Preliminary Programme

When Birgitta Birgersdotter, the future saint, was about 40 years old she began receiving the visions that were to transform her from a mighty and learned noblewoman in Sweden into an influential agent in the intertwined spheres of politics and spirituality. During this time she was also lady-in-waiting and close confidante of Blanche of Namur, queen of Sweden and Norway, who had come to the Nordic realms in 1336. The very first political revelations of the future saint appeared in Arras, as she was travelling north from her pilgrimage to Santiago. A few years later, the royal couple offered their strong support to this prominent member of their network. They sent an embassy to the kings of England and France presenting her Revelations, and they offered to fund her proposed monastic Order.

In this paper I shall discuss how contemporary material – charters, chronicles, and the material prepared for the canonization process – reveal an intimate working relationship with several common goals. One was to position the Nordic realms within the conflict brewing between England and the principalities of Namur and Artois on one hand, France on the other. Another was to strengthen the position of the North in questions relating to the Catholic Church in general. A third was to influence the development of contemporary political and devotional culture. St Birgitta was to become the only officially canonized saint of the Nordic realms, and the only creator of a new and influential monastic order. Female elite action, networking and writing proved crucial as a method in these endeavors.

The paper presents results within the project Illustrious ladies: Birgittine models of authority and female rulership in the Late Middle Ages. It has been funded by The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens jubileumsfond). The overall aim is to analyse the impact of female rulership and other expressions of authority as an integral part of the political and cultural landscape of the time. It also explores the ways in which the female elites, due to their relatively undefined roles within the realms of politics and religion, could transcend borders and give voice to aspirations without threatening the prevailing order. (Show less)

During the XIIth century, the conquest of Ireland by a group of cambro-norman invaders started a set of consequences. One of these was Gerald of Wales' Topographia Hibernica (1186-8), an outstanding example of medieval ethnography. Gerald was a clericus regi at the Plantagenet court of Henry II and part of a family of the cambro-normans invaders of Ireland. He describes Ireland as a liminal place, filled with astonishing wonders and inhabited by barbarians. The barbarism of the population gave to the conquerors the legitimization of a civilising purpose.

The education to the Roman Orthodoxy of the Irish population was one of the arguments used to legitimise the anglo-norman intervention. Ireland was the centre of a Christianism distant the influence of the Roman Church and with a different ecclesiastic organisation. The Irish tradition gave to the monasteries a leading role, marginalising the importance of the bishopric's sees. The interests of the English Church, who had claimed for longtime jurisdiction over the island, the ones of the Roman Church who wanted to extend its influence and the purposes of the new-comers - who want to settle up in Ireland - useful converged in the necessity to re-educate the Irish people. In his Topographia Hibernica, Gerald of Wales describes the Irish as barbarians, specifically, they were superstitious and their religiosity was corrupted by a big variety of pagan elements. Gerald openly blames openly the clergy of Ireland for such a disaster, for him, the Irish clergy should have corrected the peccaminous nature of the population. Gerald says that this failure in educating the Irish into the right faith of God is a consequence of the monastic nature of the clergy.

In my discussion, I will focus on Gerald’s description of the Irish population to justify the anglo-norman conquest and the interventions made by the new élite into the island's ecclesiastical structure. I will start by the representation, common in the Anglo-Normans authors, of the Celtic populations as barbarians, and then I will analyse the characteristics of Irish superstition. I will confront the description and the historical events who took place during the conquest to explain the plan of the new rulers of Ireland. First of all the will of empowering the role of the bishopric sees, to settle English bishops, in order to exclude the original Irish monastic system. Because educating the barbarians is a hard work, and the new-rulers are the better teachers. Or that was what the new-rulers themselves said. (Show less)

This paper discusses how donations to Birgittine monasteries can be studied, with the concept of network used as theoretical frame, in order to map the web of benefactors who endorsed this monastic Order throughout the Baltic Sea region. Network is an appropriate concept when studying groups of benefactors, both locally and regionally. The significance of donations is considered not only to have been spiritual; they also brought social advantages. Belonging to a group of donors certainly brought social prestige, especially when the patrons of the monastery belonged to prominent families. Making a donation to a particular monastery could therefore also be a political manifestation, showing loyalty to its founders. These connections can, for example, be explored through letters of donation. Studies of medieval monastic donations are often based on Maussian Gift-theory. However, when focusing on groups of donors, the concept of networks could also be applied as a theoretical approach. Alongside the actual donor/s there were also other persons called in as witnesses when a donation was drawn up.
The Birgittine Order was founded in the late 14th century, which coincided with the establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397. Thereafter the order spread very quickly across Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. Vadstena monastery, the headquarters of the Order, became a cultural center among Scandinavian aristocracy and the monarchs of the Union. S: t Birgitta was a Nordic saint and she would become an important symbol of the Kalmar Union. The Birgittines were therefore actively promoted by Scandinavian aristocracy and the monarchs in its capacity as a newly founded Scandinavian Order. It is possible that the Birgittines thus played a part in contemporary regional social and political interests and ambitions. This can be studied through groups of persons who were involved in the establishment of the Birgittines, as these benefactors might have had contacts to central actors of the Kalmar Union. This network can be outlined, for example, through studying donations. By using the monastery of Nådendal (Vallis Gratiae) as an example, this paper outlines how groups of donors can be studied through letters of donations. As part of this, the paper elaborates on how the concept of networks can be extended for studying the interregional contacts that played a key role in the establishment of the Birgittines. (Show less)

In recent times, scholars' attention has focused on the preeminent figure of bishop within early medieval society. As Steffen Patzold has shown, the Carolingian period represented a major turning point in the development of the idea of bishops as key characters in the kingdom, whose role in coordinating local society was increasingly stronger as time passed. Following this noteworthy approach, I believe relevant to investigate societies and places left so far at the edge of this major stream of studies, such as Carolingian and Post-Carolingian Italy.
In this respect, the case of the see of Modena is really interesting. After suffering political disgregation in Lombard time, the Modena’s community suffered also the very close foundation of the monastery of St Sylvester of Nonantola: a regal foundation and a very strong competitor for resources, especially the fiscal ones. Only in the second half of the 9th century the situation began to change, when, during Louis II’s reign, the balance shifted gradually towards the city and in particular towards the bishop’s figure. Scholars have recognised as main author of this new orientation Leodoinus, bishop of Modena between 870 c. and c. 892.
The paper aims to focus on Leodoinus’ episcopate, his political and economic activities. The main interest will be to consider how he tried to strengthen his connection with both the king and his flock, and if the network he established and led proved to be effective in political and social terms. Together with charters and imperial diplomas, I will evaluate also the role played by the chapter library Leodoinus contributed to put together and also used to enforced the Carolingian idea of bishops’ superiority over society. In particular, a late 9th or early 10th century codex of the library (O.I.4) collects biblical and patristic materials strictly related to this concept, together with copies of Leodoinus’ letters toward bishops and Nonantola’s abbot. Thus, judging on later development, it seems likely the project Leodoinus carried out shaped deeply a local society composite and dynamic such as the one in the west Aemilian territory between 9th and 10th century. (Show less)