Ida of Nivelles
Personal
Born
Died11 December 1231
OrderCistercian

Ida of Nivelles (c.1190 – 11 December 1231) was a beatified Cistercian nun and mystic.[1][2][3][4]

Biography

Ida was born into a prosperous mercantile family in Nivelles, an important market town and pilgrimage destination in Brabant, a short distance to the south of Brussels.[4] After her father died the family arranged for her to be married. She was aged only nine or sixteen (sources differ), and not wishing to marry she fled to a beguinage, a community of intentionally unmarried Godly women who lived in a shared community, but without taking vows or cutting themselves off from the world outside. The beguinage community that took her in comprised seven women who lived near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in her home town. Ida became a beguine.[1][3]

She moved on in around 1213, accepted into the Cistercian convent at Kerkom near Tienen.[3] (The convent relocated shortly afterwards to La Ramée.) There she worked as a writer and illustrator.[5] She reported numerous visions and other experiences by which she had been affected, and developing a particularly close relationship with the Virgin Mary.[6] Her experiences were sufficiently widely attested for her to become identified as a woman mystic. She is also celebrated for her exceptional dedication to poverty relief.[4]

Goswin of Bossut wrote a biography of Ida of Nivelles shortly after her death.[7] She was later beatified. The church celebrates her each year on 12 December.

References

  1. 1 2 Joachim Schäfer (compiler), Stuttgart. "Ida von Nivelles (auch: Ide von Nijvel, von Rameige)". Patronin gegen Zahnschmerzen und Qualen im Fegefeuer. Ökumenische Heiligenlexikon. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  2. Franz Seiffer: Ida von Nivelles. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). vol. 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8, p. 1250.
  3. 1 2 3 "Ida von Nivelles". Dr. Karl-Georg Michel i.A. Bistum Augsburg. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Die selige Ida von Nivelles". Pfarrer Bernhard Hesse, Kempten i.A. Ewigen Anbetung. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  5. Ursula Peters: Vita reliosa und spirituelles Erleben. Frauenmystik und frauenmystische Literatur im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert In: Gisela Brinker-Gabler (compiler-producer), Deutsche Literatur von Frauen, vol. 1, Darmstadt/München 1988. ISBN 3406331181. p. 90
  6. Miri Rubin (2009). Mother of God. Yale University Press. pp. 257–258. ISBN 978-0-300-15613-3.
  7. Martinus Cawley (ed.), Send Me God: The Lives of Ida the Compassionate of Nivelles, Nun of La Ramée, Arnulf, Lay Brother of Villers, and Abundus, Monk of Villers, by Goswin of Bossut (Brepols, 2003).
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