(On Tuesday May 11th. we celebrated the Community Mass in Memory of the Holy Abbots of
Today is the Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.
On the day of our Memorial of the Holy Abbots of CLUNY, the Internet offers up-to-date information and history.
The following LINK is very impressive and we appreciate the article and illustrations.
Holy Abbots of Cluny Website Posted by John Whitehead : http://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2010/05/holy-abbots-of-cluny.html
Tuesday, 11 May 2010The Holy Abbots of Cluny
My own interest in Cluny arises in part from the fact that there was from 1090 until 1539 a Cluniac priory in my home town of Pontefract, and it was my interest in such local facts that began to expand my historical imagination. As the years have gone by I see that in not a few ways I am drawn to the Cluniac vision of worship and prayer alongside the world, and the pursuit of the beauty of holiness in all its forms. It is a topic upon which I have given a few lectures over the years, and one to which I hope to return.
This year is the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of the abbey in 910, and is being marked by a series of events in and around the remains of the abbey. The French mint has even produced a 10 Euro coin to commemorate the anniversary. The Pope has spoken in one of his weekly catecheses about the contribution of Cluny to the life of the whole Church - a point he has referred to in other addresses in recent years.
Cluny gave to the Church a model of a renewed Benedictine monastic life, that helped generate other, complementary, congregations, an ordered tradition of worship, the promotion of the arts in the service of religion, the encouragement of pilgrimage, the promotion of devotion to Our Lady, support for the emerging Papal monarchy and a centralised administrative structure. It attracted the patronage and support of contemporary rulers such as Alfonso VI of Castile and Henry I of England. In one sense it was arguably the first, and one of the most successful, of multi-nationals. Its legacy stretches far beyond the cloister.
A key factor in the development of Cluny was the independence from secular authority granted by its founder, Duke William of Aquitaine. By his foundation charter he placed it under the immediate authority of the Holy See. The text of that charter can be read here. The abbey grew in size and influence as a result, and so did the direct influence of the Papacy. This was a form of practical utramontanism, implemented with local outlets wherever Cluny acquired or founded dependencies.
To see an excellent account of the history of Cluny's first, and probably most important English foundation look at Lewes Priory, and Friends of Reading Abbey gives something about a foundation inspired by Cluny, although not regarded as part of the Cluniac Order as such.
I suspect that too many historians these days tend to concentrate, due to the nature of the surviving evidence, on Cluniac administration and economics at the expense of understanding what it was that drove forward the Cluniac system, and that was the religious impulse.
That also underlay the famous exchange of letters and pamphlets with St Bernard of Clairvaux about the expression of monastic life. Often seen as a clash between two entirely different models I think it should rather be seen as an internal debate within what was still, in many ways, a single, undifferentiated Benedictine tradition, and not untypical of clerical discussion or debate. What heightended it was the calibre of Bernard and Peter the Venerable, and the scale of their two monastic projects. Bernard may have had the more cutting comments, but it was Cluny that influenced the wider Church beyond the walls of monastic communities.
Pope Urban II wrote of Cluny that it
"shines as another sun over the earth, so that it is more fitting to apply to it the words of Our Lord 'You are the Light of the World' "
and St Hugh spoke of how
"Ever since we founded this monastery, prepared and helped by the divine clemency, we have very clearly experienced in this place the presence of the compassion of Almighty God and the gaze of His fatherly devotedness."
The dedication of the High Altar of Cluny III by Pope Urban II in 1095 in the presence of St Hugh and the community - from an early thirteenth century MS.
The Holy Abbots of Cluny are a group comprised of four saints - the great founding and establishing abbots - Odo, Maiolus, Odilo and Hugh, who successively ruled it from 910 until 1109, the centuries of growth and its zenith - and Bl Peter the Venerable who restored its fortunes after the disastrous career of Abbot Pons in the early twelfth century and whose abbacy marked the end of the era of Cluniac dominance. After Peter's time - 1122-56 - the abbey and its enormous family passed, relatively, into not so much decline, as being left behind by the newer developments in the life of the Church.
