Alice of Schaerbeek

Alice of Schaerbeek, also known as Adelaide or Aleydis, and sometimes referred to as Alice the Leper, was a Cistercian lay sister who lived approximately from 1220 to 1250. She is venerated as a saint, with her feast day observed on June 15th. Alice is particularly remembered as the patron saint of the blind and paralyzed.

Life and Historical Context

Born in Schaerbeek, near Brussels, Alice was sent at the age of seven to be educated at the Cistercian La Cambre Abbey, where she remained for the rest of her life. She became a lay sister within the abbey. Around the age of 20, she contracted leprosy, a devastating disease that necessitated her isolation in a small hut. Alice endured intense suffering from the illness, which she offered for the salvation of sinners and the souls in purgatory. Her condition eventually led to paralysis and blindness. Despite these afflictions, her greatest solace was the reception of the Holy Eucharist.

Legacy and Spirituality

The primary source of information about Alice's life is a Latin biography composed between approximately 1260 and 1275, the authorship of which is unknown but is believed by scholars to be an anonymous chaplain at La Cambre Abbey. This biography was also translated into Middle Dutch. Alice's life has been upheld as a model of Cistercian spirituality and a concise treatise on Cistercian asceticism. Despite this, she was not widely known even within devout Cistercian communities until recent years when her biography became part of the "Holy Women of Liège" corpus, situating her spirituality within the context of the beguine movement and medieval women's piety outside monastic enclosure. Devotion to Alice as a saint was officially approved by Pope Pius X in 1907.