As far as it is documented in the extant Meroving'ian hagiography, it is evident that visionary experience was neither a required char ism for sanctity nor even the usual experience of the saints. Whereas miracles were almost . universally noted in the Vitae, both during the saint's lifetime and
posthumously, visions never attained such universality. Not all saints expressed their spirituality in the language of dreams and visions, and one can only estimate the proportion of saints Wio reported visionary
experiences; they comprise roughly one third of the extant Vitae whose
protagonists lived, or were said to have lived in the Merovingian period. Of those v^o were said to have had visions, by far the greater part were
reported as prophecies concerning their own death. The regularity with which it is reported without an accompanying description indicates that it had become a hagiographie topos. Nevertheless there were a select number of vision recipients and visionaries whose experiences were sufficiently
particular to have merited special attention in the Vitae, and thus greater care in their documentation. Within certain limits, one might suggest that the less the vision narrative conforms to the visionary topos, the more likely it may be believed that the experiences reflect the true experiences of the saint. In those rare cases too, it is possible that the vision narrative itself was modified less than other elements in the Life by later recensionists, an issue I shall discuss at greater length with regard to the Life of St.Aldegund of Maubeuge. For the most part, however, dreams and visions tended to gravitate around specific junctures of a saint's life, with a frequency and sameness to make it impossible to distinguish historical likelihood from topos. Even if one has to dismiss the majority of visions recorded in saints' Lives as topoi they are significant nevertheless for what they tell us about the mentality of the period towards the place and power of the dream-vision in the guidance and regulation of religious life.
Those visionary experiences vihose descriptions have survived in the hagiographie literature in this period can be seen to operate in the wide arena of Merovingian religious life. They encompassed the birth, life and
death of the saint. They also played a significant role in promoting the monastic vocation and the divine mission of the founder-saint. In many
respects the place of vision in the saint's life did not change in the period under review with the exception of visior^ concerned with death and the
possibility of salvation. In this section I shall look at the way in vÆiich saints and their hagiographers focused visionary experiences around certain pivotal issues. In the first part I shall identify briefly the junctures in the saint's biography that attracted the adornment of visioi^. Then I shall look in greater detail at how visions were used to promote particular aspects of religious society, in particular the benefits of the monastic life.
i. Visions in the Life of the Saints. Birth.
The hagiographers of Merovingian saints subscribed to the idea that the saint, as true imitator of Christ's life, was predestined to sanctity. The biological parents of the saint, however, were not always so well informed. Any attempts to sabotage God's intentions were speedily dealt with. The events surrounding the birth of saint Germanus of Paris (d.576) are perhaps the best known in this respect; Germanus' mother Eusebia, wishing to avoid having a child so soon after a previous birth, took a potion in an attempt to abort the foetus. Erat ergo pugna inter mulierem et viscera. Eusebia
suffered some damage from the experience but the baby was unharmed. Erat hinc futura praenoscere ante fecisse virtutem quam nasci contiqerit. [V.F. V.Germ.Paris. 2-4] Other mothers were better informed, like Columbanus' pregnant mother who had a vision in vdiich she saw sun rays shining from her bosom. [Jonas, V.Columbani I.i] Similarly the pregnant mother of Praeiectus of Clermont (d.676) saw her son leave her body from her side and he was followed and drenched by a wave of blood. [Passio Praeiecti 1] Both women sought advice on their visions; Columbanus' mother turned to her neighbours and Eusebia consulted with a saintly archpriest named Peladius, v^o
interpreted the vision as signalling Praeiectus ' future martyrdom. [1] Conversion to the religious life.
The next stage of the saint's life to be ushered in by visionary
experiences was the decision to make a profession of the religious life. For men this decision involved making a choice between an ecclesiastical or a
monastic career. (Hermits, Who might seem to fall outside these categories, usually found themselves channeled into one of these two areas of medieval religious life during the course of their lifetimes). In the seventh
century, these two areas of life appear to have been less oppositional than they had been in the sixth. St.Amandus (625-75) was both missionary and bishop, with a flair for encouraging and participating in the monastic movement of the period. Amandus had started his religious life as a priest
in Aquitaine, but yearned for a wider arena in which to show his dedication to God. It is not surprising therefore that the great missionary should have been portrayed in his Life as having undertaken his mission on the prompting of a vision. Amandus was quite unsure as to the religious path he should take, but took the first step towards finding out by leaving Aquitaine to go to Rome. There, as he sat on the steps of St.Peter's, St.Peter himself appeared to him and told him to return to Gaul to preach. Amandus was
overjoyed at the command and after gaining papal blessing returned to Gaul to start his mission. [V.Amandi 7]
Women did not have the same options for religious service, and so their struggles tended to centre on their choice of the monastic life over their family and social obligations. In the case of well-born women especially, additional pressures to marry could stem from political interests, often, according to the hagiographers, on the orders of the king himself. The Vitae usually stress that these were times of urgent prayer. The virgin Glodesind of Metz (d.circa 608) first rebuffed the attempts by King Childeric to marry her off, and then those of her father who wanted to take her with him to his sister Rotlinde in Trier in the hope that a woman's persuasion could convince Glodesinde to marry. Instead Glodesind fled to Metz where she took refuge in the church of St.Stephen. For six days she prayed there without eating or drinking until on the seventh day, which was also a Sunday, an unknown man with the face of an angel came to her and veiled her. [ V . G lodes indis 1] Consecration did not always settle the matter for wealthy virgins. Another saint, Consortia (6th c), was courted both before and after her consecration. Consortia's Vita is full of visions. While she was still young, her dead sister Tulla appeared to her mother in a dream and stated, among other
things, that Consortia would remain a virgin although only after many trials. This did not stop a suitor and his family from trying to persuade her from her course. Eventually the matter was settled by using the Bible as an
oracle (the sortes blbllcae) and on her parents* death Consortia built a church on her land named Matton Vicus in honour of St.Stephen protomartyr and a xenodochium. She then went to court to ask permission from King Chlothar I to live out her life in virginity. While she was on her way the king had a vision in which he was told that Consortia would cure his daughter, who was gravely ill. Consortia succeeded in curing the princess and was granted her wish.
