ON SAINT HUGH,
Bishop of Grenoble in Gaul.
THE YEAR 1132.
PrefaceHugh, Bishop of Grenoble, in Gaul (Saint)
G. H.
[1] Among the illustrious men who flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries of Christ with the extraordinary splendor of sanctity, Saint Hugh can be reckoned, Bishop of Grenoble in upper Dauphiné; a familiar of Saint Bruno the founder of the Charterhouse, Time of his life, and of Saint Bernard the Abbot of Clairvaux. Saint Hugh was born in the year of Christ 1053, ordained Bishop in the year
1080, being almost twenty-seven years old, as is read below in the Life, number 5. Episcopate, He migrated to the Lord in the 80th year of his age, the 52nd of his consecration as bishop, in the year of Christ 1132, on the Kalends of April, the sixth weekday before Palm Sunday, as is read below in number 33. That was a leap year, and death. in which with Lunar cycle 12, Solar 21, Dominical letters CB, Easter was celebrated on April 10. So much concerning his age.
[2] Aid given to Saint Bruno, He received Saint Bruno in the sixth year of his episcopate, and strenuously helped him in founding the Charterhouse: who being summoned by Urban II Supreme Pontiff to Rome, Landuin ruled the Charterhouse, the first companion of Saint Bruno in the religious life. He, and two others who had succeeded in supreme rule of the Charterhouse, being dead; about the year of Christ 1110, as the fifth Prior of the Carthusians, Guigo was substituted, friendship with the Carthusian Guigo. who died in the 37th year over 1100; and so he survived only five years after the death of Saint Hugh, to whom he was always joined by most holy friendship. With what affection Saint Bernard of Clairvaux embraced both, Geoffrey the monk explains in his Life in these words: both are visited by Saint Bernard: "When the servant of God Bernard had already spent several years at Clairvaux, it came into his mind to visit Saint Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, and the Carthusian Brothers for the sake of devotion. Whom the aforesaid Bishop received so thankfully and so reverently, understanding the divine presence in the visitation of the same guest, that prostrate to the ground he adored him. But the servant of Christ seeing the Bishop, great in age, celebrated in reputation, conspicuous for sanctity, prostrating himself before him, greatly took fright, himself likewise falling before him: and so at last received in the kiss of peace, he lamented, not without a heavy groan, his humility being confused by the veneration of so great a man. In whose breast he obtained from that time a singular place, so that thenceforth those two sons of splendor became one heart and one soul, and enjoyed one another in Christ. For as the Queen of Sheba testifies of Solomon, each rejoiced that he had found in the other much more than fame had spread abroad. In the Charterhouse also the servant of Christ was received by the most reverend man, Guigo the Prior, and by the other Brothers, with the same affection and the same veneration; they exulting in joy, because as they had known him by letter before, so they found him present."
[3] So there. There are extant among the letters of Saint Bernard two to the said Guigo, numbers 11 and 12, from which anyone may easily perceive how great was then under the said Guigo the sanctity and purity of life flourishing in the Charterhouse. But how great was the communication of Guigo and the other monks of the Greater Charterhouse in all things with Saint Hugh, for the defense of the Church, is indicated by a letter of all these men, in the year 1130 to the Council of Jouarre gathered for justice, when Blessed Thomas, both write to the Bishops in the Council of Jouarre, Prior of the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris, had been cruelly killed by the impious for justice. The inscription of this letter is this: "To the most reverend Lords and Fathers in Christ, the Archbishops, Bishops, and other religious persons, gathered at the present place for the sake of defending justice, Hugh called Bishop of the Church of Grenoble, and his sons; the useless servant of the Carthusian poor Guigo, and the Brothers who are with him; to know what must be done, and having known, to fulfill it manfully, through Christ our Lord." We omit to recount the letter itself, inserted in the Council of Jouarre; about Blessed Thomas himself we shall treat on August 20: whose Life and Martyrdom published by himself in 1665, Philippe Gourreau, the Prior of the said Abbey, offered to us.
[4] At that time, when the Council of Jouarre was being held, Innocent II was Pope in Gaul: who gave letters to the Archbishops of Reims, Saint Hugh is inscribed among the Saints by Pope Innocent II, Rouen, and Tours, and their Suffragans, and incited them to avenge the death of the said Prior. To this Pontiff the holy morals and virtues of Guigo and the other Carthusians, and their intimate conjunction of souls with Saint Hugh, were very well known: whom, having died piously and holily in the third year of his Pontificate, then in the fifth year of his Pontificate he ascribed to the catalogue of the Saints in the Council of Pisa, in the year of Christ 1134: as he indicates in a letter, written at Pisa on the 10th day before the Kalends of May, to Guigo Prior of the Charterhouse; commanding this man that he should diligently describe the life and miracles of Saint Hugh. Guigo fulfilled the earlier part of the Apostolic precept, by which he led the deeds of Saint Hugh from his first birth to his death: but the other part, which was to embrace his glittering miracles, he did not reach; Guigo writes his Life, impeded by illnesses and death, as we reckon; having died, as we said, in the year 1136. Guigo was moreover "from Castrum in the diocese of Valence" (these are the words of Peter Sutor, Book 2 of the Carthusian Life, treatise 5, chapter 7), "born of distinguished parents, outstanding in talent, tenacious in memory, famous in speech, most efficacious in exhortation, wonderfully learned in secular and divine letters, and no less venerable by conversation than by doctrine; who made the fifth Prior of the Greater Charterhouse after Saint Bruno, far preceded his predecessors in fame and authority, and observed the rigor of the order to the nail." So there. We have this Life in two ancient codices of the best quality on parchment, which, compared with the Surian edition, we illustrate with our annotations. The same, contracted into a compendium, was published by Vincent of Beauvais, Book 27 of the Speculum Historiale, chapter 8, Peter of Natalibus, Book 4, chapter 22, Peter Dorlandus, Book 2 of the Carthusian Chronicle, chapter 1, Zacharias Lippelous, Franciscus Haraeus, and commonly other collectors of Lives of this kind.
[5] His name in the fasti. The name of Saint Hugh is inscribed in various sacred Fasti, both written by hand and published by the press. Of these are Greven and Molanus in the Auctarium of Usuard; Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius; and of the Monastic ones, Wion, Menardus Dorganius. Bucelinus wove a long encomium: Constantine Ghini inscribed him in the Natalia of the Canons: in the Gallican Martyrology Saussay praises him at length: with all these he is thus celebrated in the Roman Martyrology: "At Grenoble, of Saint Hugh the Bishop, who for many years led his life in solitude, and famed for the glory of miracles migrated to the Lord."
LETTER OF POPE INNOCENT II.
Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, in Gaul (Saint)
BHL Number: 4016
Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son Guigo, Prior of the Carthusians, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Responding to divine benefits, when his life was known, and we heard of the miracles that are done through the merits of Blessed Hugh, we praised together the clemency of the supreme Majesty, He orders the Life and miracles to be written. and with the communicated counsel of the Archbishops, Bishops, and Cardinals, and others who were present with us, we commanded that he himself should be honored among the Saints and the elect, and that the day of his assumption should be celebrated solemnly with joy. Therefore, because both his life, which he led piously in the body, and the flashing of miracles by which God makes him shine among men, are not unknown to your great love; by the authority of Blessed Peter and our own, we command you, to hand down to the memory of posterity, by diligently writing, those things which have been known to you about this matter: that both God may be honored in His Saint, and the Clergy reading and the people hearing may give thanks to the Lord, and by his intercession may deserve to receive pardon of their sins. Praying for you, we salute and bless through you our beloved sons, the Carthusian Brothers, in the Lord. Given at Pisa on the 10th day before the Kalends of May.
ANNOTATIONS.
b In the year 1134.
LIFE
By Guigo, Prior of the Charterhouse, as author, contemporary. From a double manuscript and from Surius.
Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, in Gaul (Saint)
BHL Number: 4016
BY GUIGO THE CARTHUSIAN.
PROLOGUE
To the Roman Pontiff.
To the dearest and most reverend Lord and Father, Innocent, Pontiff of the Apostolic See, the useless servant of the Carthusian poor, Guigo, perpetual salvation and peace in the Lord, and whatever before God the prayer of so great a sinner can avail.
[1] The imperious condescension of your Apostolate has not spared our bashfulness or inexperience. For as the letters of your Serenity prefixed to this little work indicate, by the authority of Blessed Peter and your own, you have commanded that the life of Blessed Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, should be committed to writing to be known to posterity. Indeed several others had already long before asked the same thing, but especially Arialdus and Hugh, Bishops of Maurienne and Grenoble, of no contemptible authority; of whom the former, regular in habit and life, was a companion to the blessed man in treating ecclesiastical matters for almost thirty years; the latter, a monk from among us, so succeeded him in the ecclesiastical government, that because of his own prolonged and severe infirmity, he was consecrated in his place, at his own asking and by the command of your piety, before he himself died. And toward those indeed, whom through long familiarity or conviviality I could not hide from, our inexperience or bashfulness, and what perhaps no less impeded, the infirmity of the flesh, could sufficiently excuse us: but to the weight of so great authority, we did not presume even to mutter; lest, while we do not obey him to whom the whole world is committed, we offend him by whom the world was made; and while we avoid the confusion of inexperience among men, we incur damnation before God. But we beseech those who shall read these things, that they should not measure the sanctity of so great a Father, far greater not only than our eloquence but also than our thought, from this writing, and especially lest they think that we have been able to extol him in our discourses beyond what his own merits demand. For so far are we from having been able to exalt the greatness of his sanctity more than just, as if favorably; that we have not been able even to unfold, as was worthy, that very prerogative of his holy conversation, as was worthy, both on account of inexperience and on account of poverty of speech.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The parents, studies, Canonicate of Saint Hugh.
