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The Nun of Watton (born in the 1140s) was a young nun at Watton Priory in Yorkshire who, according to an account recorded by St Aelred of Rievaulx around 1160 [1] in De Quodam Miraculo Mirabili, long known as De Sanctimoniali de Wattun , [2] was impregnated by a young friar and miraculously cleansed of sin.
The nun was admitted to the Gilbertine monastery at Watton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, one of the most successful monasteries of those founded by Gilbert of Sempringham, at approximately four years of age, [2] upon the request of Henry Murdac, Archbishop of York. Nothing is known about her family, however, the fact that Henry took an interest in her, as well as her stature as a nun at an early age (as opposed to a lay sister) suggests that she was not from the lowest ranks of society. At this time the policy of the Gilbertines on accepting children into religious order was less strict than in many contemporary religious orders, although it became stricter later.
Aelred himself was a Cistercian, and his order took a paternalistic interest in the newly founded Gilbertine monasteries after refusing to accept responsibility for them. The Gilbertine Watton Priory was a double monastery with both male and female members, and was the only such house in the diocese of York in the twelfth century.
According to Aelred's report of the senior nuns' comments, (1110–1167) the young girl adopted into the monastery grew into a rebellious young woman. She soon made the acquaintance of a lay brother in the attached male community, meeting him when some of the brothers "to whom the care of external affairs was entrusted" [3] entered the nunnery to do some work. One of these brothers, described by Aelred as "more comely than the others in features and more flourishing in age," captured her attraction, and after a series of discreet exchanges, they arranged to meet at night "at the sound of a stone" that the brother promised to throw onto the roof or wall of the building where she was waiting.
After two unsuccessful attempts, the two finally managed to meet. According to Aelred, "She went out a virgin of Christ, and she soon returned an adulteress," clearly indicating that their furtive relationship had been consummated following their encounter. The lovers continued to meet secretly, until eventually the other nuns became suspicious of the repeated noise of the stones thrown by the man. The senior sisters challenged the young nun, who confessed to her sins.
Aelred then goes on to describe the fury of the nuns who seized and beat the young woman in punishment for her crime. They tore her veil from her head, and were prevented only by the senior sisters from burning, flaying, and branding the young nun. She was then chained by fetters on each leg, placed in a cell, and fed with only bread and water. Megan Cassidy-Welch "demonstrates the diverse ways in which medieval Christian thinkers portrayed the prison as an essentially reformist and salvific space since, separated from the temptations of the outside world, prisoners had an ample opportunity to devote themselves to continuous prayer, contrition, and praise of God." [4]
The male culprit fled from Watton; however, his subsequent whereabouts were revealed by the nun. He was then tracked down by several brothers from Watton, who captured him by having one brother impersonate the culprit's lover and lure him in, while the other brothers lay in wait to attack.
After the young man was captured, the nuns, filled with religious zeal and with a desire to avenge their injured virginity, engaged in a brutal attack of the offending brother. He was taken by them, thrown down, and held while his lover stood by. She was handed an instrument, presumably a knife of some sort, and she was forced to castrate him. At this point, one of the senior sisters snatched the newly severed genitalia and thrust them into the disgraced nun's mouth. [5]
Following the castration, the young man was returned to the brothers, and the nun was put back into her prison. Henry Murdac, Archbishop of York, who had brought her to the priory, then appeared to the nun in her sleep, instructing her to confess her sins and recite psalms. He returned to her again on the following night, just when the nun was about to give birth. He was accompanied by two heavenly women, who took away the baby, and cleansed the young nun's body of sin and pregnancy. This caused her chains and fetters to fall off.
The next morning, her caretakers found her healthy, clean, and distinctly not pregnant. After thorough inspection of her cell, they found no evidence of a birth at all. Additionally, the chains and fetters that had previously held her had fallen off. After Gilbert was informed of these miraculous events, he consulted Aelred before proceeding. Aelred investigated and declared the event to be a miracle after deciding that she could have been freed "neither by others nor by herself without the strength of God", and therefore it would be sacrilegious to imprison her again. Aelred fully accepted the authenticity of the events he described, and deemed the miraculous delivery of the child and the freeing of the nun from her fetters to be more important than the preceding acts of adultery and punishment. However, he was also intensely critical of the nun's fellow sisters and of Gilbert of Sempringham himself for their lack of pastoral care.
