Rusticula

[1] The Latin title of the biography is Vita Rusticulae sive Marciae abbatissae Arelatensis.

[2] The earliest complete copy of the Life is found in a 14th-century manuscript, now in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat.

[3] In his edition for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Bruno Krusch condemned the Life as a forgery from the reign of Louis the Pious (814–840), based on the quality of the text's Latinity and its uncertain chronology.

It is not clear if the household in question was her parents' or the convent, in which case Marcia may have been a religious name adopted when she became a nun.

[2] Although Rusticula's mother petitioned Bishop Sapaudus of Arles [fr] for the return of her daughter, Guntram refused because the girl had already professed as a nun.

[11] The Life credits her with major building projects in which "she brought stones to the workmen with her own hands.

"[12] Sometime after 613, when Provence had fallen to Chlothar II, Rusticula was accused of participating in a plot against the king's life.

[18] Florentius reports one posthumous miracle worked through her intercession to prove her sainthood: a lame man was healed after drinking the water that washed the pallet that had carried her body.

Start of Rusticula's Life in a 14th-century manuscript
A prayer to Rusticula incorporated into a copy of the Life in a 17th-century manuscript