I have taken from Vultus Christi's post for this day last year the specific antiphon for the four sainted abbots for Lauds, the Little Hours and Vespers:
Odo arose full of the Holy Spirit,
and renewed the beauty of the monastic Order
throughout the world, alleluia.
Maiolus, overflowing with charity and with grace,
and emulating the holiness of the angels,
was lifted high above men in virtue, alleluia.
Odilo showed wondrously what was the charity of his heart,
who, while pitying sufferings of the faithful departed,
yearly decreased them by a sweet refreshment, alleluia.
When blessed Hugh was about to expire
on the day of the sacred rites of the great Sabbath [Holy Saturday],
he greeted the new light of the Paschal Candle,
earnestly praying with sighs that he might happily reach the promised land, alleluia.
It was St Hugh, abbot from 1049 until 1109, who commenced and oversaw much of the rebuilding of the third abbey church, the building known to historians as Cluny III. Designed by one of the monks, Gunzo, and begun in 1088 it was the largest church in Christendom, and only exceeded in size in the sixteenth century with the building of St Peter's in Rome.
Pevsner wrote of Cluny in his An Outline of European Architecture
"Here was architecture so complex, so polyphonous, as earlier centuries in the West
could not have conceived, and the Greeks would have detested, but the ideal expression no doubt of that proud moment in medieval Christianity, when the Reform had conquered the throne of the popes, asserted the superiority of the papal tiara over the imperial crown, and called up the knights of Europe to defend the Holy Land in the first Crusade."
Amongst the enormities of destruction perpetrated by the French revolution few, if any, rival the destruction of the church at Cluny. Following the closure of the abbey in 1790 it was soon sold off to three speculators from Macon who proceeded to demolish it for its stone. The remaining buildings became a barracks, and it was only in the 1920s that Kenneth Conant began to study and excavate the remains. Today the south transept and foundations are virtually all that survives of one of the wonders of its, or any other, age.
For some pictures of the remains today look here.
Collects for the feast:
O God, refuge and surpassing reward
of those who walk blamelessly in Thy presence,
perfect in us, we beseech Thee, the love of holy religion,
that by the example and intercession of the blessed Abbots of Cluny
we may run with dilated hearts along the way of charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen
O God, by whose grace thy servants the Holy Abbots of
Cluny, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became
burning and shining lights in thy Church: Grant that we
also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,
and may ever walk before thee as children of light;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Cluniac 11th Centenary
Celebrating Scotland ’s place in Europe ’s Cluniac heritage on the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey of Cluny, Burgundy.
The Programme
14th - 16th May, 2010
Craft Fair, Medieval Fair,
Children’s bowling competition,
Concerts, Coach tours, Exhibitions,
Conference, Historic re-enactments
Paisley Abbey
Paisley Abbey was founded in 1163 by Walter FitzAlan, an Anglo-Breton who brought monks to establish the community around the shrine to a local saint, St. Mirin. (St. Mirren – Scottish Football League).
Saturday 15th May: Concert with organ and choir The glorious interior of Paisley Abbey will be the backdrop for a concert with a strong French theme.
Sunday 16th May: Service
Morning Service for Ascensiontide celebrating Cluny 2010
Guest Preacher
The Right Reverend Philip Tartaglia Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley
Choral Music to include:
Te Deum (Howells – Collegium Regale)
God is gone up Finzi
Crossraguel
Historical Background
In 909 or 910, William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine, founded a Benedictine abbey at Cluny in Burgundy . Two hundred and fifty years later the abbey was at the head of some 1,400 Cluniac establishments in France , Italy , Germany , Switzerland , Spain , Portugal , Belgium , England and Scotland .
