Excerpted Lives of Katherine Hughen & Wibbe Arnts: Modern Devotion, Basic Writings

A couple more quick sketches of lives spent in devotion under direction at those Houses in Holland here. The more of these the better, yes, as they act like tiny windows on individual lives, long ago. Still, the existence of these texts themselves shed light on what these houses thought memorable and noteworthy. They clearly thought these were people worth remembering: the forebears and former 'sisters' in this particular House of Devotion. And with just a few, poles of activity and the personalities and their roles, a view on how a house could operate also comes into view, so there should be a few. All are translated by John Van Engen and available for purchase in a sharp book by the Paulist Press.

These two snapshots are of older women who perhaps saw the earliest Houses of 'sisters' in their earliest years. But both were older by the time they entered their devotional practices in these separated spiritual spaces, both stayed there for years and both died about the same time. One was Sister Wibbe Arnts.

"Good sister Wibbe [d. 1412] used to take care of the inner courtyard of our house, and this was her office. She did this humbly; it was her way of turning herself to our dear Lord. She was an elderly sister and had lived here a long time, but she walked about simply and plainly as if she were a young sister. She was a plain and simple creature by nature, and she turned to our dear Lord in this same way. She was never sharp or complaining, and was never heard talking or murmuring about the things her superiors had charged or ordered. She did the work charged to her very devoutly and was at peace with it, allowing things to go up and down just as God and her superiors wished. She also spurred others on, according to their abilities." [pp. 126-7]

Another sister Katherin Hughen had died the year before and had come to join the others already after the age of fifty.

"She was an ardent and devout person and took pains  -- because she had entered the Lord's vineyard in her eleventh hour -- to give herself all the more ardently to the virtues, for she had spent her time in the world foolishly." [p. 126]

The word ardent comes up frequently in these encomia. It was indeed a mark of high praise in these houses. Van Engen tells us in his introduction that ardent (in both the English and Latin use) referred to an inner fire or glow.

"Every brother or sister who had caught the spark, whose inner life was moved with desire toward God and goodness, was described as "ardent" or "kindled" or "fervent". The New Devout looked for that glow, for that inner radiance, that inner light, marking a heart now folllowing down the path of the new devotion with intensity, with "fire."" [p. 34]

In this new place, in her ardent reaction to her former 'worldly foolishness', Katherine,  "... tried.. to retrieve twice as much:"

"Just as earlier she had served the world with everything that was in her, so now she served our dear Lord with everything that was in her. She had once lived with people who were great in the world's eyes, and there she had grown accustomed to much worldliness and done all to serve her own pleasure. But when she came to join the sisters, she converted herself wholly to God and gave herself over to great humility and lowliness, as if she neither had nor had ever had great possessions in the world. For she saw what she had done and therefore counted nothing as what she now did in turn. Because she had joined fully in the idle pleasures of this world, she possessed all kinds of beautiful jewelery; this she brought along and gave to our dear Lady, or elsewhere as there was need." [p. 126]

It would be interesting to find out how Katherine Hughen in her pursuit of 'idle pleasure' in those days (c. 1370-1400) could acquire so many 'kinds of beautiful jewelery'.  Also interesting would be the chain of events that led her to enter into such a modern devotion instead of the other many canonical houses. This move would possibly be away from courtlife, or the gambling houses and brothels, or even, any of the other leading abbeys and Houses with Canoninc Orders.  The question of why and how the chain of events of her conversion to such a House and toward this form of practice scratches at the imagination. While the record is silent on these matters, a spare clue is given.

"She was very loyal to our house. Because she wanted so very much that the sisters should receive her earthly possessions, she held on so powerfully in her final illness that she nearly died without the holy sacrament." [p. 126]

Were these houses or their practitioners taxed? What rights did she have over her earthly possessions when she died? Why did this matter at this time? Why was this matter, even for these worldly renouncing sisters, seemingly so important? It's hard to answer these basic questions from so far away.

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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988