ON BLESSED GUARINUS, BISHOP OF SION.
Twelfth Century.
CommentaryGuarinus, Bishop of Sion in Switzerland (B.)
From various sources.
[1] Sion is a city of the Valaisians on the Rhone, commonly called Sitten, in French Sion. Here Guarinus was bishop, whom Hugo Menardus, from an old Missal printed a hundred years earlier, Guarinus's feast day. records in his catalogue of Saints and Blessed of the Cistercian Order.
Page 348 Chrysostomus Henriquez reports his feast day in the Cistercian Menology under the 8th of the Ides of January with these words: "In the Alps, Blessed Garinus, Bishop, who first lived most holily in those mountains, and embracing lowly humility, attained purity and simplicity of heart. Most devoted to contemplation, he fled all the tumult of external affairs. He reformed monks who were living laxly and subjected them to Cistercian rigor. And when the fame of his virtues spread far and wide, he was made Bishop of the Church of Sion, and there, showing himself a most vigilant Shepherd, adorned with various marks of sanctity, he died most piously in a good old age." But the Cistercian Calendar published at Dijon, under February 6, has this: "Garinus, Abbot of Hautecombe, Bishop of Sion." According to Claudius Robertus, the monastery of Hautecombe, distinct from the Alpine one, is situated on Lake Bourget. Whether the title of Blessed or Saint was ever decreed for Guarinus by the Apostolic See, I do not know; but it is probable, since the Cistercians assert that he is everywhere publicly held and called Blessed in their Order, even though no Commemoration is made of him in their proper Offices. Andreas Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology also calls him Blessed and adorns him with a notable eulogy.
[2] What kind of man Guarinus was can be gathered from St. Bernard's Letter 253, in which he writes the following to Guarinus himself and his monks: "To the Reverend Father and Lord Guarinus, Abbot of Aulps — worthy of all veneration — and to all the Brothers of that place: Brother Bernard, servant of your holiness. May you always advance from good to better. Truly now, Father, I experience in you what I remember reading in Sacred Scripture: 'When a man has finished, then he begins' Ecclesiasticus 18:6. Already rest was owed the old man, a crown to the veteran; Vigor in old age: and behold, like a new soldier in Christ, you rouse new wars, you provoke the adversary, and — a weary old man — you presume upon the work of the strong, while you compel the ancient enemy to renew the combat, now somehow even against his will. For indeed, contrary to your custom and the traditions of your predecessors, divinely inspired, you relinquish churches and ecclesiastical benefices, you destroy synagogues of Satan — that is, cells outside the monastery in which three or four Brothers are accustomed to live without order and without discipline — Pious reforms: you banish women from the monastery, and you attend more diligently than usual to the other goods of piety and discipline. What else will that first and greatest sinner do but see and be enraged, and gnash his teeth and waste away? But why should you care? Rather, in his confusion and your consolation, you shall sing to your God: 'Those who fear you will see me and be glad, because I have hoped in your word.' Nor should it be feared that one who does not yield even to old age will succumb to the enemy: his spirit conquers the years, and in a body already growing cold, holy desire burns in his heart; and though his limbs grow weary, yet the vigor of his purpose remains unimpaired; nor does the ready spirit feel the infirmities of his wrinkled flesh. Nor is this surprising: for why should he fear the ruins of his aged dwelling, when he sees the spiritual edifice daily rising higher, advancing toward eternity? For he is certain that if this earthly house of his is dissolved, he has a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
[3] St. Bernard then at length proves that a monk must always be advancing, and finally adds: "Indeed, we demonstrate this by examples in such a way that we may also prove it before our very eyes. For in you, Father, what is said is made manifest to us: though your outer man is being corrupted, yet your inner man is being renewed day by day. Daily renewal: Whence this great ardor for renewing the Order, unless from the renewal of the mind? Thus the good man brings forth good things from the good treasure of his heart; thus the good tree bears good fruit. These are your first and purest fruits. But what tree brought them forth, if not purity of heart? Otherwise, when would an impure mind seek out and choose the purity of the Rule with such great zeal? Nor does a clear stream flow from a turbid spring, nor a clean thought from a sordid mind. What delights is doubtless within, within; and from that inner fullness bursts forth everything that overflows on the outside; and what shines in the mind, thus also pleases in the work."
[4] A celebrated name. "Follow your Father, sons; be imitators of him, as he also is of Christ. Say: 'In the fragrance of your ointments we shall run.' For the good fragrance of Christ is in every place. For to say nothing of you, who receive the fragrance close at hand, such an abundance of this most sweet sprinkling has reached even us who are far away that it has become for us most certainly a fragrance of life unto life. I think even those in heaven have perceived this in a fragrance of sweetness, and sing with a certain more festive than usual exultation: 'Who is she that comes up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense and with all the powders of the merchant?' And that: 'Your shoots are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruit of choice trees.' Whoever among you does not hear this jubilation in heaven is envious. Whoever does not perceive this fragrance — may I say this with the peace of all — is putrid." These things Bernard wrote while Guarinus was still Abbot.
[5] His promotion to the episcopate. He was then elected Bishop of the Church of Sion. Which election Bernard wonderfully approved, and consoled the grieving monks of Aulps with Letter 142, which begins: "Your good Father and ours, by God's authorship, has been raised to a higher degree, etc." Near the end, he urges them to choose a most suitable Abbot for themselves, by the counsel of the same Guarinus and of Godfrey, Prior of Clairvaux. Bernard mentions the monastery of Aulps in Letter 28. Guarinus is mentioned by Bernard, Abbot of Bonneval, in his Life of St. Bernard, book 2, chapter 6, section 8.