[2] Since, therefore, the most holy morals and works pleasing to God of the aforesaid Father afford so much matter for speech that they surpass not only our eloquence but also that of anyone, we should consider the origin of his flesh to be passed over in silence entirely; Saint Hugh since without distinction of the good from the good, of the evil from the evil, of the evil from the good, and of the good from the evil, through the inscrutable
depth of divine judgment, let no one be ignorant that they are daily born; nor does it matter anything of what kind of parents each is born, but in what kind of morals he has lived; nor does it contribute any increase of merits to have been famed in power, riches, and earthly nobility, but to have despised all these for Christ: since we see both the Lord born of poor parents, and among the Apostles the more distinguished taken from fishermen. Whence also the Blessed Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: "Brothers, see your calling: because not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the strong; and God has chosen the base things of the world and the contemptible, and things that are not, that He might destroy the things that are: Born in the territory of Valence, that no flesh should glory in His sight." 1 Cor. 1:26 But since those who have treated of the virtues of the Saints are found not to have been silent even about fleshly birth, let us also briefly say that Blessed Hugh, a native of Valence, in a place situated beside the river Isère, which has the name Castrum Novum, had parents not of the lowest according to worldly dignity, and (what excels) conspicuous for the prerogative of sanctity. Of whom his father, Odilo by name, with his father Odilo, besides very many other things which he laudably accomplished or held though in military habit, was a lover of truth and chastity. For he avoided lies, from the ingenuous affection of his mind, more than very many religious; and though, with the former deceased, he quickly had two wives; yet he knew no embraces beyond those of his wives, which in these times and amid this corruption of the times (especially in the powerful) is held as monstrous. And he himself, now heavy in years, at the admonition of his most holy son, despised the world with such fervor; that forgetful of old age and of delicate custom, he did not hesitate to enter upon the hard ways which the Charterhouse keeps for the sake of the words of God's lips: where for almost eighteen years he lived in such great sobriety, then became a Carthusian monk; such humility, that dear to all those serving God there, he was held most worthy of veneration by all. To whom about to enter the way of all flesh (for he was now nearly a hundred years old), his venerable son was present, and both anointed him and replenished him with the Holy Communion with his own hands: and having performed the funeral worthy of such a holy man with worthy veneration, he kept the day of his death, as also of his mother's, celebrated as long as he lived with alms and sacrifices.
[3] His venerable mother, when after the departure of her husband (besides whom she had known none at all) she herself also wished to leave all things; with his mother then living holily in her own home and dying: because at that time monasteries of religious women were rare, instructed by the salutary admonitions of her pious son, she spent what was left of her time in continence and alms, prayers and fastings, and other holy works in her own house; restraining also her sons, strenuous in military deeds, as much as she could, from immoderate excesses. To her lying sick in the illness in which she died, the longed-for presence of her son was at hand; he delivered to her the adorable mysteries, not much after performed the last rites of burial; with prompt obedience fulfilling what God commands in the Mosaic law, saying: "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayst be long-lived upon the earth." Ex. 20:12 Concerning which earth the Psalmist is believed to say to the Lord: "Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living." Ps. 141:6 But she used to say that while carrying him pregnant in her bowels, he is foreseen by her as a Saint in a dream: she had seen in a dream that she had brought forth an elegant little boy, whom the Saints (among whom was Blessed Peter) were bearing to heaven to present before the sight of God. Hence it came about, with her urging, that he was applied to the learning of letters: for it was hoped (nor in vain) that he would be of singular grace and merit before God.
[4] But he loved the studies of letters not moderately: on account of which even having gone into foreign regions, endowed with great modesty he completes his studies: he endured many things. For there was in him, and continued to be present in him to his extreme old age, a bashful sobriety; which often compelled him, even among his own, to bear a lack of necessary things; since from shame he could not even confess to his friends, if anything was distressing him: by which as by a bridle he was restrained by many from illicit things. But when returning from schools, he was staying at Valence, where he was a Canon of the greater church, among seculars and lax men, though a youth, modest and sober (for he had determined, as he himself said, to keep himself by God's help from all contamination thenceforth), it happened that Lord Hugh, Legate of all the Gauls by precept of the blessed memory Gregory VII, came to the same city; a man indeed strenuous and famous in ecclesiastical matters, then Prelate of the Church of Die, afterwards Archbishop of Lyon. Who seeing the young man elegant in face, tall in stature; tempered in speech, modest in morals; and instructed by those who knew of what learning and family he was; and, as he was sagacious of mind both in human and divine things, [As Canon of Valence he attaches himself to Hugh, Apostolic Legate, Bishop of Die.] recognizing in him certain great signs of future probity and sanctity; he cheerfully and affably embraced him, asking that he come to him, to be a companion and participant of his struggles: in which not only against laymen, who were sacrilegiously holding churches, tithes, and cemeteries; but also against priests, whose life dishonest marriages were staining; and Simoniacs also, who blinded by cupidity, were mixing sacred and profane, with few assisting, he most keenly was sweating. Which he willingly embraced.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The Episcopate of Grenoble undertaken.
[5] A certain space of time having been passed thereafter, the same Legate at Avignon, a not ignoble city of Provence, celebrated a great Council, in which he accomplished many things worthy of praise for the honor of God and the utility of the Church. To this Council, the Canons of Grenoble, lacking a bishop and seeking a bishop, came; and having discovered that the aforesaid youth was present at that assembly, they humbly asked, with the Council supporting, of his venerable Patron, to whom he was exhibiting the office of grateful companionship, that he would give this man to them as Bishop without delay. To which he immediately gratefully assented, Asked for as Bishop both rejoicing at the honors of his beloved companion, and favoring the advantages of the Church, for whose sacred offices also he did not doubt he would be suitable. But he, with sudden fear struck from the bottom of his inwards, with his whole body striving against and crying out with loud voices; and began to affirm himself unequal in age, knowledge, and finally morals and life, to such great mysteries, and in no wise to suffer that the venerable offices should be defiled by his vileness, to the peril of his salvation. Which sentence about himself, conceived in deepest humility, he did not throw off till the end: for always, in whatever advances of sanctity and good works, he did not blush to protest himself a useless servant and unworthy of the administration of the Pontificate; and he was always ready to lay it down, he long refused through humility. as will be clear from what follows. But the man of profound counsel, who had granted him to the aforesaid Clerics, although he rejoiced that in this age and habit (for he was in secular habit, at length persuaded he accepts: and about twenty-seven years old) he not only did not seek undue honors, but also repudiated those offered; yet he began, with the reasonable eloquence in which he was strong, to raise his trepidation, to console his bashfulness, to break his stubbornness; asserting, in undergoing or bearing such burdens, no one ought to presume upon his own virtue, but rather upon the goodness of God; from whom he ought to hope for the good that was lacking; and to whom to refer whatever he had received. Therefore, by the consolations and exhortations of him and of the other grave men who were present, broken at length, he yielded to the election.
[6] Now at that time the Archbishop Garmund presided over the Church of Vienne, whom, on account of the simony of which he bore the infamy, he did not allow to place hands on him. So with all Orders, except that of Bishop, received from the Legate worthy to be remembered not without reverence, promoted to the priesthood he goes to the Supreme Pontiff: accompanied by the same, he set out, that he might be consecrated by the Supreme Prelate of the Apostolic See. Where while, awaiting the appointed day of consecration, he was staying; in the very beginnings, as it were, of divine service, and in the first rudiments of the sacred warfare, he encountered a most grievous assault of the ancient enemy, rude and inexperienced in such things: which did not cease to torment his holy soul, by day and night, now more sharply, now more mildly, until that sickness in which he fell down to die. For because, by the signs of holy conversation and illustrious works, by distinguished merits, he was going to have great fame and great glory among God's people; lest perhaps he should be exalted, he received an angel of Satan, as also the blessed Apostle, to buffet him. 2 Cor. 12:7 So also in the prophet Zechariah, to Jesus the great priest, bearing the mystery of the true Savior, Satan stood at his right hand, to oppose him. Zech. 3:1 Nor is this to be wondered at, since he dared to tempt with impious boldness God the Creator and Ruler of all, clothed in human flesh; and finally, having shown him the kingdoms of the whole world with their glory, saying, "All these things I will give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me," he tried to persuade him even to the crime of idolatry. Matt. 4:9 As therefore to the Lord Himself he was suggesting with incredible presumption idolatry, so also to His servant he was suggesting with a viperous contrivance blasphemy; namely, that he should think something unworthy of God, or of those things which pertain to God. But as from the Lord, so, with Him helping, conquered and confounded from His servant he departed.
[7] When therefore he had felt, as we said, the unsuspected assault of the ancient enemy; thinking perhaps that the Lord was angry with him, because he had yielded to those choosing him even unwillingly; he deliberated to renounce in every way the election made of him, and by no means to touch the sacred administrations of which he judged himself daily more and more unworthy. Which deliberation, as he thought, most salutary, together with the very temptation, from the bottom of his heart with profuse tears and sighs, he hastened to show to him who had led him. But he, by his failure, and by his excessive (though proceeding from religion) fear, with a reasonable answer in part meanwhile allayed, urged him to go to the aforesaid Pope, and to reveal all that was troubling his mind (as to the Vicar of Christ). revealing it to the Supreme Pontiff he is freed, Which when he humbly
and devoutly had done, he was filled with such great consolation from his mouth, and experienced such affection of love toward him, that he was compelled to rejoice about that very temptation which had almost driven him to despair, and moreover to take the matter of happier hope. For the blessed Pope taught him, as one not rude or inexperienced in these matters, that the Lord rebukes and chastises those whom He loves, and scourges every son whom He receives: and therefore, the harder scourge He had imposed on his heart, so much the more evident a sign of paternal love toward him He had given. That the devil had now foreseen how great damage he himself would suffer through him, and how great increases of virtue God's people would take through him: and therefore was using all the efforts of inveterate malignity, that he might in some way deter him from sacred offices; with God permitting, for his own ignominy and penalty, but for this man's crown and glory.
