Anonymous: Vita Beatae Idae

This Life commemorates Blessed Ida, countess of Boulogne, mother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin, the first rulers of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, who died in 1113. It opens with a long prologue reflecting that the world is growing old and must be helped by the merits of past saints. The four chapters then treat her ancestry, upbringing, marriage, children and virtues; her widowhood, her foundation of monasteries and the miracles worked through her; the repeated healing of a deaf and mute girl and her pious death and burial; and the incorruption of her body and miracles after death. The sample describes how, with the counsel of Bishop John of the Morini, she established a community following the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Ida’s Life presents a noblewoman whose sanctity lay in her family, her almsgiving and her patronage of monks, a model widely admired in the twelfth century. It draws added interest from her sons’ leading roles in the First Crusade. The work is an example of hagiography written for a monastic community that honoured its benefactress, and its author is not named.