Created Wednesday 05 March 2014
Immena was daughter of Count Raoul of Turenne and his wife Aiga, and was placed in a religious education in 823 (Beaulieu CLXXXV). By 844 she was deo vota and Abbess at Sarrazac (Beaulieu XXXIV), a nunnery yet to be actually built, but in 847 she sold a part of her property to her brother Archbishop Raoul of Bourges (Beaulieu CLXXXIV) and by 856 he seems to have had the rest, and was deploying it in new foundations at Végennes (Beaulieu XVI) and, of course, Beaulieu (Beaulieu XXXII) while Immena is not seen again. For more on this see Jane Martindale, "The Nun Immena and the Foundation of the Abbey of Beaulieu: a woman's prospects in the Carolingian Church" in W. J. Sheils and Diana Wood (edd.), Women in the Church: papers read at the 1989 Summer Meeting and the 1990 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, Studies in Church History 27 (Oxford 1990), pp. 27-42. The charters linked above are the totality of her appearances.