Driving west from Wageningen one comes across the small town of Rhenen. It has an improbably huge church tower for such a small town and while curious about why, I never found a reason to stop and visit it. Driving through last weekend on our way to a walk we drove through the town (I would almost say village – but actually it had city rights in the middle ages) and so we stopped over went to see the church and asked one of the local residents the story. Here it is.
Rhenen was once an important town because it was on the border between the dukedoms of Gelderland and Utrecht and commanded a strategic position on the Rhine. Cunera, a female British crusader, had been captured by the Frankish (and pagan) hordes near Cologne on her way back from the Holy Land and the Duke rode out to save her and her companions. He bought her back to Rhenen and gave her sanctuary. Cunera apparently did many good works while there, giving solstice and alms to the poor. This attracted the attentions of the Duke and the jealousy of his wife, who together with a hand-maiden strangled Cunera. Two hundred years later Cunera’s body was exhumed and found to show no signs of decay and she was duly canonised.
It's a nice story, so I checked Google and found a host of catholic websites whose existence I had never imagined. The seemingly most-trustworthy of these says: Cunera - a British virgin venerated in Germany. Her traditions are not trustworthy. I have to concur - a British girl who went to the Mediterranean and came back a virgin – it doesn’t happen often. Maybe she does deserve her role in the pantheon.
Fact or fiction? Whatever, it’s a nice piece of local folklore. In summer there are daily tours up the tower – from which you can (reputedly) see the Dom (Cathedral tower) in Utrecht. After that we went to a country park, where the lakes were still frozen after a hard frost.
2 comments:
It's a lovely story and while not "trustworthy" I feel sure there's a shred of truth in there.
But why does she have to be a virgin to be worth venerating?
Guess that's (medieval) Catholicism for you
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