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The Scarlet Ball of Saint Odilia
“She thus wrote a letter that she wrapped in a scarlet ball and sent on to her brother through a random pilgrim. She implored her brother that, for the sake of his love for God, who commands that we should love not only our neighbors and friends but even our enemies, he be mindful of his own sister also”
Tunc ergo scripsit epistolam eamque globo coccineo involutam eidem germano per quondam peregrinum transmisit inplorando eius fraternitatem, ut propter Dei amorem, quo non solum propinquos et amicos, sed etiam inimicos diligere iubemur, recordari sui dignaretur.[1]
As this passage from the Life of Saint Odilia of Hohenburg shows, early medieval authors had a keen eye for scenes of epistolary communication. Letters are crucial to the structure of the narrative, highlighting important episodes and moving the story forward. This particular episode stands out for three reasons. Although the meaning of this scarlet ball has received little attention from scholars, it provides rare insight into the practicalities of secret communication. It also provides unique evidence of the materiality of epistolary communication. Finally, the scarlet ball functions as a narrative device, capturing the reader’s memory and attention.
Image: a medieval ball game. Illustration by Jehan de Grise, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 264, f. 63r. Date: 1338-1410. Source: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Preserved in a 9th or 10th century manuscript, this relatively short text was written at the monastery of St. Gall.[2] The original Life was likely composed in the 8th century. In its 17 pages, eight instances of epistolary communication take place, each highlighting an important episode in the Life. Odilia’s letter to her brother marks a turning point in her eventful Life. Her father Adalrich, a Frankish duke with vast estates in Alsace, wanted her dead because she was born blind, but her mother prevented this by sending her to a friend. Through a baptism by Saint Erhard of Bavaria, she gained her eyesight. Even after Erhard sent a letter to her father about the miracle, Odilia was still not welcome home. After being mistreated by the nuns in the monastery where she was living, Odilia wrote a letter to her brother, whom she had never seen or spoken to. She asked him to remember her out of love for God, “who commands that we should love not only our neighbors and friends, but even our enemies’’.[3] She wrapped the letter in a scarlet ball (globo coccineo) and had it delivered to her brother by a pilgrim. Over their father’s objections, her brother arranged to bring her home to Hohenburg, providing her with a carriage and necessities for the journey. Furious at his son’s disobedience, Adalrich killed him. This murder paved the way for Adalrich’s transformation and repentance. Regretting his actions, he eventually asked Odilia to return and bequeathed her a monastery in Alsace, which is the stage for the rest of her Life.
At the time she wrote her letter, Odilia lived in a Benedictine monastery. The Benedictine rule forbids sending and receiving letters without permission of the abbot, nor were the nuns allowed to have property.[4] Yet, there is no mention of discussing the letter with an abbot, and the scarlet ball appears suddenly without explanation. This raises the question of where she got it; she may have secretly possessed this scarlet or taken it from somewhere. Wrapping the letter in cloth and sending the fabric could be a way to hide the letter, ensuring her brother would be the first to see it. Similar secret letters are not uncommon in ancient literature. The Greeks and Romans already used ingenious methods to secretly convey messages; from using invisible ink and a cryptographic device to hiding letters in the belly of a hare or wound wrappings.[5] By wrapping the letter in the cloth, it was hidden from the abbot and her father. Odilia used a pilgrim to transport the letter, someone who was already on the move. This would have attracted less attention to the letter than someone who would have come with the sole purpose of delivering it. In a Benedictine monastery, communication with the outside world was carefully controlled. Although the Rule of St. Benedict emphasizes hospitality, visitors were only allowed in designated areas and under supervision.[6] Since pilgrims were frequent visitors to monasteries, this made them a natural choice for secretly transmitting a letter.
The scarlet ball acts as a material and a symbolic object, central to the story’s turning point. Scarlet was the name of a wool textile before it meant the brilliant red color associated with it today. It was the most luxurious wool of the Early Middle Ages, worn by the upper classes of society, kings and popes alike. The term had two meanings; it was used for this wool in a spectrum of colors, as well as a red color that is created by dying textiles with shield lice of the Coccidae family.[7] In the Life of Odilia, the ‘globo coccineo’ most likely refers to a cloth rolled up as a ball. The word ‘coccineo’ [scarlet] is used in various other hagiographies, mainly to describe the color of a royal robe.[8]
Maria Stöckele suggests that the scarlet ball may be an expensive cloth. By adding the cloth to the message, Odilia was appealing to material wealth and obligation. By accepting the scarlet ball, Odilia’s brother was obliged to accept her message.[9] Accompanying a message with a gift was a common practice in early medieval Europe. Invoking obligations of reciprocity was one reason to send a gift. A gift like the scarlet ball could also be an expression of identity or the relationship between the sender and receiver.[10] By sending this cloth, Odilia may have tactfully reminded her brother of her noble birthright. Though there is no mention of the scarlet before this passage, sending the cloth to her brother could be a form of identification as his real sister. It also signifies her nobility to the reader of the hagiography.
