Yvette of Huy (1158 – 13 January 1228) was a venerated Christian

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

and anchoress. Born in

Huy Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the ''sillon industriel'', the former industrial ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, she was also known as ''Ivette'', ''Ivetta, ''Jufta'' or ''Jutta''.

Life

Yvette was born into a wealthy, but not particularly religious family, close to the

bishop of Liège A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

. From an early age Yvette was hesitant of marriage and wished to live a religious life. Described in Her father was a tax collector. However, Yvette was forced into an arranged marriage at aged thirteen. Her marriage produced three children (one died while still an infant) before she was widowed at eighteen. Like many medieval women, it was in widowhood that she gained more self-determination. She began to live a more religious life by attending mass regularly, giving to the poor, and deciding not to remarry. Her father objected to the latter two activities. He was so concerned about her excessive giving to the poor that he took her sons from her, fearing that she would give away all of their wealth. Her father and others in her family also tried to get her to remarry. He even took her to the Bishop of Leige, for whom he worked, but Yvette's Hagiography attests that when the bishop saw her devotion and humility he agreed to let her stay in holy widowhood. It was after this assurance from the Bishop that Yvette retired to a virtually derelict

leper Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damage ...

hospital in Statte, close to Huy, on the heights of the river

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

to tend to the inmates, and more fully follow her religious calling. She left her two sons in the care of their grandfather. Ten years later, she became an anchoress and was enclosed in a chapel cell near the colony in a ceremony conducted by the abbot of Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval. From there she offered guidance to pilgrims who considered her a prophetess in the apostolic sense of having insight into the divine. She summoned priests and even the dean of the local church to her presence and confronted them about their behaviour. She was responsible for the conversion of her father and one of her two surviving sons. After a time, her power threatened the male clergy and canons. She was denounced. Yvette died on 13 January 1228 in

. Her life was recorded by the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

Hugh of Floreffe. Although never formally canonised as a saint, she is classed as ‘blessed’ by the Catholic Church; feast day January 13th, the date of her death. One of her sons became a monk at the monastery of Orval and became its abbot. In time he too became classed as a ‘blessed': Eustachius of Huy, commemorated on March 13th in the Cistercian calendar.

References

Additional Sources

* * * * 1158 births 1228 deaths 13th-century Christian saints 13th-century Christian mystics Belgian Roman Catholic saints Female saints of medieval Belgium Roman Catholic mystics People from Huy 13th-century women of the Holy Roman Empire {{Saint-stub