Blessed Emily Bicchieri, 1238-1314

Extract

From the earliest history of monasticism in Europe religious houses, both of men and women, received children for education. Anglo-Saxon girls were not only sent to the monasteries of their own country but also to famous centres of learning abroad such as the great monastery founded by St Cesarius of Arles where the holy bishop wished his nuns to devote themselves not only to the study of the Scriptures and the Fathers but to all learning-omnes litora. St Gertrude of Nivelles, desirous of securing the best teachers for her monastic school, sent for them to Ireland, then the great home of learning. The love of learning was not contined to the daughters of nobles. Thomas of Cantempré, O.P. tells of a Brabant peasant girl who was welcomed by her richer sisters when she longed to learn to read her psalter.