Humbeline of Jully

Sixth child and only daughter of the family of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, she watched her brothers leave for Cîteaux behind Bernard, the youngest, Nivard, staying alone with their father. She herself, married to a Burgundian lord, lived at court. The scene the Cistercian chronicles report is famous: coming to visit Bernard at Clairvaux with an escort and in finery, she was left at the gate, her brother refusing to see her and calling her a heap of dung. She answered that she had come for advice and not for insult, and that a sinner at least deserved to be spoken to. Bernard came out. She changed her life without leaving her husband, obtained his consent some years later to withdraw, and entered the monastery of Jully-les-Nonnains, where she became prioress. She died around 1141, twelve years before her brother.