Thousands of women served in God’s kingdom during Medieval times. Women prayed, taught, preached, went on pilgrimages, reigned over kingdoms, founded monasteries, and took care of the poor. Like their female forebears in the Patristic Era these women contributed greatly to the Kingdom of God, not so they could be remembered, but so they could serve the Lord Jesus by serving others.[1]
Women participated in all ministries in the first few centuries of the church. Things really changed for women in the 6th and 7th centuries when women began to be barred from the freedom of ministry that they exercised in the Patristic Era and Early Medieval Era. The main reason was that ideas about women changed. For a number of worldly or unbiblical reasons women’s status was continually lowered until men saw them as impure, sinful, and unable to function in church service. It has taken until the twentieth century for people to realize that women are capable of doing anything intellectual or spiritual that men can do. In fact, women often do better.
Thankfully, the poor treatment of women in the Middle Ages did not entirely stop them from finding ways to follow Christ. One of the chief ways that women were able to serve was in the cloister. In the monasteries, women would be able to pray, teach, preach, serve communion, study, support themselves and take care of the poor.
Throughout history, even with restrictions placed against them, women have and always will find ways to serve their Savior. Our story this week is about a dedicated servant of Christ whose godly influence changed the lives of thousands. Lioba found a way to honor the traditions of the church while working to further the kingdom of God.
Lioba (710-780)
An aged nun at Wimborne Abbey recognized that the young nun Lioba, whose name means “beloved” would become significant in Christ’s church. Lioba had had a dream and sought an explanation. The aged nun explained, “the person whose holiness and wisdom make her a worthy recipient, because by her teaching and good example she will confer benefits on many people.” She added, that many would “profit by her words and example, and the effect of them will be felt in other lands afar off whither she will go.”[2] The prophecy would come true; Lioba’s ministry would extend all through Germany.
Lioba was born in Wessex, England in 710 AD. As a young girl she was sent to Wimborne Abbey in Dorset to study under the abbess, Mother Tetta. Lioba was a gifted student and earned a reputation as an intelligent and pious scholar. Lioba read and memorized Scripture and applied herself to learning how to minister to others. Early on she showed an ability for organization and leadership that would serve her well later in her life.
In the meantime, the well-known St. Boniface was going throughout all of Saxony, Thuringia, and Hesse (part of modern Germany) spreading the gospel and making many converts. He desired to have places for new believers to worship and study. Because of correspondence with his cousin, Lioba, who was related to him on her mother’s side, he knew that there were many educated nuns in English convents. Lioba and Boniface corresponded for about twenty years. (You can read an example of one of her letters to him at the end of this post.)
Boniface wrote to Mother Tetta and asked if some nuns could come and assist in the work. He was pleased to take the opportunity to use Lioba’s giftedness to spread monasteries all over Germany. This was not only because he and Lioba were related, but because Lioba’s reputation as a wise and devout Christian was known far and wide and Boniface knew that she would win the respect of nuns and monks. His faith in her was rewarded by her many years of selfless devotion.
Mother Tetta sent Boniface some thirty nuns including Lioba. When they arrived at Mainz, on the Rhine, Boniface set them up in a dwelling at Bischofsheim. Lioba became the abbess there and the nuns quickly turned it into a model monastery. Soon the new abbey was filled with people desiring to have a religious vocation. Lioba was a good teacher. The new Christians were taught the “right way”. They quickly absorbed the teaching because Lioba not only spoke the Word of God to them, but she modeled it daily. Though she could be strict about obedience to God’s commands, Lioba was also cheerful, hospitable, and full of charitable works.
Many other monasteries were set up around Germany. Lioba modeled them after the Benedictine rule of life. St. Benedict’s Rule was to ensure that nuns and monks lived a holy life while in the monastery. The three main rules are familiar to us – poverty, chastity, and obedience. Lioba modeled them religiously. The abbots of other monasteries were so impressed with her that they often asked for her advice and guidance.
Lioba was even found at court ministering to royalty. She was uncomfortable there but had formed a friendship with Queen Hiltigard and King Charles. They had heard of her wisdom and the depth of her faith and sought her support. She would go cheerfully when they invited her but would not stay long. She always cared for the work that God gave her in the monasteries and among the poor and would soon return to her life of prayer and service. She had no desire for wealth or earthly possessions.
Sometimes Lioba went to the monastery at Fulda to say her prayers. This was an unusual privilege because it was a male-only monastery. Women were not allowed to enter. Permission was given to her because Boniface had spoken highly of her to the elders and because he had ordered them to bury Lioba there when she died. Boniface loved her for her great wisdom and kindness. Lioba outlived Boniface by twenty-four years. Boniface had gone to Friesland where he was eventually martyred. Lioba was about seventy years old when she died around 780 AD.
In her final years, Lioba spent her time in prayer and visiting the other monasteries imparting her wisdom and exhorting them to follow Christ’s example of love and care for the poor. When she died her body was tenderly and respectfully carried by the monks of Fulda in a procession to their monastery. They were not willing however to open St. Boniface’s tomb to bury Lioba there. Instead they buried her on the north side of the altar which the martyr St. Boniface had built.
Here is an example of one of Lioba’s letters to St. Boniface written in 723. Imagine this young woman, approximately thirteen years of age demonstrating her profound wisdom, spirituality, and grace. (Could any teenager today write this way!)
The letter was written as an accompaniment to a gift. Note the humility as Lioba also sends a small poem that she wrote for Boniface.
To my revered master Boniface, bearing the insignia of the highest office, most dear to me in Christ and bound to me by ties of kinship, I, Lioba, least of the servants of those who bear the easy yoke of Christ, wish enduring health and prosperity. I beg you graciously to bear in mind your ancient friendship for my father, Dynne, formed long ago in the West country. It is now eight years since he was called away from this world, and I ask your prayers for his soul. I recall to your memory also my mother, Aebbe, who, as you know, is bound to you by ties of blood. She lives a life of suffering, bowed down by grievous illness. I am the only daughter of my parents and, unworthy though I be, I wish that I might regard you as a brother; for there is no other man in my kinship in whom I have such confidence as in you. I have ventured to send you this little gift, not as if it deserved even a kindly glance from you but that you may have a reminder of my insignificance and not let me be forgotten on account of our wide separation. May the bond of our true affection be knit ever more closely for all time. I eagerly pray, my dear brother, that I may be protected by the shield of your prayers from the poisoned darts of the hidden enemy. I beg you also to be so kind as to correct the unskilled style of this letter and to send me, by way of example, a few kind words which I greatly long to hear. I have composed the following verses according to the rules of poetic art, not trusting to my own presumption, but trying only to exercise my little talents and needing your assistance. I have studied this art under the guidance of Eadburga, who still carries on without ceasing her investigation of the divine law.
Farewell, and may you live long and happily, making intercession for me.
The omnipotent Ruler who alone created everything,
He who shines in splendor forever in His Father’s kingdom,
The perpetual fire by which the glory of Christ reigns,
May preserve you forever in perennial right.
Lioba joined her friend Boniface in heaven around 779 or 780 AD. The two are forever in the presence of Christ along with the other saints of the Medieval era.
[1] See posts on this blog site from January 22, 2019 through June 4, 2019 for “Women in the Patristic Era”.
[2] Amy Oden, editor. In Her Words: Women’s Writings in the History of Christian Thought (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994). P. 90-91.
