About the Text
Below is a short excerpt from the Life of Ascelina, a visionary and prioress of the monastery of Lieu-des-Dames, close to Boulancourt, who lived from c. 1122 to 1195. The author Gossuinus lived as a monk at the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux, then Cheminon, and finally Boulancourt. He likely completed his work sometime around 1200 and dedicated it to the abbot Gerhard of Eberbach.
This brief summation of a miracle facilitated by Ascelina (only 30 words total in the original Latin) is not about pilgrimage itself, but rather about those left behind, in this case, “a certain wife.” The husband does not play a particular role in the story, except by his absence: Gossuinus notes that he has left for Compostela, perhaps implying that his absence left his wife vulnerable.
Often, sources on pilgrimage stress the dangers faced by the pilgrims themselves, who must contend with dangerous river crossings and inclement weather, not to mention possible attacks from bandits and wolves. Divine intervention and royal protections alike worked to preserve pilgrims from these dangers. In the Life of Ascelina, in contrast, the miracle does not center on the pilgrim, but on his wife, highlighting the hazards faced even in daily life by those “safe” at home.
Translation
A certain wife, whose husband had set out on pilgrimage to St. James, was liberated from an incubus demon, by which she was gravely attacked though she did not consent, thanks to a part of the veil and of a tallow candle from this handmaiden of God [i.e., Ascelina].
References
Mula, Stefano. “Gossuinus’s Vitae of Emelina and Ascelina. Edition from Florence, Laurenziana, MS. Ashburnham 1906.” Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses 62 (2011): 37-58. Here p. 54.