Diet in the monastery of Sainte-Croix de Poitiers at the time of Radegonde (second half of the 6th century AD)

Résumé En

Food is a central theme of the monastic life: symbolically, because it participates in asceticism, but also on the material level because it is necessary to feed the community. On one hand, the monastic ideal highlights the privations and on the other hand the home management worries to supply the monastery. The sources about the monastery Sainte-Croix de Poitiers in the second half of the 6th century report this dichotomy. The norm prescribes the fast - especially reported by Saint Radegonde's Vitae and the rule of Caesarius of Arles - and the diet practices are evocated in Fortunatus's poems, Gregory of Tours’s stories and in the letter of the abbess Caesaria. If we cross-check sources, we perceive behind this ideal of abstinence, the diet of a rich community, constituted by noble ladies who are used to diverse foods, and who do not want to risk food shortage, even during famine.