[8] and by him he is consecrated Bishop: By such speeches, full of truth and strengthened with authority, not indeed with the temptation entirely extinguished, but yet with consolation received, having become more tranquil in mind, he received Episcopal consecration from the same shortly after. But such great love for him was shown by that great man, both in the very consecration and during all the time he stayed there, that it was openly shown that he had foreseen some great presage of divine grace in him. But also Countess Matilda, necessaries being procured by Countess Matilda. of feminine habit indeed but through all things of manly mind, who knew, like the prophetess Deborah, how prudently to allay and strongly to bear the tumults and dangers of human affairs; venerating God in His servant, supplied all the necessaries for his day of consecration; gave him the pastoral staff, which he long used; with the added explanations of the Psalms according to Blessed Augustine, with the volume of Blessed Ambrose, whose title is On Duties: and for all the time she thereafter lived, she specially honored and worshiped him with sincere devotion as a true servant of God, thirsting to be earnestly instructed by his counsels and defended by his prayer.
[9] The depraved morals found in his diocese, These things having been so not only prosperously but also religiously accomplished, having returned to his received Church, he found the Clergy and the people in divine things too rude and unformed, and so ignorant of holy observances, that not only the Clerics of lower grade, but even the Priests were taking wives, were publicly celebrating marriages, were not hesitating to buy and sell sacred things, and laymen possessed churches, offerings, tithes, and cemeteries, and the priests were subject to their dominion; usurers or moneylenders were heaping up unjust gains from the losses of others, nor on this account did any of them the less enter the churches or receive the most sacred mysteries: to such an extent were all devoid of all discipline. Moreover the substance of the episcopal house, with not so much Bishops as tyrants who had preceded dissipating it, had been almost entirely consumed: whence he endured there many shortages even of necessary food for many years; because he did not wish by illicit contracts (as is the custom with many) to supply his needs; and he by no means presumed to borrow, thinking he had nothing from which to repay. with great labor he amends. But with what vigilance and with what scourges of preaching and discipline he pursued so many and so great vices or sins of the people he had received; what labors, what goings about, what solicitudes he spent there; what fastings, what vigils, what psalmodies, what groans, what prayers, and what showers of tears, for propitiating the Lord for them, he poured forth with paternal compassion for them, is not within our faculty to unfold. Nor can what fruit arose from such great labors either be explained in our words or is it necessary; since the manifest change of things for the better openly presses itself upon the eyes of those seeing it.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Monastic life at Cluny for a year. Frequent conversation at the Charterhouse with Saint Bruno and others. Amid afflictions the gift of tears.
[10] But he himself meanwhile, a diligent imitator of the winged animals in Ezekiel that always walked before their own face, did not cease to place himself before himself, and to discuss his own dangers or advances with subtle examination. Contemplating therefore his own age, or the imperfection of his morals (in which he especially kept the eyes of his mind fixed until death, himself, and persuaded others to keep them), and the weight of the office he had received, not yet having completed two years after consecration, with all things despised, he was made a monk of Casa Dei of the Cluniac order: He becomes a Cluniac monk: for there greater zeal of poverty and humility was then seen. Where kindled by the examples of the Saints, of whom there was an abundance there, men; and himself kindling them no less with his own examples, though a novice, he spent a year; with other goods, but especially with humility (of which before all virtues he stood forth an unwearied follower) amiable to all. For so he carried himself, that he was worthy of the imitation and also the veneration of all. After this, by the compulsion of him who had consecrated him, the aforesaid Prelate of the Apostolic See, Gregory VII, he returned from the monastery which he had entered fervent, more fervent to his Episcopate; compelled by Saint Gregory VII he returns to the Episcopate: bringing from the studies of one year such great increases of virtue, as many can scarcely attain from the labors of a long life: having for the cloister his ever watchful circumspection, by which not only the senses of his body, but also the thoughts of his heart he restrained: for his Abbot, justice, from whose commands he could never be drawn aside either by prosperities or adversities: for his congregation however, religious men (whom, because of that saying, "With the holy thou shalt be holy, and with the innocent man thou shalt be innocent," 2 Sam. 22:26 he never wished to lack) as his companions, indeed the whole Church universally, which he embraced with such sincere affection of love, that he could bear neither its adversities nor its prosperities with unshaken inwards. For according to that saying of the Apostle, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I am not burning?" 2 Cor. 11:29 he always rejoiced in the prosperities of the Church, and was tortured in its adversities.
[11] In these things he was engaged, and behold, three years now not yet completed in the Episcopate after his return from the monastery, Master Bruno arrives; a man famous in religion and knowledge, of honesty and gravity, and, as it were, a certain image of all maturity. He kindly receives Saint Bruno with his companions: And he had as companions Master Landuin (who after him was Prior of the Charterhouse), two Stephens, of Bourg and of Die, (these had been Canons of Saint Rufus, but from desire of the solitary life had joined themselves to him, with the Abbot favoring) also Hugh, whom they surnamed the Chaplain, because he alone of them exercised the office of priest; two laymen, whom we call Lay Brothers, Andrew and Guarin. But they were seeking a place suitable for the eremitical life, and had not yet found it. With this hope therefore, and at the same time drawn by the sweet fragrance of his holy conversation, they came to the holy man. Whom he received not only gratefully but also reverently, treated kindly, and made partakers of their vow. For with him counseling, helping, accompanying, they entered and built the solitude of the Charterhouse. He helps in founding the Charterhouse: But he had seen about that time in a dream God building in that same solitude a dwelling for His own condescension; and seven stars also, giving him the guidance of the journey. And these too were seven. Wherefore not only their counsels, but also of those who succeeded them he willingly embraced; and until death he always cherished the inhabitants of the Charterhouse with counsels and benefits.
[12] He lives with them most humbly: But although he had previously burned all over with the fires of divine love; yet not otherwise to the exercises of heavenly discipline by their examples and familiarity did he catch fire; than if one should set round a flaming torch other burning ones. He was with them, not as Lord or Bishop, but as a companion and most humble brother, and most ready to the service of all, as much as was in him; so much so that the venerable man William, then Prior of Saint Laurence, afterwards Abbot of Saint Theofred, himself also bound to Master Bruno by religious devotion not moderately, a fellow lodger of Blessed Hugh (for then they dwelt by twos in single cells with Master Bruno) complained not lightly that he snatched to himself within the cell almost all offices pertaining to humility; He is sent back to the Episcopate by Saint Bruno: and the Bishop did not live with him, at least as a companion, but rather as a servant: saying sadly that it was not permitted to him to touch any of the servile works which according to custom they ought to perform by turns, with this man snatching all from him. But he was dwelling in the hermitage so devoted and diligent, that Master Bruno sometimes compelled him to go out, saying, "Go, go to your sheep, and pay what you owe them." At that time, kindled by the ardor of great poverty and humility, he wished to sell all his riding animals, and the price being divided among the poor, to go about preaching on his own feet. But the man of profound heart, Master Bruno that is, to whose counsels he obeyed no otherwise than as to the precepts of an Abbot, did not consent; fearing lest perhaps he should be exalted in his own eyes, or be judged by the other Bishops of singularity; or (which was not doubtful) could not accomplish this same thing because of the roughness and unevenness of the roads.
[13] But it came to pass that, while with carnal things despised he followed spiritual things with more fervent zeal, amid grave pains of the head and stomach and temptations, through excessive vigils, fasts, and readings, prayers and meditations, and other sacred exercises, he fell into a most grievous illness of the head and stomach, from whose troubles and tortures, more frequent and sharper than all belief, for at least forty years as long as he lived, he never escaped: and thus to that angel of Satan, of whom we have above made mention, by whom more often buffeted he might be less exalted, another was added. But how much by these two afflictions, namely temptation and illness, by divine consolations he is refreshed. as gold in the furnace, boiled down and purified, he grew in spiritual devotion toward God, and in true compassion for all the afflicted; he himself now living could not fully explain, even if he wished. For the more he was afflicted by these, the more vehemently, with the things of the world despised, he was wholly borne up to God, the true and only refuge; drawing from there, as he said, pleasure so much the fuller and sweeter, as he had endured sharper anguish, according to that of the Psalm, "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, thy consolations have rejoiced my soul." Ps. 93:19 Alternations of this kind did not cease in him to the end: for now with his spiritual eyes lifted up with all his strength on high, tasting and seeing that
the Lord is sweet, he was refreshed with ineffable joys; now fallen back through the weight of human infirmity to his wonted state, he was not free from his former anxieties. On both sides there were tears: there for joy, here for weariness. Grace of tears is granted: What more? His tears had become his bread day and night: prosperities did not dry these, nor did adversities: scarcely could he read, scarcely chant the psalms, scarcely meditate on divine things without them. For so greatly had the grace of these tears grown in him, that frequently, unless bridled, they did not fail him even when he was eating: many times through them he was either hindered or clouded at meals with himself and his companions, especially some years before the end.
[14] For he had a reader by whom he had sacred books, not a few of which he had caused to be copied, even when at table he would hear the sacred books read, read both elsewhere and especially to him at table, that with doubled delights he might feast himself and his household. And when something remarkable about divine severities or mercies had come up in the reading, he would compel the reader to say it twice or three times: and without delay, having tasted a spiritual pleasure through the Scripture, with his inmost parts shaken, he would be flooded with such streams of tears as entirely to take away from himself the pleasure of belly and throat, and to temper it in his companions. And so, taught by experience, his companions, when they saw such motions imminent, would signal to the reader to give way and cease from reading for a little while, that they might for a time turn aside this trouble. But this grace of the divine gift sinners, or when he heard the confession of penitents. coming to him for confession, especially felt: for receiving them gently and humbly, he listened most patiently; sometimes weeping himself with those who wept, sometimes stirring them to tears by his own weeping: which will be sufficiently clear from one example. A man dear to God, f Gauterius, surnamed Calnesius, who long lived laudably among us in the monastic life and died, used to relate: that when, placed in the world, he was confessing his offenses to him (for he was distinguished in letters and honor in the Church of Grenoble), the Bishop had leaned over his head, and had poured such a copious stream of tears upon his crown, that with the hair wetted, rivulets even flowed down through the face of the one confessing. Moreover, he received the confessions of women no less cautiously than kindly: for he was not accustomed to hear them in corners, or in dark or secret places; but rather where he could be seen by many: and he applied his ear indeed familiarly enough, but turned the gaze of his eyes to the other side; asserting that only the sense of hearing, on account of the snares of the devil, should be applied to such business.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
Holy custody of the eyes and of the other senses and of the tongue.
