cathedral of Poitiers, the three-story elevation, which includes a dark triforium and
capacious tracery windows, adopts the Rayonnant style of architecture of northern
France, perhaps in emulation of other southern cathedrals, such as Bayonne or Bordeaux.
Michael T.Davis
Crozet, René. “La cathédrale de Luçon.” Congrès archéologique 114(1956):41–55.
Dillange, Michel. Vendée romane. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1976.
Du Tressay, Georges Alexandre François Marie. Histoire des moines et des évêques de Luçon.
Paris: Lecoffre, 1869.
Labande, Édmond-René, ed. Histoire du Poitou, du Limousin et des pays charentais: Vendée,
Aunis, Saintonge, Angoumois. Toulouse: Privat, 1976.
LUITGARD OF AYWIÈRES
(Luitgard of Tongres; 1182–1246). Born into a wealthy family, Luitgard entered the
monastery of Sainte-Catherine at Saint-Trond at the age of twelve. Twelve years later,
she was elected prioress but chose instead to leave for the Cistercian monastery at
Aywières. After a long life of exemplary holiness, Luitgard died among her fellow sisters
on July 16, 1246. She eventually became the patron saint of Flanders. Several vitae of
Luitgard exist, the most notable being composed by Thomas de Cantimpré three years
after her death. Luitgard’s life was filled with an extravagant array of visions and
miracles. The visions include highly abstract apparitions of light, concrete personal
admonitions by Christ and by angelic messengers, political and ecclesiastical messages
(e.g., asking her to fast for seven years because of the Albigensians), and contacts with
souls in Purgatory. Among her miracles are such physical phenomena as levitation,
profuse sweating and crying, ecstasies, healing with spittle and the laying on of hands,
prophecy, and raptures.
Illiterate and unable to speak French, Luitgard nonetheless contributed powerful
images to the growing movement of christocentric mysticism: Christ urges her repeatedly
to drink directly from his bleeding wound and receives her heart in his own. Luitgard’s
vita offers remarkable insight into the flourishing communities of spiritual women and
their mutual influence on each other. Marie d’Oignies, for example, is present at her
deathbed and predicts Luitgard’s miraculous activities from beyond the grave. A
Cistercian nun, Sybille de Gages, composes a poem in her honor; Luitgard’s spirit
frequently appears to other nuns in visions.
Ulrike Wiethaus
[See also: MARIE D’OIGNIES; WOMEN, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF]
Thomas de Cantimpré. Vita Lutgardis, ed. Pinius. Acta Sanctorum (1867)3.187–209.
——. The Life of Lutgard of Aywières, trans. Margot H.King. Saskatoon: Peregrina, 1987.
Deboutte, A. “S. Lutgarde et sa spiritualité.” Collectanea cisterciensa 44(1982):73–87.
Dinzelbacher, Peter. “Das Christusbild der heiligen Luitgard von Tongeren im Rahmen der
Passionsmystik und Bildkunst des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts.” Ons geestelijk erf 56(1982): 217–
77.
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