius, a Carthusian, published de LEARNING AND HOLINESS 488 Juilly’s text in 1581 in the six-volume De probatis sanctorum historiis.1 This text, in turn, was used by Michel Notel, a religious brother from Frémy near Mons, in his Vie de sainte Colette, vierge de très digne mémoire et réformatrice de l’ordre de saint François et de sainte Claire, published in Mons in 1594.2 The Biography of Josse Clichtou (1472-1543) The biography written by Josse Clichtou is the most reis the most remarkable from this period. Published in Paris in 1512, the Latin text is in fact a summary. This humanist knew the first two Legendae of Pierre de Vaux and Perrine and condensed them, adding a few extra details on la Baume and mentioning the review of the body in 1492.3 Flemish by birth, Josse Clichtou studied in Paris and was confessor to Charles V. He was a convinced humanist, a professor at the Sorbonne, a friend of Lefèvre d’Etaples. He was notable for encouraging the renewal of studies in science and history. His work De veratione sanctorum avoids two pitfalls: passing to the saints our responsibility to live a Christian life and denying any value to their intercession. His Vie de Sainte Colette looks at Colette’s youth, the revelation of her vocation, her mission confirmed by Benedict XIII, the growth of the reform, and the last foundations made before her death at Gand. His narrative follows Pierre de Vaux’s plan but is more concise and has a more historical 1 U. D’Alençon says that Surius published it 1618, cf. “Introduction,” Les vies de sainte Colette Boylet de Corbie, réformatrice des frères mineurs et des clarisses (Librairie Picard, 1911), xxiv. The text we have is dated March 1581, 150-88. Pius V gave the German Carthusian (1522-1578) the task of making this collection (Life of the Saints) to counteract Protestant attacks in this area (pontifical brief, June 2, 1570). There are some gaps in this work, but Surius started a trend that would lead to the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists. Cf. F. Mourret, Histoire générale de l’Église, V, 525 and note 1. 2 Étienne de Juilly’s text was also translated into...