[15] A diligent guardian of his eyes, he did not look at the faces of women. He always and everywhere kept the aforesaid custody of his eyes with incredible circumspection; so that, though he often received powerful and noble women (according to that saying of the Apostle, "To whom honor, honor") to conversation honorably and cheerfully, yet he did not see at all the faces of many who were speaking before him for a long time. Rom. 13:7 For he used to say that illicit thoughts could very hardly be avoided, unless one restrained the senses of the body with much vigilance: and that, according to the Prophet, death entered as it were through these windows, and entered our houses. Jer. 9:21 Concerning this very restraint of the senses, when once he was speaking with certain religious men (among whom was a man distinguished in letters and purity, namely Lord Airald, then Archpresbyter of his own church, now Bishop of Maurienne), the same Lord Airald replied that he looked upon women everywhere, and their sight did him no harm; for he was most chaste: to which he answered, that not only from the faces of women, but also of men, the gaze of a religious mind should be turned away; asserting (what each man can conjecture from his own experience) that through the communion and compassion of human mutability, it comes about that the affections of the one seen frequently pass over to the one seeing with inestimable speed, and, for example, of an angry man one becomes angry, of a sad man sad, of a lewd man lewd: nay, not even of men: and that it is enough for anyone to have his own passions, and not thus to transcribe upon himself the passions of others: that of no woman in his whole Bishopric, except one, had he ever so looked upon the face, that from the consideration of the face, if she met him, he could recognize who she was. What could be more chaste than this answer? and he knew only one single woman by face, What more circumspect? What more filled with true philosophy? Such indeed had he shown himself to women, most chaste: such had he noted in human affections, most wise. Hence came this: that when I had asked him about my mother (who had spoken with him whatever she wished, as long as she wished), whether great old age had broken her; after meditating a little with himself, "I do not know," he said, "whether she is old or not." Hence also this: that a certain woman, distinguished in power and nobility, whose name we do not wish to publish, in his presence, which she was pleased to court, was talking much; and when he too had answered what pleased him, and she had departed; and his companions, whom he always took care to have as prudent and religious, asked why he had not rebuked her for adorning herself and her face so wantonly and lasciviously; he replied, not without a certain horror and execration, that he had not seen her face at all. And what wonder, that he had not seen the face of that one, who knew no woman's face? Where now is the curious wantonness of Priests, where the wanton curiosity of many established in the sacred habit? Let them attend to these things and imitate if they can: let them wonder and reverence if they cannot. But also those who count sanctity nothing without miracles—which we do not therefore make much of, since we know they are possessed in common by the elect and the reprobate, and in the greater Patriarchs and many other Saints who greatly pleased God we find none or few—let them who nevertheless, as we had begun to say, seek miracles, consider again and again whether anything more wonderful ought to be demanded of a man, clothed in mortal flesh; and whether it could not seem impossible to anyone, that for fifty years and more a great Bishopric should be ruled by any man, and that except one, and that for 50 years in the whole Bishopric: he should know the face of no woman whatsoever. And truly this very one was little comely, but enough in need of his counsel. And yet to his presence, not only from his own, but also from other Bishoprics, whether for confession, or for countless other causes, they came so much the more devoutly and frequently, the holier they had come to know him.
[16] Earnest for truth, he tightly bridled his ears and tongue. Not this alone, that is, the sense of the eyes, but all the others also he restrained with similar diligence. For bridling his ears and tongue as much as possible from other unlawful things, but especially from detractions, he used to say that his own sins were enough for each man; and it was not necessary that by either hearing or speaking he should stain his conscience with those of others, or his tongue. Rumors he neither asked about nor readily repeated. That he was truthful in his speeches, by what more certain proof can we show it, than by the testimony of an enemy? a Count Guigo, a man sufficiently fit for the things of the world, yet at a time of tranquility very devoted to the same servant of God, inflicted not small or few annoyances upon him as he most invincibly resisted for the sake of justice: for twice, to pass over many things, he was excommunicated by him for his excesses, and twice he drove him from the Episcopal houses. So, when a great judicial proceeding was held between them in the presence of b Guido, Archbishop of Vienne, who afterwards became Pope Callistus, and the man of God, according to that which is written, "The just, bold as a lion, shall be without terror," was defending justice against the Count with open contradiction; the other, indignant and kindled by the torches of wrath, and ready, as it appeared, to object whatever he could, as though for a grave crime brought up, saying: "I once heard you say what was not true." Prov. 28:1 To this the holy Bishop, before all who were present (and many of various orders were present), asked whether he had heard him lie knowingly. Then he, though angry, though filled with fury, yet pressed by the weight of truth, answered that he had by no means heard him knowingly lie. Let this one testimony of an enemy and an angry man therefore suffice concerning his truthful speech.
[17] And although we may perhaps be accused of digression, yet since through the Count the truth of the blessed man has been made plain, let charity also consequently be shown through the same. He was most hostile, as has been said, to him, so much so that he stayed not in his own houses, but either with us or at Lyons: for indeed the Church of that city always showed him great reverence, and great aid in his tribulations, and was very glad to use his counsels in graver affairs. When therefore on a certain day we were talking together about the Count, he said he had good hope of the Count's salvation, nor did he despair of his attaining the mercy of God, He fervently prays for his most bitter persecutor, because he had never been accustomed to pray more delightedly or fervently than for him. Wondrous charity, but also no less stupendous humility: for what is fuller of charity, or among men more singular, than to pray no less eagerly for a persecutor than for an obedient follower? But what is more humble, than to refer this very devotion, not to his own, but to the other's merits; not which he knew already to be, but which he hoped would come? Since, then, it is certain that by him was fulfilled the commandment in which it is said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you"; it is not permitted to doubt that he also attained the reward which follows: "that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and unjust." Matt. 5:44 Than which reward, nothing is more blessed, as than the precept no precept is more sublime. Let them approach therefore, who do not lack eyes of the heart, that they may see of what merit he is, who as such an executor of the precept, is partaker of so great a reward.
[18] Of touch indeed or smell, we make mention superfluously: accurate in rightly ordering smell and touch: of which the one, that is, smell, he cared for only to this end, that he might not admit stenches on account of the afflictions of his brain; but to the other, that is, touch, even before he was ordained, he had entirely bidden farewell. Nor did he thus disciplinedly bridle himself and his senses from the sight of women because he felt himself weak regarding the vice of lust (since the anguishes of the aforesaid temptation and infirmity, and the manifold cares of ecclesiastical administration, and especially his constant study of reading, psalm-singing, praying, meditating, and contemplating divine things, had made him almost insensible to pleasures of this kind), but that he might preserve the maturity and severity of his habit and office, as was fitting; and against the snares of the inveterate enemy, to show to the weaker who should follow examples of circumspection; teaching that no one ought to presume on however great purity or firmness, since, as Job testifies, man does not continue in the same state; Job 14:2 and the adversary, going about roaring like a lion, seeks without ceasing whom he may devour: that David and Solomon should be set before the eyes, of whom the one, because he showed himself too free with women, fell from the highest innocence into adultery and homicide; the other, from wisdom, by which he surpassed all mortals, played the fool even to the bondage of idols. Moreover, with what great insistence the blessed man repressed the desires of his belly and throat, the thing itself, though we be silent, proves by surer indications. not given to belly or throat, For his headaches and stomach pains, created chiefly by these studies, show enough and more than enough that he abstained from delights of this kind.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
Almsgiving: gifts spurned: dissensions removed. Sermons. Authority of the Supreme Pontiffs defended.
