Ida of Louvain explained

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]

Notes and References

  1. [Alphonse Le Roy]
  2. [Alphonse Wauters]
  3. Book: David Herlihy. Women, Family and Society in Medieval Europe . 1995. Berghahn. 978-1-57181-024-3. 170–171.
  4. Book: Michael J. Walsh. A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. 2007. Liturgical Press. 978-0-8146-3186-7. 275.
  5. Book: The Cistercian fathers, or, Lives and legends of certain saints and blessed of the Order of Citeaux. H. Collins. 1872 . 163–170 . Cistercians .
  6. Book: Constance Classen. The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch. 2012. University of Illinois Press. 978-0-252-09440-8. 86–87.
  7. Basil Watkins (ed.), The Book of Saints (7th ed., London, 2002), p. 273.