A Shabbas Table: Gifts in Exile

Been a nice period lately again. After that "spring fever"of a sinus infection calmed down its been pretty mellow again really, and full of beauty. How i'll ever return to the city (if i do), well i can't really imagine it right now. I need deep nature like i need the air i breathe.

Nice co-in-see-dances lately, the latest one being the patron saint drawn for the year (in last post), St Boniface. Came accross some more on him today in terms of his connectiins with the women of his time, pretty cool stuff. His correspondence there showed just how educated female monastics were back then, and how skilled at manuscript making (hey that's my secret obsession, smile) . The theme of caring for one another in exile in these letters also really touched a special place (see the qoutes below). All in all, this whole connection-in-exile thing brings the heart right back to Shabbat, doesnt it? That light in the darkenss that Shabbat is in the week, and that we are meant to be for each other in our exile.

Onto the stuff about St Boniface and his circle, from here (just couldnt resist it):

"The women who accompanied St Boniface on his missionary journey from England to Germany were" feminae vero religiosae, ... valde eruditiae in liberali scientia " [truly religious women, ... very learned in the liberal arts], one of whom was Walburga , 'soror Willibaldi et Wunnebaldi" [the sister of Willibald and Wynnebald] (Levison, Vitae, 138). Women had played a significant role in the development of the Christian religious life in England, sharing equally with men in the conversion process and in the learning that accompanied it. Excavations at the monastery of Whitby have discovered writing implements, validating the texts that say that women were active in the process of creating manuscripts, and the Abbess Hild undoubtedly presided over the synod of Whitby. Monastics, both women and men, were"boclær " ["book- learned"; literate], and they took their learning to the Continent .

The best direct evidence for the learning and piety of the women who accompanied Boniface from England to Germany comes from a group of 150 letters in a number of manuscripts (of which the most complete is MS Nationalbibliothek Lat. 751) that includes ten letters by women as well as letters from St Boniface and his successor St Lull to women...

The Boniface collection is famous for its inclusion of poetry in the letters, poetry that is heavily influenced by Aldhelm (died 709), who writes in the classical tradition but uses alliteration and formulas like vernacular poets. In an early letter to Boniface, Lioba includes four lines which she calls "versiculi " [unpretentious verses] (Tangl 29) that are clearly Aldhelmian. She indicates that she learned the art from her "magistra " [female teacher], Eadburg, "quae indesinentur legem divinam rimare non cessat" [who does not cease investigating the divine law]. Her verses follow: Arbiter omnipotens, solus qui cuncta creavit, In regno patris semper qui lumine fulget, Quia iugiter flagrans sic regnet gloria Christi, Inlesum servet semper te iure perenni. [The omnipotent Ruler, Who alone created all, Who always shines with glory in the kingdom of His Father, Because the perpertual flame, the glory of Christ, May always preserve you in perennial right.] (Tangl 29) Both by her own work and by her references to Eadburg, Lioba suggests the extent to which women participated in the tradition of Latin letters...

(In one letterSt Boniface asks that Abbess Eadburg " auro conscribas epistolas domini mei sancti Petri apostoli" [write with gold the epistles of my master, the apostle St Peter] and that her works "aureis litteris fulgeant" [shine with golden letters] (Tangl 35). Eddius Stephanus says that the Archbishop Wilfrid of York owned " quattuor evangelia de auro purissimo in membranis depurpuratis , coloratis" [the four Gospels written in the purest gold on purple parchment and illuminated] (36), and women like Eadburg and her nuns must have been occupied in the composition of such manuscripts....

Most of the letters from women as well as those of Boniface and Lull to their close friends speak movingly of the emotional plight of being in a foreign land, isolated from their homeland and families--a serious problem for Anglo-Saxons for whom the kin-group was of paramount importance. All such epistles show the influence of themes from formulaic vernacular poetry like Journey to Trial, the Sea Voyage, and Exile...

(One letter) compares their misery to a dangerous sea voyage: Tamquam spumosi maria vortices verrunt et vellunt undarum cumulos conlisos saxis, quando ventorum violentia et procellarum tempestates sevissime inormem euripum inpellunt et cymbarum carine sursum inmutate et malus navis deorsum duratur . [As when the whirling of the foaming sea sweeps and pulls the mountainous waves broken on the rocks, when the violence of the winds and the fury of the tempests drive wrathfully against the long channel and the keels of the boats are turned up, and the unfavorable ship remains up and down....

These letters have been brought to the notice of scholars, both Anglo-Saxonists and others. Berhtgyth makes much use of the vernacular tradition. As Dronke notes, she uses a "vernacular motif," that of "the sea that sunders those who love each other" (31). Berhtgyth speaks of the " multae ... aquarum congregationes" [many congregations of the waters] (Tangl 147) that separate her and Baldhard. One reason for the emotional effect of the three letters is their use of the theme of Exile, which Berhtgyth expresses more fully even than Ecgburg. She says that she is "ultima ancillarum Dei " [the least of the handmaidens of God] (Tangl 143). Likewise, all three letters make clear that she is "sola in hac terra " (Tangl 143) [alone in this country]; "sola derelicta et destituta auxilio propinquorum " [alone, forsaken, and deprived of the support of kin] (Tangl 147); and " derelicta ... et sola " [bereft and alone] (Tangl 148). The alliteration of "d" in "derelicta et destituta" calls attention rhetorically to her state of being forsaken. This emphasis on the lack of kin recalls both the Old English elegies and other letters of the Boniface collection...

Whether they are in England or in Germany, the nuns and monks associated with the Boniface mission experience the kind of spiritual crisis that is called by later writers the Dark Night of the Soul. Without the developed mystical language available the St. John of the Cross, they fall back on the themes of their English poetic tradition to express their crises. The loving relationships bound together by letters and prayers must have had a special intensity and strengthened all the members of the group of close friends, separated by seas and long and difficult journeys. Christian prayer strengthens the human bonds, which in turn strengthens the ability to pray. "

Well, Very Blessed Shabbas Everyone, and a Wonderful Sabbath : )

(Image from here)