Dhuoda de Septimanie
v. 803-après 843 9th century
Prayer held across distance, when love can only write and entrust the absent one to God.
Who was Dhuoda de Septimanie?
A Frankish noblewoman, married to an often-absent marquis and separated from her two sons by the wars of the Carolingian empire, she wrote a handbook of Christian life for her elder son William. Far from her own, she made a book the place of her presence, entrusting to it, through counsels on prayer, loyalty and the love of God, all that a mother could no longer say aloud.
In their own words
Though I am absent from your sight, this little book will be present to you: as you read it, remember me.
You will find there a mirror in which you may, without difficulty, behold the salvation of your soul.
God must be sought, my son, by me and by you: in his will we stand, we live, we move and we are.