[19] Generous in giving alms. He was indeed both himself a diligent executor of almsgiving, and also a fervent exhorter of others to it: for excepting only the necessities of his own house, he hoarded up almost none of what he could acquire into treasuries, to be dissipated by lawsuits of his successors, or consumed in luxuries; but knowing that saying of the Apostle, "God loves a cheerful giver," he gladly distributed to the needy. 2 Cor. 9:7 Finally, he sold gold and jeweled rings, and likewise a golden chalice, in a time of great famine, when the barns were threatening failure, and spent the proceeds on feeding the poor. The powerful and noble no little helped this grace in him; he does not admit actors, retainers, horsemen. who, having perceived the fragrance of his holy manner of life, wafted far and wide with salutary sweetness, even from remote regions, though they had not seen him, yet for divine reverence sent many benefactions. Far removed, not only from his table, but also from his whole courts, were actors as vessels of perdition and instruments of falsehood; far removed military retainers, as instruments of plunder and slaughter and all cruelty; far removed also horsemen, except a few, and those rarely, and only in regard of special usefulness. For he did not think it right that the goods of the churches, which are to be reckoned the patrimonies of the poor, should be expended on the uses of others, especially of evil men: nay, he gravely accused himself, as one of the poor, that he took for himself and his companions a fitting sufficiency from the things committed to him, and did not rather, being himself poor, endure want with the poor. He urges almsgiving on others: Alms, then, as we have said, he gave gladly; earnestly urged them; and enjoined them even on penitents as satisfaction. For he especially prescribed these three to those wishing to amend their faults: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; following in this not human rashness but Evangelical authority. For the Lord says that the worst kind of demons cannot be cast out except by prayer and fasting. Mark 9:28 Elsewhere also, speaking to the Pharisees, "Give alms," he says, "and behold, all things are clean to you." Luke 11:41
[20] But if we wished to write with what moderation he was accustomed to dispense these very things according to persons, strengths, affections, and means; and how wisely and soberly he distributed his resources for the spiritual and corporal uses of his own people, and also for the solace of the poor; it would indeed be a most evident document not only of his sanctity but also of his prudence; but we ought to avoid the reader's weariness. Yet how can we pass over without at least briefly touching on this, that when he very frequently heard, examined, and terminated the secular and ecclesiastical causes both of his own people and of others; He refuses gifts: and when during so long a space of life he celebrated among the Clerics subject to him so many consecrations, degradations, reconciliations, for the fitting causes and necessities of persons and churches; yet according to the prophetic proclamation, he shook his hands from every gift. Isa. 33:15 With him as judge, the dignity of no person, the quantity of no one's money ever availed: no man's poverty, nor any extremity of offices or of birth made him guilty: he was never found kinder by a friend, nor harsher by an enemy: he imposed on the convicted or confessing no silver-coated penance; nor in pleadings did he defend or give a profitable sentence: incorrupt in judgments, he did not consider the person of the poor, nor honor the face of the powerful: which illumines the merit of the blessed man the more brightly, the more rarely it has an example in the present or past. How great a subject is offered us in this place, if by comparison of evils we wished to praise the good, for inveighing against the dregs of the present times; in which, with the disgrace and overturning of honesty and equity, money penetrates the temples, stains the altars, sells the priesthoods, exterminates innocence, contaminates all things sacred and profane? Now gifts blind the eyes of the wise and subvert the words of the just: all love gifts, they follow after rewards: from the least to the greatest all are given to avarice, from prophet to priest all practice deceit: usury and deceit do not fail from our streets: lastly, at the head of all is avarice, and all things obey money. But so much for this: for we did not undertake such things.
[21] Let us therefore turn our words to the man of God, who for the love of eternal things had learned, by the teaching of piety, not to love but to endure the litigious causes of temporal affairs. For he used to say that pleadings were more troublesome to him than any fever, and that he would renounce them by every means, if he did not know that in this he would offend God. He engaged in them only for the obtaining of peace, especially for the poor and for the churches: for he knew that the disturbances of wars harmed these more grievously. But when he found in some inexorable hatreds and inexpiable wraths, with charity and humility he reconciled the dissenting. then at last, most strongly relying on the help of God, and wholly dissolved in the affection of charity and humility, most earnestly and devoutly he supplicated those who were offended on behalf of those who had offended them. O how often, blinded as it were by desire for human salvation, did he cast himself for such causes into muddy places! how often did he lie long prostrate at the feet of even contemptible persons! Nor easily, nay almost never, was he frustrated in his wishes: for even if some had refused; not only freely, but with satisfaction, repenting, they afterwards offered without being asked what they had denied him supplicating. For every kind of men bore him such reverence, that whoever refused his requests believed he had gravely offended God.
[22] He was also an excellent preacher: for he was no mean scholar. And he was also well endowed with wit and memory, insofar as the trouble of his head did not dull them: for he himself dictated his own letters, especially those for which he had a more particular care. He therefore preached and persuaded the more easily, What he teaches by words, he himself does in deed: because what he said in words, he showed in works. For in order more effectively to instruct the people committed to him, he anticipated his sermon by doing: just as it is written of the Lord, that "Jesus began to do and to teach." Acts 1:1 He therefore instructed them to confession, stirred them to penance, showing the divine mercy prompt to pardon: nor did he seek what the learned would praise him for as wise, but what the hearers would both better understand and more profitably retain. Finally, at times his hearers were so moved by his preaching that some even publicly confessed capital crimes, fearing God more than men: as the following example will declare. At b Vinnaicum Castle, when a great multitude had gathered for the dedication of a church, and in the sermon to tears he spoke a word by which he dissolved the hearts of his hearers into many tears. There two women, who (as it appeared) had drunk in his words deeply with the ear of their hearts, with many listening, confessed the crimes they had committed: and what the latter said, we have not fully learned; but the former revealed that she had killed her husband. And when the man of God inquired into the manner of the killing, and he moves them to public confession of sins: she said that she had given him poison in his food: after which he ordered those present to withdraw, so that the others could more freely show him what they wished. But there was such great eagerness of the rest of the people to confess, that not even half of it could his patience, though most devoted in such work, listen to. This we heard from the man venerable in age and sanctity, William, now Abbot of Saint Theofred, then a monk, who was an inseparable companion of the blessed man for more than twenty years.
[23] But when shall we be able to commit to memory all his good qualities, even by briefly touching upon them? He excels in every kind of virtue. For divine grace had gathered together in that one man many ornaments of virtues, which, distributed through individuals, could sufficiently make very many men illustrious and conspicuous. For if chastity is praised, who was purer than he? If truthfulness of speech, who more cautious in speaking? If charity toward God, who more fervent? If toward the neighbor, who kinder? If humility, who more lowly? If almsgiving, who more lavish? If prayer, who more devout? If the grace of tears, in whom more abundant? If contemplation, in whom loftier? If endurance, who stronger in tribulation? If justice, who stricter? If prudence, who more circumspect? If temperance, who more moderate? But although he was such and so great, yet he himself, according to that saying of the Gospel, "When you shall have done all things, say, We are unprofitable servants," did not cease to accuse himself as unfruitful, as useless, as one who occupied the place of a Bishop, received the honor of a Bishop, and he esteems himself an unprofitable servant: consumed the goods of a Bishop, but had neither the merits nor the fruits of a Bishop. Luke 17:10 And certainly there were at hand things that could bring not only solace to his mind, but also lift him up into pride, if it were not so solid. He aids in founding monasteries, For to pass over
what good things had come to both Clergy and people through him, the hermitage of the Charterhouse, the Abbey of Chalais, the hermitage of Ecouges, the houses of Regular Canons at Miserain and at Saint George, had begun with his striving, had progressed with his spiritual and bodily fostering. But he, thinking of his own imperfection—which not even the Apostle lacked, saying, "Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfect," merely considering this; and with the Psalmist saying, "That I may know what is lacking to me," considering with most subtle examination not what virtue he had, but what he lacked, desired in every way to put off the Episcopal burden: of which opinion or desire, as we said at the beginning, from the start of his promotion to his death he was never free. Phil. 3:12; Ps. 38:5
[24] With this will daily taking increase, he sent legates and letters to Rome about this very matter to Pope c Honorius of venerable memory. But when the legates had not obtained their requests, but rather had received letters to him consolatory and exhorting him to perseverance; he asks the Supreme Pontiff to be loosed from the Episcopal office. he himself, though weighed down by diseases and old age, yet strengthened by the hope of resting in the future, took care to approach the same Roman Pontiff; begging suppliantly and adjuring that permission to rest be given to his old age, and a better Pastor substituted in his place for the Church of Grenoble. But neither he himself (although he alleged many, as he thought, just reasons both of mind and body) was able to obtain that he might be permitted to have leisure for himself and God alone. For it was believed, that by his authority and the example of his holy manner of life, weak and sick as he was, he could more profit the people subject to him than any other, robust and healthy though he might be. So with the rest of what he asked granted, and honored by the Supreme Pontiff and consoled as best he could be, he returned home; yet did not lay aside the desire, long before conceived, of dismissing the Episcopate.
[25] But when d Honorius had died, and when through tyrannical and schismatic rage, supported not by his own merits but by the protection of his kinsmen and brothers, e Peter Leonis had emerged against your innocence, who had succeeded Honorius of blessed memory, With others he excommunicates Peter Leonis the Antipope, and the man of God had most certainly learned this; though, as we said, worn out by diseases and age; yet with zeal for the house of God, whose beauty he loved, he went to f Anicium, to excommunicate the same schismatic with the other Bishops. This excommunication indeed, on account of the authority of so great a man, brought much profit to the Catholics and much harm to the schismatics. And certainly both the same Peter and his father had formerly shown many venerations and services to the holy man: but the blessed man in such a matter, that is, where justice was in peril, was not bent by friendship nor terrified by power. For even some years before, when Emperor Henry had treacherously seized Pope Paschal, as formerly Emperor Henry. with the Clerics and part of the citizens, in the church of Blessed Peter by nefarious treason; and having overcome them by the piety of those who had been captured with him, had compelled them to unlawful pacts; he himself above all brought it about that he should be excommunicated at g Vienne: by which excommunication, the Lord confirming the sentence of His Church, the prosperity of that tyrant was turned into the contrary, and his posterity deprived of the Imperial dignity. When therefore Your Serenity, avoiding the persecutions of the aforesaid schismatic, had entered Gaul; Blessed Hugh met you at Valence, with tears asking and beseeching (what also he had formerly asked of your predecessor), namely, that he might be loosed from all burdens and ecclesiastical honors, and a more useful Pastor might be elected in the Church of Grenoble: but not even then could he obtain what he so effectively and humbly asked.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
Illness, admonitions given to visitors. Death, burial.
[26] From this time he began day by day more and more to fail, He is freed from the temptation of blasphemy, and to draw near to death with the troubles increasing. For of the two angels of Satan, whom we mentioned above as given to him to buffet him lest he be exalted, namely temptation and infirmity, the one, that is, temptation, was so extinguished that no trace of it remained; but the other, that is, by illnesses he is more afflicted: infirmity, did not cease to increase with daily augmentations, until upon the death of the one, the other likewise ended together. But although before, always by his words and works, it had been clear that God dwelt in his blessed soul; yet especially in this last affliction of infirmity, it could not be hidden of what and how great merit he was, and with how sincere affection he venerated the Lord, and with what true love throughout his so long life he had defended justice and truth. For through the excessive violence of the same infirmity, almost all the memory was deleted or disturbed, in that part only which is common to good and evil men, and serves good men for good, evil men for evil indifferently, containing the forms of local and temporal things. So with that part of the memory blotted out or confused, he preserves only the memory of spiritual things: that part which, imprinted with the lines of truth and justice and all divine worship, in holy men and Angels only accords with the acts of piety, not only equally as before, but even more constantly and fervently at times made itself known: so much so that by Litanies and Psalms and beatings of his breast, day and night importuning with religious pleas the ears of divine clemency, he often became burdensome to the Brothers who were serving him.