On Chlothar's death however, Sigebert sent a nobleman named Hecca to govern the area of Marseilles. This Hecca heard about the rich and single Consortia and ordered that she appear before him. He was so taken with her beauty that he rushed to the King for permission to marry her. Consortia resorted to prayer to save her from enforced marriage and her prayers were answered with a vision of an angel who told her that she would not be forced to marry but that she should prepare as if for a wedding but to also prepare a grave. Returning from the royal court, Hecca made his way back to the monastery by boat and as he approached the riverbank he spied the
preparations in progress for the wedding. In his eagerness to claim his bride Hecca slipped as he tried to get out of the boat, impaling himself on his lance. The prepared grave was waiting for him. [V.Consortiae 6-9, 12-18]
The visions in this account clearly contribute to good story-telling, but it was often the case, especially for female saints, that their decision to eschew their biological and social role found legitimacy through dreams and visions. Psychologically too, it is not surprising that confrontation and conflict over social and dynastic obligations should surface in the dreams and visions of those members of society vAo were otherwise powerless to express their views.
Spirituality.
Conveying to a reader the spirituality of the saint was probably the most challenging task that the hagiographer had to face. How could the author reach into the inner life of a separate person, especially when
distanced from the saint historically? The solution, such as it was, was to observe the external manifestations of the saint's internal life and report them. These included tears and groans, solitary prayer and contemplation. The hagiographer always found it significant that the saint spent long hours alone in his or her cell at prayer, mortifying and exhausting the body with
fasts, vigils and physical discomforts. In different ways vision accounts added another dimension to these attempts to describe the saint's special relationship with God.
The external aspect of the vision informed outsiders of the saint's special spiritual status. The state of ecstasy as a removal from wordly sensation was an obvious expression of the visionary's special if brief union with the divine. Yet removal from the material world did not require an ecstatic vision, because prayer and contemplation could also produce a state of removal. It is reported that St.Audoenus (Ouen) of Rouen (d.683) so poured himself out in prayer and contemplation to God, that when he
contemplated God his disciples saw a light radiating around him. [V.Audoini 8] The enveloping sheath of light bespoke not only the privileged bond between himself and God, but also his isolation from those around him. The visible radiance of light, like the cell walls of the solitary suggested a barrier, an intimacy of experience, to which the outside observer could never be a true witness.
The content of the visionary experience itself could offer insight into the relationship of the saint to God. The most patent exanple was the female visionary's connubial relationship with Christ. The saint was the bride of Christ, beloved by him and awaited by him. Such a relationship of love, such a union was only possible if a saint had truly surrended herself to God's will. Male saints were more likely to see Christ in the role of friend and protector, coming to their aid in times of trouble, guiding them in their service to God, and promising them celestial rewards. But for both male and female saints, visions were a consolation for a life of service and
obedience. It has been noted recently by a scholar of the visionary experience in the middle ages, that vision recipients can be divided into two categories: those for whom the vision appeared suddenly, spontaneously and without expectation of the event, and those for whom the vision was the
culmination of much time and prayer. As examples of the first category he mentions only male visionaries, whereas in the second some men, but above all women, have their visions preceded by long periods of prayerful and tearful supplication. [2] To a certain extent this ej^riential pattern is evident already in the Merovingian period. St.Amandus saw his vision of St.Peter subito as did Barontus his dream-vision. [V.Amandi 7; Visio Bar ont i 3] It is rare to find such examples in female Lives in which visions are expressly
said to have appeared suddenly, although it is not unknown. Columbanus* mother's dream-vision of the future of her unborn child came to her in a sudden sleep. [V.Columbani I.i] What is the significance of the sudden vision over the protracted wait for a vision? Why should a sudden vision be so rarely reported for female visionaries? Insofar as some saints experienced both sudden visions and long-awaited visions, the distinction may have less to do with the visionary himself than with the context in which the vision is received. One would expect a miracle-vision to appear suddenly, in answer to a particular circumstance. As St.Wandrille arrived at the royal palace in answer to Dagobert's summons, his clothes soiled from helping a poor man with his cart, an angel suddenly appeared statim apparuit to clean his clothes for him. [V.Wandregiseli 7] Barontus was conducted on a tour of heaven and hell unexpectedly, but he was a sinner who did not relish his experience. Sudden appearances were more likely to be experienced by men because men were more active in the community and there was greater scope for a miracle-vision, but they do occur also at convents, like the nun's vision of St.Aldegund at
Maubeuge taking communion. As for the type of vision in which tours were made of heaven and hell, no tours of hell are reported to have been
experienced by women. Women whose visionary experiences were recorded in literature were saints (unlike Barontus) and they were in no need of such salutary reminders of the consequences of sin.