Jane Patricia Freeland's 2006 translation of the work shows Aelred's ambivalence about the propriety of the nuns' behaviour toward their charge and her lover, and the apparent absence of pastoral care available to the hapless young woman at the centre of this case. [6] Brian Golding's history of the Gilbertines places the incident in its historical context. [5] According to Barbara Hargreaves, Aelred's letter "is a redemptive narrative, written to be understood both literally and metaphorically. Aelred uses the physicality of the pregnancy itself, and the conditions of the nun’s incarceration, to bring to his reader the themes of physical and spiritual gestation and rebirth." [2]
The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest. It was the only completely English religious order and came to an end in the 16th century at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Modest Gilbertine revivals have taken place in the late 20th and early 21st centuries on three continents.
Aelred of Rievaulx, O Cist., also known as also Ailred, Ælred, or Æthelred; was an English Cistercian monk and writer who served as Abbot of Rievaulx from 1147 until his death. He is venerated by the Catholic Church as a saint and by some Anglicans.
Haverholme Priory was a monastery in Lincolnshire, England. Its remains are situated 4 miles (6 km) north-east of the town of Sleaford and less than 1 mile (1.6 km) south-west from the village of Anwick.
Gilbert of Sempringham the founder of the Gilbertine Order, was the only Medieval Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the Abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in organising a group of women who wanted to live as nuns, living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148. He founded a double monastery of canons regular and nuns in spite of such a foundation being contrary to canonical practice.
Sempringham is a village in the civil parish of Pointon and Sempringham, in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 2 miles (3.2 km) south from the A52 road, 12 miles (19 km) east from Grantham and 8 miles (13 km) north from Bourne. The hamlet is on the western edge of the Lincolnshire Fens, the closest village being Billingborough, 0.5 miles (0.8 km) to the north on the B1177 road. Sempringham is noted as the home of Gilbert of Sempringham, the son of the lord of the manor. Gilbert is the only English Saint to have founded a monastic order, the Gilbertines. In 1921 the parish had a population of 112. On 1 April 1931 the parish was abolished to form "Pointon and Sempringham".
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in the 12th century.
Watton is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The village is situated on the A164 road, about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Beverley and 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Driffield.
Events from the 1130s in England.
Relatio de Standardo, or De bello standardii, is a text composed probably in 1153 or 1154 by the Cistercian monk Aelred of Rievaulx, describing the Battle of the Standard, fought near Northallerton in 1138 between David I, King of Scotland, and a Norman army fighting in support of King Stephen of England.
The Vita Sancti Niniani or simply Vita Niniani is a Latin language Christian hagiography written in northern England in the mid-12th century. Using two earlier Anglo-Latin sources, it was written by Ailred of Rievaulx seemingly at the request of a Bishop of Galloway. It is loosely based on the career of the early British churchman Uinniau or Finnian, whose name through textual misreadings was rendered "Ninian" by high medieval English and Anglo-Norman writers, subsequently producing a distinct cult. Saint Ninian was thus an "unhistorical doppelganger" of someone else. The Vita tells "Ninian's" life-story, and relates ten miracles, six during the saint's lifetime and four posthumous.
De Sanctimoniali de Wattun or On the Nun of Watton is a 12th-century miracle story, describing events which took place in Yorkshire in the mid-12th century at the nunnery of Watton, East Riding of Yorkshire. It is also called A Certain Wonderful Miracle.
Watton Priory was a priory of the Gilbertine Order at Watton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The double monastery was founded in 1150 by Eustace fitz John.
Alvingham Priory was a Gilbertine priory in St. Mary, Alvingham, Lincolnshire, England. The Priory, established between 1148 and 1154, was a "double house", where religious of both sexes lived in two separate monasteries. They did not commonly communicate with one another, and there was an internal wall dividing their priory church. The superior of every Gilbertine house was the prioress, the prior being really an official of her house.
Sempringham Priory was a priory in Lincolnshire, England, located in the medieval hamlet of Sempringham, to the northwest of Pointon. Today, all that remains of the priory is a marking on the ground where the walls stood and a square, which are identifiable only in aerial photos of the vicinity. However, the parish church of St Andrew's, built around 1100 AD, is witness to the priory standing alone in a field away from the main road.
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Rose Graham was a British religious historian.
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