[27] He admits monks along with Clerics: For there were present to serve him, both from his own companions, and from our house, and Chalais, and Ecouges, eight or nine, and sometimes even ten, partly lettered, partly without letters, all religious Brothers; and no secular person at all was admitted to serve him: these indeed day and night most devoutly served his bodily and spiritual necessities. Toward whom, namely his servitors, how far he had advanced in humility (which among the other virtues we have above related that he especially pursued), and how deeply he had imprinted it upon the sacred recesses of his pure heart, he showed by manifest signs. For if he had need of anything, from none of them did he suppliantly demand it as a lord by commanding, but by asking; and by imploring not human, but rather divine recompense: for example, "Show me or do me this or that for God's sake, that God may requite it to you in the future." They wondered and were exceedingly amazed, that he who was wont to rule all who were subject to him, and especially his own household, with such authority and severity; in sickness, when others are wont, spurred by the affliction of the disease, He often asks pardon: to be more prone to motions of anger and indignation, had put on such great meekness, such great humility. For if anyone had even moderately rebuked him, or said that he had borne any trouble in his service, at once heavily striking his breast with his fists, he called himself guilty, and most devoutly demanded that the discipline of rods be imposed on him. Since all refused this on account of great reverence toward him, he wept abundantly; he prays continually: and repeated innumerable times that confession which he had been wont to use when about to celebrate the mysteries. He also frequented with incredible urgency, day and night, the Psalms and sayings of the divine Scriptures, also litanies and ecclesiastical prayers, so that in one night (as has been reported to us by truthful narration) he completed three hundred Lord's Prayers. And when he was rebuked by those serving him, that by doing these things he was bringing fatigue not only to his body, but also augmentations to his infirmity; he answered that not only did increases of his miseries not come from this, but rather great remedies.
[28] For so greatly had he become accustomed to these exercises, and so deeply had he drunk in the sweetness of Divine praise and entreaty; that while almost all other things had fled from his memory through the passion, as we have said, of his head, these could by no frenzy or force of any other disease be abolished from his most holy mind. Nay, he turned them over the more eagerly and delightedly, the more rarely others encountered him, with forgetfulness also helping. And although very often, by this very forgetfulness compelling him, he did not know where he was or with whom he was; yet when asked about those things which pertained to justice and religion, he resolves even the questions that come up: without hesitation he answered most truthfully and wisely. For when a false rumor had gone out, that a son had been born to Count a Amadeus, who, following the example of Count Umbert, that is, his father, showed no small reverence to the blessed old man, and those who were assisting him asked whether he himself wished to baptize him; at once without disdain answering, "No," he said, "it is not to be cared by whom one b is baptized; since baptism, by whomever given, is always the same." Likewise, when those present were disputing among themselves who should consecrate his successor, already elected at his own request, to the Priesthood; he similarly replied indignantly, that an ordainer was not to be chosen within the Catholic Church, since, though the Priesthood be given diversely and by diverse persons, it cannot be diverse. He was indignant in such matters more easily and vehemently, because he reckoned even to doubt in these things as blasphemy.
[29] He gives most salutary admonitions, To the Clerics and laymen hastening to visit him, very venerably and devoutly, according to persons and offices, he poured out most salutary admonitions. Among whom, when Guigo Desiderii, one of the greater after the Count, devoted beyond many to him, with knees bent (for so all did) before his bed demanded a blessing; he rebuked him with severe reproof, saying that he, by making unjust exactions on his subjects, was earning perpetual torments for his soul. At which he, stupefied, said that this was not said to him by one who could now almost be counted among the dead, but rather by God, who had revealed it to him; affirming that he had recently imposed a very heavy fine on his land, and had not yet received it, nor would he receive it hereafter after these admonitions.
[30] The Bishop of Chartres also, Lord c Gaufridus, from the time he was known to the servant of God singularly dear, after the visit (which he had shown him the more welcome the more desired), about to return to Valence, he asks the prayers of others, where you then were, to your presence;
when he asked what he should command to be said to you on his behalf, he said that your kindness should beseech the mercy of God for him. But also when he asked what he wished to be prayed for himself; "That God," he said, "may extinguish in me worldly love, and kindle his own." This very thing he most often besought of the religious Brothers, who showed him assiduous service, testifying with striking of his breast that he was guilty and unworthy of divine benefits. But on one occasion a certain one of his companions, moved by his great weepings and sighings, as if to console him, said: "Why, Father, do you so lament, when you have committed neither homicide, nor perjury, nor any other capital thing?" He detests cupidity and vanity: Immediately he said, "What does this matter? since cupidity and vanity alone, if divine clemency be not present, can suffice for human perdition?" What more prudent or succinct could be answered by a man of sound and unimpaired memory? All things which either the good turn away from with pious efforts, or the bad pursue with pernicious strivings, he enclosed in two words, Cupidity and Vanity.
[31] The Bishop of Die also, Lord d Odolricus, one of his pupils, and advanced by him in the Church of Grenoble through all offices even to the Deanery (which after the Bishopric is the greatest dignity there); He joyfully receives the Bishop of Die: desiring to take the habit of regular life by the revered hands of the most holy old man, came devoutly, when he was already much weighed down by debility, with his diseases growing worse. Upon hearing the reason for whose arrival, the servants informing him, the blessed man was so filled with joy, and at once was so replete with gladness, that forgetting his infirmity, eager to run to meet the one coming, he almost threw himself from his little bed. And when he came near, he kissed him, and for joy pouring forth tears; "May God strip from you," he said, "the old man with his acts, and put on you the new man, who according to God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth": his memory, as has already been said, failing concerning common things beyond belief, but concerning divine things sometimes overflowing more than usual. He gives various admonitions: For after many most holy and most salutary admonitions, as he was leaving, and had not yet crossed all the halls, he took care to command this too, that he should cut off the stocking-feet from his hose, so that he might lie wholly clothed except for his feet: for he grieved that some in religious habit, to the injury of holiness, slept with bared legs. After this, with the servants helping, he came down to the level floor, and prostrating himself on his face, offered great thanks to God with tears for what had been done; showing by these signs how much he, almost now dead, desired human salvation.
[32] But to laugh, or to waste time on idle words, or to recite useless rumors, his servitors by no means did he bear patiently: He hates idle talk. for at once he bridled this very thing with severe reproof; asserting that times owed to tears and penance should be occupied with lamentations; and not to be spent in cachinnations, nor in trifling stories, nor in idle talk. Whence, we ask, let them consider again and again, who know how to wonder only at unusual things, whether they could have known anything of the sort either in Scriptures or in human accounts; and whether it does not seem altogether impossible and contrary to nature, and therefore incredible, that a man could lose corporeal things accustomed from childhood from his memory, and not the divine; since rather the reason of nature or custom demands that spiritual and divine things, as being more subtle and less familiar, and harder to grasp, should depart first; but those things, as being more familiar and easier for human weakness to think about, should remain longer. But if those things which are wont to happen about the Saints, the rarer they are, are also the more marvelous; what is more marvelous than that, of which, because of its rarity, there exists no example either in Scriptures or in human affairs? And let each one think what he will, but to us it seems (nor do we think that men more skilled, especially those who know physics, will think otherwise), no less singular, he is compared with Martyrs: no less, nay perhaps more marvelous, amid so many and so long-lasting and sharp afflictions of the brain, not to have lost divine knowledge and invocation and religious devotion, than amid the racks and burning plates and kindled gridirons with insuperable constancy not to have denied the Christian faith. For there, that which assails is wholly brought in from without; here the very instruments of reason and the very ones of divine and human senses, as it were the storeroom of memory, are assailed from within; and the mind that presides over them is attacked, not from elsewhere nor in another place, than from and in those parts of its own body by which it ought to have been helped, namely the worthier and more sublime ones, and those more closely joined to it because of their own subtlety. Of these, we wonder at the one in reverend Martyrs, at the other in Blessed Hugh. Yet this was neither new nor recent to him: he frequently suffers ecstasies of mind. for in the ecstasies of his mind, which he had frequent and lofty, with not only other things but even himself left below him, he had been wont delightedly to taste the supernal sweetness: whence also in affliction he had recourse to that which had been sweeter to him when in health. It appears therefore that Blessed Hugh, like holy Job, was exercised by so great storms of tribulations, and melted down like gold by so great furnaces of sorrows, that from them he might come forth both purer and clearer into the society of the Saints, and that the world might recognize that he had loved God not superficially but from his whole marrow; while neither the force of pain nor of frenzy restrained him from calling upon Him. What more? In these things he persevered to his last breath. Toward his Charterhouse, and its unworthy Prior (which we do not write without tears), showing special love, not lacking in such great afflictions the memory of them.
[33] Most happily he migrates from the body, In the year therefore from the Incarnation of the Lord 1132, in the eightieth year at least of his age, in his fourth month, in the fifty-second at least of his consecration likewise, on the Kalends of April, on the sixth feria before Palm Sunday, about cockcrow, Blessed Hugh, singular among the Bishops of his time in works and fame, with his house peaceful and filled with all good things, with his committed Church and people enjoying tranquil peace, migrated to the Lord, leaving as his substituted successor a Carthusian (as he had long and much desired before). But his body was kept unburied until the third feria of the following week, the days being clear and hot, so that no one desired summer; many wondering that it did not decay either from the mildness of the air, or the heat of the crowded multitude standing around, or the warmth of the candles. To whose venerable funeral rites three Bishops hastened: of Die, of Grenoble, of Chartres: who on the preceding day, after the second visit which he had made to him in this his last debility, had scarcely at last departed; asking that if in a short time he should fail, he should be sent for right after him (which also was done).
