Holy Vows, Worldly Manners: Monastic Space, Consumption Practices and Social Identity in the Cistercian Nunnery of Clairefontaine

Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Archaeology.
This research aims to contribute to the study of daily life in medieval and early modern Cistercian nunneries. Clairefontaine serves as classic example of a 13th century Cistercian nunnery foundation and serves as a starting point for the research. According to the foundation narrative, this small community of religious women was founded in 1247 by Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg and ancestress of the House of Luxembourg- Limburg. The construction of the abbey was the last wish of Ermesinde and, was completed in 1253 by her son Henry the Blond. The community was admitted two years before into the Order of Cîteaux. The abbey served as the count’s dynastic burial place for more than a century.
The research presented in this thesis has raised a corner of the veil so to speak. By the use of archaeological remains carefully interpreted in a multidisciplinary environment we were able to take a look behind the wall of the Cistercian nunnery of Clairefontaine. By doing so we were able to shed more light on the phenomenon of female monasticism in the Low Countries during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. The image we were able to provide was not one of women living in a remote reality, detached from secular society and alienated from worldly existence. On the contrary, research has demonstrated that female monasticism was entwined with the secular world and more specifically with the social world of nobility and aristocracy. Female monasticism was part of being noble and served the desire for social recognition of members of the nobility on both sides of the convent wall.