ON ST. BERNARD OF CANDELEDA, CISTERCIAN MONK IN SPAIN,
of the twelfth or thirteenth century.
A COLLECTION.
The place, his public veneration, the time of his death.
Bernard of the Cistercian Order, at Candeleda in Spain (St.)
J. P.
The most illustrious Angel Manrique in volume 3 of the Cistercian Annals, at the year of Christ 1177, chapter 9, records these things: Information about the place where the Saint lived and is honored: An illustrious and very ancient monastery in the kingdom of Toledo upon the banks of the Alberche, surnamed from the situation of the place and from the churches which it contained the Valley of the Churches, in this year hallows the beginnings of its foundations, in which it is believed to have taken up the yoke of Cîteaux. Then, having pursued more concerning that monastery, he subjoins these things to our purpose at number 8: It is reported that the monastery of the Valley of the Churches begot a daughter, Grandselve by name, on the extreme borders of both Castiles, on the side which looks toward Baetica, whence also it is called Extremadura (once part of Lusitania); and further, that the abbey being destroyed by a general pestilence, only the convent and the monks were restored to their mother, together with the instruments of the daughter's endowment, of which the record survives today. I conjecture that St. Bernard, called of Candeleda from the place where his body rests, was abbot or monk of this house — he who, it is agreed, was a Cistercian and a Saint, although the rest lies hidden from the knowledge of men. These things concerning the situation of the place being thus recounted, the praised founder of the Annals thus sets forth and confirms the Man's public cult:
[2] The people of Candeleda honor him as their patron; but, the day of his death being unknown, is established since they had heard "Bernard," they venerate his tomb on the sacred feast of the great Bernard of Clairvaux, and frequent it with a famous yearly solemnity. There was formerly upon the altar of the church a panel painted a hundred and thirty years ago, in which was the Saint's likeness, without a cowl, with a white tunic and a black scapular, as of one girding himself for the work of his hands. Beneath the altar, on the front, he is again painted, now
cowled and lying upon a bed, whence his soul should penetrate the heavens and his body be restored to the earth from which it was made. They report that he shone with miracles in life and after death down to these our own times: among which is that painted on the same panel, that while he lived he used to cross the river nearest his monastery with dry foot, using his mantle as a boat. Chrysostom Henriquez in the Menology is the authority that there existed in the church of Candeleda a manuscript booklet assigned to the miracles which were frequently accomplished by God at the Saint's sacred tomb.
[3] When the precious clod was uncovered sixty-five years ago — namely in the year of Christ 1572 — his public veneration: with worthy concourse and cult, it was found fragrant with a heavenly odor, which continues unbroken to this day. Then it was religiously translated to a chapel dedicated to his name, and placed under the altar in a chest, and the chest itself enclosed with iron gratings, at once for its keeping and for religious veneration; the gratings are locked with three keys, of which one is committed to the trust of the parish priest, another to that of the steward; the third the ministers of the consistory keep, all rejoicing to be assigned to so great a service. A fragment of the skull is under lesser keeping, for touching the sick, of whom very many experience the Saint's power. Above the altar is a more recent panel presenting his likeness and marked out with miracles, of which some are proved to be his, some the great Bernard's — namely that they may afford one another glory, the one while he shares the day, the other while he shares the altar. From all these things we see that it can be deduced safely enough that our Bernard is so in possession of a public and religious cult that, the famous decree of Pope Urban VIII being safe, he neither can nor ought to be removed from it.
[4] announcements and eulogies: To the lawful and public veneration of our St. Bernard, thus far established upon the faith of Manrique, we shall not unfittingly add the following announcements and eulogies. Chrysostom Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology records him today thus: St. Bernard, Cistercian monk in the monastery of the Valley of the Churches, illustrious in life and after death for admirable signs; whose body rests in the church consecrated to him at Candeleda, and is honorably venerated with a great concourse of the people. He adds in the notes that the holy Man died at Candeleda (it is a town situated in that part of Spain which is called Extremadura). And presently he adds these things from Seguin: At Candeleda in Extremadura, St. Bernard, monk of the Valley of the Churches, who while he lived flashed with great miracles, so that he passed over the waves of a great river unhurt and with dry foot. And he died full of virtues, and rests in the place which is called Candeleda, to which there is a great concourse of people, and there he is honored with an ecclesiastical Office in the church of his own name. He is announced also by Chalemot with a eulogy, who cites the Calendars of the Order and Seguin. Of Philip Seguin, monk and Prior of Chaalis or Carolilocus in the diocese of Senlis, Charles de Visch treats in his Library of the Writers of the Cistercian Order, and reports his writings, not then yet printed, among which he places a Catalogue … of the Saints and Blessed of the whole Cistercian Order. Concerning our Saint, Miraeus too may be seen in the Auctarium, or book 5 of the Monastic Origins, chapter 14.
[5] the year of his death uncertain. But now, although this illustrious Man's life, virtues, and miracles, as also the day and year of his death, lie hidden from us, as is gathered from the Cistercian historiographer praised above, yet we have assigned his death to the twelfth or thirteenth century, and that by a not improbable conjecture from what we have before narrated from the same historiographer, choosing rather to assign some time than none. These few things we had to say of St. Bernard of Candeleda: would that we had been permitted to obtain more ancient records, worthy of that same Man and of the memory of posterity!