[34] But as soon as the fame of his death spread abroad, there hastened, not only from his own Bishopric, but also from remote regions, innumerable peoples, so that he is exposed to the devotion of the people: bringing candles and offerings of various kinds. Every age, sex, and condition most devoutly kissed his feet, so much so that the sandals themselves, as though dyed skin, were darkened by saliva and tears alike: for even nurslings were brought, that by touch of so holy a body they might be fortified against all adversities. Some also, kissing the sandals themselves with more ardent faith, bit them; wishing to carry something away from there for sanctification. Rings and coins and other things were applied to the holy body, that after his burial they might be kept as Relics. There were present from our house and Chalais and Ecouges several Lay Brothers, assiduous guardians of the most holy body, also troops of monks and Clerics with ecclesiastical apparatus, very many: but the concourse of people on all sides had been so great, and the very presence of the dead man was so welcome to all, that they scarcely at last permitted him to be buried. Finally on the fifth day after his death, the third, as we said, he is buried, after Palm Sunday, they deceived the crowds; promising that they would carry him out of the church, so that he might be more freely seen and touched. With them therefore going out in this hope, and thus the church of the Blessed ever-Virgin Mary, where he was to be buried, emptied in part; with the doors at once most firmly secured, the venerable relics of the sacred body were placed in a prepared sarcophagus with much reverence and a huge cry of those lamenting and psalmodizing alike. Moreover, the crowds frequenting his tomb, now rarer, now denser, for the hope of divine mercy upon themselves, on account of the great merits of the blessed man, continue even to the present.
ANNOTATIONS.
ON SAINT HUGH
Abbot of Bonnevaux, of the Cistercian Order, in Gaul.
IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
PrefaceHugh, Abbot of Bonnevaux, of the Cistercian Order, in Gaul (St.)
G. H.
The Abbey of Bonnevaux of the Cistercian Order, in the Dauphiné and the Diocese of Vienne, was built by Guido, Archbishop, then Roman Pontiff, called Callistus II; and its first Abbot was given, St. Hugh a novice, known to St. Bernard. John of Lyon, who afterwards was Bishop of Valence, lived to about the year 1147. Who was substituted for him at that time is not clear. Among the later Abbots was Bernard, writer of the Life of Saint Bernard; and there was also Saint Hugh, of whom we now treat: whom the Acts indicate was cured in an illness by Saint Bernard, when he was still dwelling in the monastery of Maceriae, near Beaune, in the diocese of Châlons, built about the year 1132. Among the letters of Saint Bernard there exists the three hundred fifty-first, addressed to Hugh the novice (who is indicated in the preset title to be this man) where these things are said about his noble mind: "A noble and delicate youth has conquered the malign one, has spurned the world, has exposed his body, has renounced the affections of kinsmen, has leapt over the ready snares of riches… The wisdom of our Hugh is not of the earth, but of heaven… Let not the harshness of the Order terrify his tender age." These things and others Bernard, who died holily on August 20, in the year 1153. The Abbot composed a peace in the year 1177, After whose death in the following year, Frederick Barbarossa received at Rome from Adrian IV the name of Emperor. During his reign flourished the same Hugh, now made Abbot of Bonnevaux, and reconciled peace between the said Emperor and Alexander III, in the year 1177; but how long he lived afterwards is not clear.
[2] His Acts from a MS of Bödeken, We have obtained some acts of him from a noteworthy parchment Passional MS of the monastery of Bödeken, of the Regular Canons in Westphalia and the diocese of Paderborn. These were inserted in the Lives of the Saints of the month of December at folio 257 with this title: "Of Saint Hugh, Abbot of Bonnevaux." By Vincent of Beauvais, Vincent of Beauvais, who flourished in the next century, in the year 1256 departed from life,
having obtained the same deeds, published them in book 29 of the Mirror of History, chapters 33 and following, with scarcely a word changed; only since before he had treated of Emperor Frederick, he begins with this formula, "At that time": in place of which the MS has, "In the times of the first Emperor Frederick." In both places the end is missing, in which perhaps the illness, death, burial, and miracles following afterwards were treated. Caesarius, older than Vincent, testifies in his own time that Hugh had begun to shine with miracles, By Peter de Natalibus, according to Manrique, on the year 1183, chapter 3, number 4. Peter de Natalibus, who finished his Catalogue of Saints in the year 1371, when in book 4, chapter 22 he had treated of Saint Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, subjoined in his wonted way in chapter 23 a compendium of the Life, abridged from Vincent, with this title: "Of Saint Hugh, Abbot of Bonnevaux": and under the end added these things: "After many marks of his sanctity, the holy Abbot Hugh in the monastery of Bonnevaux paid the debt of humanity, and was buried there."
Following afterwards Saint Antoninus, Bishop of Florence, By Saint Antoninus, taken from life in the year 1459, described the earlier Acts from Vincent, omitting a few things.
[3] Among the Carthusians of Cologne there flourished in the same century Hermann Greven, who died in the year 1480: who, following the example of Peter de Natalibus, His name in the Martyrologies. on the Kalends of April has these words: "On the same day of Hugh of good memory, Abbot of Bonnevaux, of the Cistercian Order": to which is added in the German Martyrology of Canisius, "Who was plainly a holy man, and by the command of God composed peace between the Pope and the Emperor." The same is mentioned by Witford, Maurolycus, Felicius, and Ferrarius. He is also inscribed in the monastic Martyrologies, and so have Wion and Menardus: "On the same day of Saint Hugh, Abbot of Bonnevaux, of the Cistercian Order, a disciple of Saint Bernard." Bucelinus treats of him at greater length, and Saussajus in the Gallican Martyrology, likewise Chrysostom Henriquez in the Menologium, who in book 2 of the Fasciculus of Saints of the Cistercian Order, distinction 2, leads out his life in seven chapters; and inserts many things about the origin of the solemnity of the Crown of Thorns, which he hands down that Blessed Hugh took care to have introduced into the Order. But Angelo Manrique in the Cistercian Annals, on the year 1183, chapter 3, numbers 2 and 3, calls into doubt and impugns the history of the festivity of the Crown of Thorns: who then in number 4 asserts that Hugh, within a short time after his death numbered among the Saints, An Ecclesiastical Office, was celebrated with a proper Office, not only in the house of Bonnevaux itself, but throughout the whole Order, which even today is circulated in the ancient Breviaries. He then adds a hymn which contains the series of his Life, which we here subjoin, but with the presumed license of conjecture, cleansed of some faults which are noted in the margin, An ancient Hymn. because otherwise some fitting sense could not be elicited.
[4] "The excellent Master, the seal of Godhead, Hugh—Valence gives him, a mirror of the worthy life. Enjoying alone this grace, she produces Hugh the little flower, The warfare of Châteauneuf, first centurion of the divine camp. Thereafter the prophetic Hugh from infancy seeks his uncle: The Church of Lyon furnishes the pasture of doctrine.
This monastery reaped a handful of such great fruit; Burgundy draws to itself Hugh the servant of Christ. Truly full of Cistercian purity, the title In the house of Maceriae Hugh undergoes the vestibule: The Pastors give counsels: the Chapter of Leoncel, By firm concord of the Brothers, offers Hugh the staff. So the great men provide this reckoning for Bonnevaux, Taking for themselves from the Daughter, Hugh's rudder. Let us pray that from his country may he send a little stream of graces, By which his worthy presence continually shows a miracle."
[5] The daughter monastery of Bonnevaux, then (as the Cistercians say), was the House of Maceriae, which the Poet turns as Domus Muratoria: and in it Hugh is indicated to have taken the religious habit, when it is said that he there underwent the title of the vestibule. The monastery of Leoncel (where the gathered Chapter offered Hugh the Abbatial staff), commonly Our Lady of Lyncell, or according to Sainte-Marthe, Léoncel in Dauphiné, pertains to the diocese of Valence, and is of the Cistercian line, founded in the year 1137, according to the Chronological Index of Abbeys of the Cistercian Order, from the acquaintance of the same Abbeys published by Gaspar Jongelinck.
Annotationsotherwise Mysterium exuviae* ("Mystery of the spoils").
otherwise Mysterium hoc nescit* ("This mystery knows not").
otherwise Gratum* ("Welcome").
LIFE
From a MS of Bödeken and Vincent of Beauvais.
Hugh, Abbot of Bonnevaux, of the Cistercian Order, in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 0000
FROM MSS.
[1] Made a monk at Maceriae In the times of the first Emperor Frederick, there flourished with much grace of sanctity the venerable Hugh, Abbot of Bonnevaux: who as a youth, leaving the world, was converted in a house of the Cistercian Order, which is called Maceriae, and began to live very religiously. After this, being much tempted, he thought of returning to the world. Thinking these things, he entered the temple, and prayed with tears, he is comforted in his vocation by the Blessed Virgin: and with bent knees stretched his hands to heaven: and he saw above the altar the Mother of mercy, clothed in light as with a garment: and it seemed to him that he saw Jesus her son beside her, and how he had been announced by the Angel, and born of the Virgin and announced to the shepherds, and how he was circumcised, and taken by the Jews, and scourged, and mocked, and crucified, and how he rose again on the third day, and after forty days ascended into heaven. And when he saw all these things, Our Lady said to him: "Act manfully, and let your heart take courage in the Lord: and be certain that from now on you will not be struck by such temptations."
