Ida of Louvain (died around 1300) was a Cistercian nun of Roosendael Abbey in the 13th-century Low Countries who is officially commemorated in the Catholic Church as blessed.

Life

Ida was born into a well-to-do family in Leuven, Duchy of Brabant (now Belgium). At the age of 22 she felt a religious vocation but her father was a worldly man who would not accept this and subjected her to various forms of ill-treatment to discourage her.[1] Despite parental disapproval, she first dedicated her life to God as an anchoress, and later became a nun in the recently founded Cistercian Abbey of Roosendael (the Valley of the Roses) in what is now Sint-Katelijne-Waver. One historian has described her as adding "éclat" to the monastery.[2] The only contemporary record of her life is in a series of letters by her confessor, a priest named Hugo.

Legend and veneration

Ida died with a reputation for sanctity and came to be considered a saint.[3][4] She was said to have experienced stigmata and mystical graces.[5] These included miraculous visions and corporeal encounters with appearances of the infant Jesus, where she would hold him, bathe him, play with him and dress him.[3][6] She was beatified for her piety and humility. Her official commemoration, granted by Pope Clement XI in 1719, is April 13.[4][7]

References

  1. ↑ Alphonse Le Roy, "Ida ou Ide (la bienheureuse)", Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 10 (Brussels, 1889), 6-7.
  2. ↑ Alphonse Wauters, Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, vol. 3, p. 662.
  3. 1 2 David Herlihy (1995). Women, Family and Society in Medieval Europe. Berghahn. pp. 170–171. ISBN 978-1-57181-024-3.
  4. 1 2 Michael J. Walsh (2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. Liturgical Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0-8146-3186-7.
  5. ↑ The Cistercian fathers, or, Lives and legends of certain saints and blessed of the Order of Citeaux. Translated by H. Collins. 1872. pp. 163–170.
  6. ↑ Constance Classen (2012). The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch. University of Illinois Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-252-09440-8.
  7. ↑ Basil Watkins (ed.), The Book of Saints (7th ed., London, 2002), p. 273.
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