Baudovinia


Baudonivia was a nun and hagiographer at the convent of Holy Cross of Poitiers. Very little is known about her.
She is the author of the "second part" of the Vita Radegundis, a biography of Frankish queen and founder of the Holy Cross abbey, Radegund, which she wrote at Chelles Abbey sometime between 599 and 614. With the former half having been written by Venantius Fortunatus, she regarded her work like the latter half of a diptych.
Based on her personal knowledge of Radegund, Venantius Fortunatus's biography, and hagiographical sources, Baudonivia created a portrait of a devout yet politically shrewd woman who used her worldly power to sustain the monastery. Her work has been characterised as faithful to the picture painted by Venantius Fortunatus, but more significantly influenced by the ideology of Caesarius of Arles's Regula Virginum with the clear purpose of providing a model of sanctity for the nuns of her generation. The work is focused on the later stages of Radegund's life, when Radegund lived in a cell near Poitiers.
Scholars have noted the thematic differences between Venantius Fortunatus' and Baudonivia's biographies: whereas the former focuses on Radegund's deference to authority, the latter highlights her role as diplomat and protector of her community of nuns. While Fortunus relates the extensive self-mutilation Radegund performed, Baudonivia discusses her letter writing, her actions on behalf of the Church and individuals, her traveling to collect relics and, most importantly, her efforts to gain a fragment of the True Cross from Justin II, the Byzantine Emperor. The book also includes all of the miracles performed by Radegund.
She is memorialized in The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.