Just as often as was the case for women, visions were the reward of the male saint for his lifetime of protracted yearning, an intimate vision
concerning the fate of the saint's soul. For men just as for wTomen, strong emotions of love coursed beneath the surface of everyday life, an
undercurrent always ready to burst forth in silent moments. St.Nivardus of Rheims, a bishop who had a number of visions was Dominus diumus et noctumis viqiliis deditus. [V.Nivardi 3] Descriptions of St.Wandrille of Fontanelle's ascetic practises portray a man prostrated by his love of God. In addition to sleep deprivation and submergence in icy water, he shed many tears
cotidiae gemitus, cotidiae lacrimas. And further in a direct reference to the tears and ministrations of Mary Magdalene to Christ, we are told that mens eius ad lesum iacebat, pedes rigabat et crine tergebat. [V . Wandregise 1 i 8] His vision of an angel telling him that his place was reserved in heaven came to him cum in oratione devotissime .. .perdurarit. [V .Wandregise 1 i 12] St.Wandrille, as he approached death cried out 0 lesu boni, libera me, quia
mil turn desidero vldere te. [ V . Wandregise li 18] Similar sentiments were
expressed by St.Nivardus of Rheims, according to his hagiographer, who on his death bed toto desiderio cupiens in caelestibus esse, cum maximo affectu cordis loquebatur: "0 domine Deus meus omnipotens, lumen verum et perhenne gaudium, eripe me de convalle lacrimarum et dono gratie tue ad tuum fac desiderabilem pervenire conspectum." [V.Nivardi ep. Remensis 11] By contrast, St.Aldegund of Maubeuge who was perhaps the most prolific
Merovingian visionary, seemed to come by her experiences almost effortlessly. The yearning for a vision of God in the present life and the hope of the vision of God in the next was thus both the spur to contemplation and prayer and a concrete manifestation of the relationship between the visionary and God forged through total dedication.
Death.
As death approached, just as with any Neoplatonic philosopher, Merovingian saints looked to death for their ultimate union with God and their souls' release from the captivity of the body. [3] Venantius Fortunatus noted that at his death Germanus of Paris' soul was raptus corporeo vinculo.
[V.Germani Paris. 205] Likewise Balthild's hagiographer recorded that
raising her eyes and hands to heaven, sancta ilia anima a corporis vinculo in pace soluta est. [V.Balthildis 14] Some hagiographers recorded the saints' death cries in the same terms. Wandrille of Fontanelle cried out on his death bed "0 lesu boni, libera me." On a more solidly biblical note, Nivardus of Rheims saw the mortal condition as the prison of the soul: "0 domine Deus ... eripe me de convalle lacrimarum. " [V.Nivardi Rem. 11]
Another Christian gloss on the image of the captive prisoner gaining release is that in which the soul in the world is likened to the Israelites in exile in Egypt. It was a popular allusion in works of this period. [4]
St.Audoenus, it is recorded, prayed on his deathbed that his soul might be liberated from his body, saepius Dominum deprecabat, ut eum iam de corpore liberaret, and on his death his hagiographer commented: Igitur rediens versus Israhel de Aegypto, anima sancta deportata ab angelis volavit ad
Dominum. [V.Audoini 15]
The most common types of vision to stem from ideas about how the soul was transported to heaven at death were based on traditional images such as the soul as dove, winging its way heavenward, and, very popular in
Merovingian texts, the spirit's reception by a ball of fire hovering over the dying person's cell, commonly thought to represent Christ or his angels
awaiting to transport the soul. Ancient cosmological ideas such as the ladder connecting earth with heaven was a motif which found its way into premonitory visions of death. Balthild saw such a ladder whose top touched the heavens in front of the altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and she saw herself ascending it as if acconpanied by angels. [V.Balthildis 13] The idea of the scala paradiso and its variants was an ancient one wdiich sought to convey in tangible terms the link between earth and heaven, and how the soul was able to travel from one place to another. [5] It was also postulated that the dying person's friends would be present at death to facilitate the soul's