´óÏó´«Ã½

Who of us doesn't occasionally have the urge to run away from it all? To go and live in the middle of a forest and spend our days staring at trees.

Professor Janina Ramirez uncovers the little known 500-year-old story about Suster Bertken who did choose to run away from this world, but rather than opting for a forest, she put herself right in the middle of a very busy Dutch city. How does that work?

Around 1456 at the age of 30, Berta Jacobsdochter opted to become an anchoress. This means that after a bishop led her Requiem Mass, she was bricked up in a cell attached to the Buurkerk in the centre of Utrecht in the Netherlands for the remainder of her life in order that she could live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation of Christ. On becoming an anchoress, Berta took on the new name of Suster Bertken. Food was delivered to her through a window, but she had no heating, no shoes, ate no meat or dairy, and wore a hair shirt. She lived in this 4 metre square cell for 57 years, dying at the incredible age of 87.

In her cell, as well as living a life of prayer and contemplation, Suster Bertken wrote religious tracts, poems and songs. When she died, some of these were printed and thus she became the first Dutch woman whose texts appeared in print.

Professor Janina Ramirez of Oxford University is a Medieval scholar with a special interest in anchoresses. Alongside Dr Dieuwke van der Poel of Utrecht University, Janina unravels the intriguing and thought-provoking story of Suster Bertken’s life. As a modern audience we may be appalled or even spooked by Suster Bertken opting to live in the way that she did. But Janina and Dieuwke, as well considering the obvious privations, explore the advantages for a woman of living the life of an anchoress in Medieval Europe. They wonder if far from withdrawing from society, Suster Bertken may have cleverly taken on a pivotal and highly influential role as a woman in her city.

Suster Bertken’s songs have been largely unsung but some of them have been specially recorded for this programme and so will be heard in the world for the first time ever, outside of her tiny cell.

Suster Bertken’s song The World Held Me in Its Power is performed by Ensemble Trigon conducted by Margot Kalse.

All other Suster Bertken songs are specially recorded and performed by Margot Kalse.

Plus interviews with Dr Andrea van Leerdam from the Special Collections of Utrecht University Library and Medieval scholar Lieke Wijnia.

And Janina reads the poem: When I Turn Thirty by Anne Broeksma.

A Must Try Softer Production produced by Rosie Boulton.

Show less