For anyone interested in the history of Europe , the work of the Cluniacs cannot be overlooked. Their values remain relevant today: actions to promote peace, caring for the socially deprived and excluded, a sense of beauty. Varied architecture, a distinctive musical form, sculptures and paintings all form part of the fabulous heritage handed down to us by the monks.
La Fédération des Sites Clunisiens (Federation of Cluniac Sites) was founded in 1994 with a threefold objective: to forge close links between sites, enhance their Cluniac heritage and support their initiatives through action in the fields of education, culture and tourism. Several hundred people – elected representatives and private owners, cultural and tourism associations – are actively involved in the pursuit of these objectives. The Federation gives its backing to all their activities with the help of an international patronage committee bringing together researchers, archaeologists and historians. The Cluniac sites belonging to the Federation have now been organised into trans-regional and transnational itineraries.
As a result, a new European cultural and tourist network is growing, following in the footsteps of the monks of Cluny . Scotland ’s two sites, Paisley , founded in 1163 and Crossraguel in Ayrshire, founded c.1250, will be the focus of Scottish celebrations.
Today, Paisley Abbey is a living Christian community in the cherishing care of the Church of Scotland.
Crossraguel Abbey which was the last monastery to survive the Reformation of 1560 (the last monk died in 1601), is in the scrupulous care of Historic Scotland.
On Tuesday we celebrated the Mass in Memory of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.
It is the eleventh centenary of the foundation and this year is marked by plentiful historical studies, Internet Links, and memorial events, not only of Cluny itself in Burguny, but of Cluniac sites over Europe.
In Scotland, Paisley Abbey is the main centre of celebrations.
THE HOLY ABBOTS OF CLUNY.
Night Office Reading
Abbot Berno, together with the Duke of Aquitaine, founded Cluny on
- 11th September 909. Within several decades it was in a flourishing condition. It was a monastery where monastic ideals were held in esteem and where the observance was good; a solitude where a monk could seek God and find God in prayer, penance and study. Such a house was rare indeed in the decadent years of the 'early tenth century, when monastic discipline had all but disappeared.
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- An important factor in the growth of Cluny was that it was ruled during its first two centuries by a succession of great abbots. These men were both saints and administrators; they shaped the destiny of their house with wisdom and prudence. Five of them stand out in bold relief: Odo, Mayeul, Odilo, Hugh and Peter the Venerable. Odo gave the house its spiritual character, his dynamic personality established the course it was to take. Before he died he appointed an abbot-coadjutor to help him in his duties; this was Aynard, who was duly elected abbot after Odo'sdeath. There was precedent for this, for Odo himself had been appointed by Berno a little before he died. Aynard in his turn appointed Mayeul to be coadjutor and his successor with the approval of the community. Mayeul nominated Odilo to succeed him. Odilo died without appointing a successor and Hugh, his prior for some years, was elected by the community, thus bringing to an end a practice which, although directly counter to the Rule of St. Benedict, gave Cluny a succession of outstanding spiritual leaders. Hugh was to rule for sixty years. After a lapse of thirteen years, during which Pons was abbot followed by Hugh II, the community elected Peter the Venerable, who was a worthy successor of Hugh I. He united both the spiritual leadership and the outstanding human qualities of his predecessors. He ruled as abbot from 1122-1156.
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- Cluny was still a flourishing community after the time of Peter the Venerable in the second half of the twelfth century. To the abiding value of its monastic ideal and its way of life at that time we could scarcely find a more impartial or more appreciative witness than the Carthusian monk-Bishop, St.Hugh of Lincoln . His biographer Adam tells us that, after the Carthusians, the monks of Cluny were the dearest to him because they cultivated the silent life of the cloister and turned their busy leisure to spiritual profit.
When in old age he visited Cluny in 1200, he was struck by the good Order that reigned there in the choir, in the cloister and in the refectory. He was admitted to share their life in community for three days, to celebrate Mass and before he left he said to the Abbot: ‘Truly, if I had seen this place before I fell in love with the Carthusians, I should have become a monk of Cluny .
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