Roseline or Rossolina de Villeneuve (1263 – January 17, 1329) was a French

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

. She is regarded as a saint in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Life

Roseline was born to an aristocratic family, at the

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

Les Arcs-sur-Argens Les Arcs (, also known as Les Arcs-sur-Argens, literally ''Les Arcs on Argens''; oc, Los Arcs) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 7,066. Geography ...

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

, in eastern

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

, near

Draguignan Draguignan (; oc, Draguinhan) is a commune in the Var department in the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (formerly Provence), southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Ar ...

. As a child, she discreetly distributed food from the chateau larder to the local poor people. A similar Miracle of the roses is told of her, as is attributed to several other saints. Having overcome her father's opposition, Roseline became a

at Bertaud in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

. Her

consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

took place in 1288, and in about 1330 she succeeded her aunt, Jeanne (Diane) de Villeneuve, as

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

ess of La Celle-Robaud in the

Diocese of Fréjus In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

near her home. In 1320 her brother

Hélion de Villeneuve Hélion de Villeneuve Hélion de Villeneuve (c. 1270 – 1346) was a French-born Grand Master of the Knights of St. John. He was the brother of Saint Roseline. He died on the island of Rhodes. The blazon of his coat-of-arms was ''Gules s ...

, Grand Master (1319–46) of the

Knights of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

, restored the monastery, and in 1323 and 1328

Pope John XXII Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by ...

, formerly Bishop of Fréjus, increased its revenue, granting

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

s for the anniversary of the dedication of the church.Webster, Douglas Raymund. "St. Roseline." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 18 November 2021 Many visions together with extraordinary austerities and great power over demons are ascribed to her. Roseline obtained leave to resign her office before her death in 1329 at the age of sixty-six.

Veneration

Her feast was given in the ''

Acta Sanctorum ''Acta Sanctorum'' (''Acts of the Saints'') is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. The project w ...

'' on 11 June, the day of the first translation of her relics in 1334 by her brother, Elzéar de Villeneuve,

Bishop of Digne The Diocese of Digne (Latin: ''Dioecesis Diniensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Digne'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected in the 4th century as the Diocese of Digne, the diocese has bee ...

. It is now observed on her day of death, 17 January. A plenary indulgence has been granted to all those who visit a Carthusian church on that day.d'Hérouville, Lætitia. "Sainte Roseline de Villeneuve, la « rose sans épine » de Provence", Diocèse de Fréjus-Toulon
/ref> There has always been a local cultus and this was confirmed for the Diocese of Fréjus by a Decree of 1851, for the Carthusian Order in 1857. Roseline is usually represented with a

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including ''wikt:phylactery, phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it i ...

containing two eyes, recalling the fact that her eyes were removed and preserved apart. This relic was still extant at Arcs in 1882. There is no ancient life of the saint, but that given in the ''Acta Sanctorum'', 2 June, 489 sq., was constructed by

Papebroch Daniel Papebroch, S.J., (17 March 1628 – 28 June 1714) was a Flemish Jesuit hagiographer, one of the Bollandists. He was a leading revisionist figure, bringing historical criticism to bear on traditions of saints of the Catholic Church. Life ...

from ancient documents. Her

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

, situated at Les Arcs-sur-Argens near Draguignan, has been for six centuries a place of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

. The Roseline Chapel near the Château Sainte Roseline is located in a private vineyard. It contains the body of Roseline in a glass reliquiary. According to legend, one day Rosaline was so caught up in contemplation that she failed to make dinner for the nuns. Angels came down, prepared the dinner and set the table. This story is depicted at the chapel in a wall

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

.Maison Mimosa – Wine tasting in Provence
/ref> Roseline de Villeneuve is a

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon and of sailors.

Notes

External links

* http://www.beyond.fr/sites/roseline.html St Roseline Chapel {{DEFAULTSORT:Roseline, Saint 1263 births 1329 deaths People from Var (department) 14th-century Christian saints Carthusian nuns Medieval French saints Female saints of medieval France 14th-century French people 14th-century French women