Hersende of Champagne (fl. 12th c.)
Hersende of Champagne (fl. 12th c.)
French abbess and healer. Name variations: Hersende of Fontevrault. Flourished in the early 12th century in southern France.
Hersende of Champagne was a religious founder from a noble family of southern France. Like numerous other women of her station, she became a supporter of the religious reformer Robert d'Arbrissel. Robert preached many changes; chief among them was to build religious establishments with a convent and monastery together, with authority for both given to an abbess. Robert argued that a woman should oversee both houses because women's nurturing role as mothers made them most fit to be given responsibility for the welfare of others. This idea, and others along the same radical lines, made Robert very popular among upper-class, strong-willed women like Hersende. In response, Hersende planned several such double monasteries, with monks answering to an abbess, and endowed them with her own money. She became abbess at the large monastery of Fontevrault, and also acted as a healer.
Laura York , Riverside, California