Rereading Leoba, or Hagiography as Compromise
Margaret Cotter-Lynch
n 836, Hrabanus Maurus, as abbot of Fulda, undertook a program church building and renewed evangelism in the areas controlled by his monastery. As part this program, he asked Rudolf, monk schoolmaster at abbey, to compose vita Leoba, AngloSaxon abbess missionary Saxony who had died 54 years earlier, was now buried near St. Boniface Fulda’s crypt. Rudolf ’s hagiography would answer new Carolingian requirement for written texts support veneration saints, asserting legitimacy sanctity recently deceased local abbess. 1 task produce laudatory yet accessible portrait woman traveled from her native England into frontier eighth-century converting pagans establishing first convent women that country. He explain how why come be interred male monastery, alongside one Saxony’s great established she worthy populace. 2 The problem, both Hrabanus, according two men ninth-century which they served, Leoba did not quite behave holy should. 3 difficulties faced writing Saint are apparent finished text will seem familiar many scholars feminist literary history. ideals concerning religious women’s behavior align with official positions after Benedictine reforms: strictly cloistered, focused on internal piety prayer, very limited if any engagement either ecclesiastical or secular worlds beyond convent’s walls. facts Leoba’s pre-reform historical life, however, contrast sharply ninth
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