Eustadiola

Eustadiola (594–684) was an independent woman of Bourges who lived a life of piety apart from any formal rule and was subsequently regarded as a saint. Her vita (biography) was written in the early eighth century and is found embedded in the vita of her contemporary and fellow saint, bishop Sulpicius of Bourges. Informal, unsupervised asceticism had been generally disapproved of by the ecclesiastical hierarchy since the time of Gregory the Great, but it was still widespread in Gaul in the seventh century.