The scarlet ball was also a symbolic object, transforming the letter into something of greater narrative and spiritual importance. Stöckele connects this passage to one from another saint’s life, in which another Benedictine nun, Leoba, dreams that she pulls a purple thread out of her mouth and rolls it into a ball.[11] Her dream is explained by a monk in the Life: Leoba will become a great teacher, and the ball of thread is a symbol of the mystery of the divine word.[12] This parallel suggests that the scarlet ball may carry spiritual significance. Connecting expensive fabric of the thread – purple was another of the most expensive dyes – to the divine makes sense in light of other medieval practices regarding texts. Holy books were clad in precious materials, transforming them into symbolic objects. Gold, ivory carvings, and precious cloth were used to adorn books. These materials create an aura of sacredness for the audience.[13] Such parallels provide context for Odilia’s actions. Next to hiding her letter, wrapping it in a ball of expensive scarlet may have transformed it from a message to a more symbolic object, imbuing it with sacred authority. The scarlet ball could be explained as visually representing a divine will behind the message. This could account for the immediate acceptance of the letter by her brother.
Objects can attract attention to a passage, making it more memorable for the audience. Alongside a slight slow-down in the pace of the narrative, this passage stands out. These narrative techniques are used in several hagiographies to highlight turning points in a saint’s journey.[14] In this passage, multiple objects are named: Bishop Erhard’s letter to her father, Odilia’s letter wrapped in the scarlet ball, and the carriage and necessities for the journey to Hohenburg sent by her brother. Describing the objects engages the imagination of the reader and the scarlet ball becomes a mnemonic device, emphasizing Odilia’s arrival at the monastery where she will eventually become abbess.
The Life describes her brother’s reception of the letter but never mentions the scarlet ball again. Yet, it lingers in the mind of the reader, marking the importance of the passage. Though this episode of epistolary communication ends badly for the brother, it instigates the repentance of duke Aldarich. Just as baptism opened the eyes of Odilia, her letter instigates the chain of events that open the eyes of her father to the will of God.
[1] Vita Odiliae abb. Hohenburgensis (BHL-6271), ed. B. Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 6 (Hanover/Leipzig, 1913), cap. 7, p. 41.
[2] St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 577, pp. 71–86.
[3] Translation by the author. Vita Odiliae, cap. 7, p. 41.
[4] Maria Stöckele, Leben der Heiligen Odilia: eingeführt von Anselm Grün (Eresing, 2020), 80.
[5] Albert C. Leighton, “Secret Communication among the Greeks and Romans”, Technology and Culture 10, no. 2 (1969): 139–54, here 142.
[6] Leonard J. Doyle, St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries (Collegeville, MI, 1935), cap. 53.
[7] John H. Munro, Textiles, Towns and Trade: Essays in the Economic History of Late Medieval England and the Low Countries (Aldershot, 1994), pp. 13–20.
[8] For example: Vita Meinwerci Patherbrunnensis episcopi (BHL-5884), ed. F. Tenckhoff, MGH SS rer. Germ. 59 (Hanover, 1921), cap.: 211, p. 123.
[9] Stöckele, Leben der Heiligen Odilia, p. 82.
[10] Alice V. Tyrrell, Merovingian Letters and Letter Writers (Turnhout, 2019), p. 177.
[11] Stöckele, Leben der Heiligen Odilia, p. 82.
[12] Rudolf of Fulda, Vita Leobae abbatissae Biscofesheimensis (BHL-4845), ed. G. Waitz, MGH
SS 15,1 (Hanover, 1887), cap. 8, p. 125.
[13] David Ganz and Barbara Schellewald, eds. Clothing Sacred Scriptures: Book Art and Book Religion in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Cultures (Berlin, 2019), p. 24.
[14] Flavia Ruani, “Objects as Narrative Devices in Syriac Hagiography’’, in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond, ed. Sergey Minov and Flavia Ruani (Leiden, 2021), pp. 89–111, here 98.