[2] After this he began to afflict himself with excessive abstinences, so much so that he seemed almost to lose his sense and memory. in illness cured by St. Bernard, Meanwhile Saint Bernard, who still survived then, came to him by the providence of God: and ordered him to be sent to the infirmary: and also that vigils be sung to him each night, before the other sick men, so that afterwards he might be able to sleep sufficiently: and that he should have general license to speak where he wished. And so, by the mercy of God, in a short time he recovered. He is made Abbot. Then religion began to ferment greatly in him: nor long after he was made Abbot of Bonnevaux.
[3] Under this holy man there was a certain young novice, very fervent in his beginnings: He frees a tempted novice, who afterwards, being much tempted, thought of returning to the world: and confessed this temptation to the Abbot: who began to urge him to remain, but accomplished nothing. Then the Abbot said: "Son, have mercy on your soul by pleasing God, lest you lose the glory prepared for you: for I promise you, and I establish myself as guarantor of this promise, that if you remain, you will be the eternal companion of the holy Angels." Comforted by these words in the Lord, he persisted, and afterwards lived most excellently. Who two years before he died and visited by St. Job, labored under a most grievous infirmity: to comfort whom Saint Job was sent, with the greatest brightness, by which the whole infirmary was filled; "I," he said, "am Job, whom the Father of mercies and God of all consolation has sent to console you. As I was patient in such an infirmity, so shall you be: and therefore you will flourish with me in my glory, and tomorrow you will be with me, he sees in glory. and will reap what you sowed": which also was done. Not long after, he appeared to his Abbot in great glory, rendering him thanks, because through his admonition he had persisted in the Order. a
[4] Under the same holy man there were made novices one Cleric and one knight, treacherous and deceitful, who in the same year had betrayed and destroyed two castles. Of two novices, one perishing, Now to this knight sleeping it seemed in a vision of the night that he fell into a well, so deep that he would spend three days in falling before he reached the bottom. When he had related this to the holy Father, he interpreted the well as the abyss of hell, into which he would fall if he left the Order: and therefore he warned him to remain. But he would not, but departed: and when he had departed, on the third day he was killed by his enemies. The Cleric likewise being overcome, he confirms the other with a promised vision of the B.V. confessed his temptation to the Abbot. Whom consoling, the Abbot promised that, if he remained, the Queen of the world would come for his soul, and lead him into her rest: which also was done. For on the day before he died, Our Lady appeared to him, saying she was coming for him, who on the morrow would be in eternal rest: and so it happened. b
[5] On the Annunciation of Blessed Mary, when the same Abbot was rousing the Brothers for vigils, he saw the devil, having seen the devil among the Brothers, standing in the middle of the choir in a horrible form, so much so that the Abbot himself fell from fear: who having risen signed himself, and went to his seat. On the morrow the Abbot narrated in Chapter what he had seen, and said, that someone of the Brothers was in criminal sin, on account of whom the devil had come. Hearing which, all feared: but he, who was guilty, disguised his conscience. On the next morrow again the Abbot said, he reveals for whose sin this was happening. that the devil was still among them. And then the Brothers confessed, and received each discipline, praying the Lord to reveal the conscience of the guilty one to the Abbot: which also was done. Then the Abbot drew the guilty one aside, and told him his sin. Hearing which, he fell at his feet, asking pardon to be given to him, and penance according to the will of the Abbot to be imposed. Which being done, the devil appeared no more.
[6] In a certain daughter of Bonnevaux, a certain Abbot, noble by birth, A detractor divinely punished but degenerate in morals, was for worthy reasons deposed by this holy man, and another more worthy was substituted in his place. And when, after this had been done, Hugh was departing, a certain garrulous man, familiar of the deposed one, began to detract from him and publicly to say, that he had deposed him more out of envy than out of justice. Hearing which, Hugh, with hands stretched to heaven, prayed God to manifest that he had done these things with pure and right intention. he heals by prayers. And at once that garrulous man, becoming insane, began to run through the whole court of the Abbey, and to eat the dung of the pigs which were there. Seeing which, the holy man, having mercy on him, prayed for him, and he was healed.
[7] The happy death of two Brothers In the house of Bonnevaux there was a certain fervent monk, who, though weak in body, yet always kept the community: at last he fell into paralysis, and long languished in the infirmary. There also was the master of novices, John by name, sick unto death: to whom a certain Brother served, named Benedict: to whom John said: "Do you hear what I hear?" And he: "I hear nothing: what do you hear?" "I," he said, "hear the voices of Angels chanting psalms, as the voices of many harpers, who have come for the pious soul
of our paralytic, and tomorrow I shall follow him. But hasten to strike the board, because his soul is greatly hastening to depart." Then Brother Benedict went to see how the paralytic was faring, and saw him now heavily panting. He therefore ran to strike the board: and before the Brothers were gathered, the paralytic departed, and on the morrow John. c
[8] A certain servant of the Cellarer was sick unto death, A penitent absolved under reservation. and confessed his sins to a monk, the Confessor of the poor: and told him a certain sin, which that monk feared to receive: and he enjoined the sick man to confess this to the Abbot: which he agreed to, if he lived. But the Abbot was then not present, but on the road; in the meantime, however, that servant died. But the Abbot when he had returned from the road after Compline, and was sitting on his bed wishing to unshoe himself, saw that dead man ascending the stairs of the dormitory. Who coming to him, fell at his feet, asking pardon, and humbly asking that he hear his confession, saying he was sent to him for this reason. And he confessed with such abundance of tears, that the Abbot also was moved to tears: Hugh after death fully absolves: and they both wept, so that the sleeve of his cowl was wetted. After the absolution, the dead man humbly asked the Abbot to pray for him, because he was in great torments. And while the Abbot wished to try by touch, whether he was in body or in spirit; he disappeared. On the morrow he asked the Confessor of the poor, whether the dead man had confessed such a crime to him. Who answered: "Yes: but how do you know it?" "From his mouth," he said, "I heard it."
[9] A certain young monk in the same house had recently died, whose mother, afterwards having seen the Abbot, he reveals the salvation of another who had died: began anxiously to weep over her son. Whom consoling, he said: "Do not weep, be certain that your son is in great glory: and I know how he lived, and how holily." Hearing which, his mother received consolation. Not long after, when the same Abbot was praying, that monk appeared to him with a most radiant countenance, and greeted him. Whom the Abbot recognizing, said: "How are you, my son?" Who said: "Well, Lord, as you see." d
[10] A certain lay brother from another house, on account of his fault, had been sent to Bonnevaux, where he fell sick unto death. But the Abbot visiting him asked him to confess securely the sin from which he was sick: in vain he dissuades one about to receive communion unworthily: which he had never wished to confess, nor even to his own Abbot. But he denied everything, and asked that the Body of the Lord be given to him. But Abbot Hugh urged him not to presume to receive the Body of the Lord, unless he had well confessed. But he, saying he had well confessed, insisted that the Body of the Lord be brought to him. Which when the Priest had brought, and placed in his mouth; he at once began to cry out, "What shall I do, wretch? what shall I do?" Then the Priest took from him the Body of the Lord, which he held above his tongue: and at once he expired.
[11] Once also when the Abbot was sick he entered the infirmary, and saw a dove whiter than snow upon the shoulder of the monk infirmarian: he is divinely warned to compose peace. when the monk wished to seize it, it came flying to the Abbot, and entered his bosom: and afterwards went out through the opening of the Abbot's tunic, saying to him in human words: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, prepare yourself, prepare yourself, prepare yourself: St. Bernard commands you, that you go to make peace between the Pope and the Emperor of Germany." Who having received this holy admonition, e afterwards made peace between them. f
ANNOTATIONS.
ON BLESSED NICHOLAS OF ARCO,
Monk of the Cistercian Order at Noto in Sicily.
ABOUT 1220.
CommentaryNicholas of Arco, monk of the Cistercian Order at Noto in Sicily (Bl.)
By the liberal courtesy of Ferdinand Ughelli we had received some notice of Blessed Nicholas, monk of Noto, the day of whose deposition being unknown, the first day of April has been assumed, on which his Relics were translated: and at that day treat of him Octavius Cajetanus in his Sicilian Martyrology, and following him, Menardus, Bucelinus, and Chamelot. The same Cajetanus, His name in the Calendars. in volume 2 of the Lives of Sicilian Saints page 200, printed the same notice which we had received from Ughelli, with this title: "On Blessed Nicholas, monk of Noto," with the year of Christ 1230 noted in the margin, on the first day of April. The rest we subjoin here.
[2] With Constance the mother and Frederick reigning in Sicily, Isimbard Morengia, Notice from Cajetanus lord of Noto, and his wife Cara, distinguished both by birth and by piety, founded a temple of St. Mary, and an adjoining monastery, at the fifth milestone from the city of Noto, toward the north; and endowed it with the fields of Arco (from which the Monastery took the name, because it was built there), Planetta, Gaitanino, and Bulchaleno: which were handed over to the Brothers and Abbot Rudolph, and their Cistercian Order, with an instrument of donation completed, in the year of Christ 1212, in the month of November. From that monastery and Cistercian family came Blessed Nicholas, of Noto, whose Relics, about 300 years ago, were held in honor among the people of Noto. There is a report that he was of the family of Count Isimbard, founder of the monastery. Of his life and deeds no monuments exist, and from Vincenzo Littara, but many of his sanctity. For his body first raised from the ground was preserved in the church of St. Mary of Arco, in the field of Noto, four palms high; then it was translated to the city of Noto to the Cistercian shrine, and is seen buried in an ark in the chamber: but the arm enclosed in old silver, on the front of which a monk, adorned with a diadem, is depicted, with this inscription: "Saint Nicholas of Arco." Nevertheless, he is commonly called Blessed Nicholas: of whom Vincenzo Littara, a man of Noto, says these things: "The very ancient monastery, built for the Cistercian family by Count Isimbard, in the year of salvation 1212: there his sepulcher is shown, in which also are the relics of Blessed Nicholas of Noto, of the Cistercian Order; some of which, enclosed in silver cases, are held in honor." Thus far the Sicilian authors, nor are more things suggested by others.