‘Poverty, Queen and Empress’: A Re-evaluation of the Grandmontine Conceptions of Poverty and the Evangelical Life

Abstract

Scholars have often noted similarities between the Grandmontine Order’s concept of poverty and the Franciscan one. This article argues that the two groups fundamentally differed in their approach. The Grandmontines only admired material poverty when it was an outward sign of spiritual poverty, defined as the renunciation of the world, the self, and the will. More often than not, however, material poverty forced hermits to go back into the world to survive, going against their eremitic ideals of spiritual poverty. Instead of renouncing all ownership and prizing the lack of material goods as the Franciscans did, Grandmontines owned what they needed to survive apart from the world, trusting that by not going into the world, God willing, they would inspire the world to give them what they needed.