Saint John Gualbert Vallombrosa - Benedictine Founders

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Thursday of the Fourteenth week in Ordinary Time

Saint(s) of the day : St. John Gualbert, Abbot (999-1073) 

See commentary below or click here

Caldey Abbey, Abbot's Chapel, stainedglass Benedictine Founders.
right, Saint John Gualbert, Vallombrosa

Caldey - Stainglass 1922

 SAINT JOHN GUALBERT

Abbot
(999-1073)

        St. John Gualbert was born at Florence, A. D. 999. Following the profession of arms at that troubled period, he became involved in a blood-feud with a near relative. One Good Friday, as he was riding into Florence accompanied by armed men, he encountered his enemy in a place where neither could avoid the other. John would have slain him; but his adversary, who was totally unprepared to fight, fell upon his knees with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross, and implored him, for the sake of Our Lord's holy Passion, to spare his life. St. John said to his enemy, "I cannot refuse what you ask in Christ's name. I grant you your life, and I give you my friendship. Pray that God may forgive me my sin." Grace triumphed.

        A humble and changed man, he entered the Church of St. Miniato, which was near; and whilst he prayed, the figure of our crucified Lord, before which he was kneeling, bowed its head toward him as if to ratify his pardon. Abandoning the world, he gave himself up to prayer and penance in the Benedictine Order.

        Later he was led to found the congregation called of Vallombrosa, from the shady valley a few miles from Florence, where he established his first monastery. Once the enemies of the Saint came to his convent of St. Salvi, plundered it, and set fire to it, and having treated the monks with ignominy, beat them and wounded them. St. John rejoiced. "Now," he said, "you are true monks. Would that I myself had had the honor of being with you when the soldiers came, that I might have had a share in the glory of your crowns! "

        He fought manfully against simony, and in many ways promoted the interest of the Faith in Italy. After a life of great austerity, he died whilst the angels were singing round his bed, July 11, 1073.

Caldey Light House

Saint Romuald

SPN Benedict

August 21: St Bernardo Tolomei, founder of the Olivettan Benedictines,

It is never to late to be recognised as a saint, with Pope Benedict XVI formally canonising Bernardo Tolomei (1272-1348), abbot and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto, in 2009. He was beatified by Urban VIII in 1634.

St. Juliana - West Window Women, Roscrea

St. Juliana - West Window Women, Roscrea

 St Juliana of 

Mount Cornillon
(1192-1258)

In the 1250s St Juliana of Mount Cornillon, an Augustinian nun, was the one chosen by God to have the Feast of Corpus Christi introduced into the Church of Liege, in present-day Belgium, and then into the Universal Church. 

Banished by a local mob, she took refuge in a number of monasteries of Cistercian nuns over the last decade of her life. 

She was buried at the Cistercian Monastery of Villiers. Cistercian art never hesitated to show her in the habit of their Order. 

So we see her with the Monstrance in her hand, in a stained glass window of Cistercian Saints at the Church of Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea.   

www.iec2012.ie    

Ireland had more than thirty-five monasteries of Cistercian monks before the Reformation, but probably only two of nuns, while there were hundreds of houses of Cistercian nuns on the Continent of Europe. Thirteen nuns are depicted in the window, an extraordinary group of twelfth to thirteenth century women, but we cannot claim Irish identity for any of these.

St Juliana of Mount CornillonBl. Humbeline,  Bl. Ida of Nivelles
   St. Lutgard   

Examining the group one notices an unusual sight, a nun holding the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament exposed. Who could she be? She is Saint Juliana of Mount Cornillon, in the diocese of Liege in Belgium. She was noted for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament exposed. Gradually her devotion spread to the locality and then to the whole diocese, just as it has been spreading throughout Ireland in recent years. Liege was the first diocese in Christendom for which the feast of Corpus Christi was approved by Rome. Soon it extended to the whole Church, thanks to the prayer life of Saint Juliana. All this is related in Bis Tertium. The Eucharistic Congress of 2012 will give Irish Cistercians an opportunity to promote devotion to their own Saint Juliana.

Who is the important lady with the crozier, beside Saint Robert? There is a wonderful painting of 1635 entitled "The Holy Nuns of Citeaux," thirty-three of them. All are named and each has some pertinent clue as to her identity. The most important lady right in the centre, with crozier and book in hand, is Blessed Humbeline, sister of Saint Bernard. In fact the whole picture is sometimes referred to as the "The Humbeline Tree." Humbeline was Prioress, not Abbess of Jully, a Benedictine and not Cistercian Priory, so she had neither a crozier nor a white habit. The artist of 1635, however, did not scruple to give both to Saint Bernard's sister, nor did the stained glass artist of 1893, when giving Humbeline the central position in this window.

And then there is the nun in the most honoured place of all, up beside Our Lady with the Divine Child stretching towards her. Bis Tertium tells us of Blessed Ida of Nivelles in South Belgium, to whom the Blessed Virgin entrusted Jesulum, we would say Iosagdn, into her arms. So we conclude that Ida is the nun in the window with her Iosagdn. Ida had besides a special devotion to the Passion of Christ, offering all her anguish for suffering priests and religious. She died in 1231.

The first nun recorded in Bis Tertium is Lutgard of Aywieres in the Netherlands, to whom five pages are devoted. Although much courted in her youth and promised in marriage by her father, she remained a virgin. On the right side of the right light she wears the virgin's crown and gazes lovingly on the crucifix resting on her arm. For the last seven years of her life Lutgard was blind.

 Mount Saint Joseph Abbey
Roscra, Co. Tipperary
www.msjroscrea.ie

St. Cuthbert - Independent Catholic News

Holy Island

Reflection: A sandwich for St Cuthbert

By: Maurice Billingsley

Posted: Monday, March 19, 2012 11:06 pm

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=20070

March 20 is the feast of St Cuthbert, who died on this day in 687. There is a story that one Friday, the bishop of Lindisfarne, Saint Cuthbert was welcomed into an isolated farmstead by a woman who offered to feed him and his horse. 'Stay and eat', she said, 'for you won't reach home tonight.' But Cuthbert would not break his Friday fast, so rested a while, let her care for his horse, and pressed on his way. It got dark well before he was in sight of home so he found shelter in a tumbledown, empty, isolated shepherd's hut. Here his horse began to pull down the thatch of the roof to have something to eat, but even Cuthbert could not see thatch as food for a man, however hungry he might be. The horse carried on attacking the roof, making the best of what was available in this wild place. As it pulled at the thatch, a packet fell to the floor; when the good bishop opened it he found bread and meat, the meat still warm. He shared the loaf with his beast as he gave thanks to God. How did the meal get there? Was it concealed by the hospitable woman as she tended his horse back at the farm? Cuthbert did not know, but he was happy to eat what was provided after his day of fasting had finished – for like the Muslims at Ramadan today, he would have counted sunset as the day's end. In Muslim countries today, many Christians will observe the fast in solidarity with their neighbours. So  let us enjoy our sandwiches – yes, even in this season of Lent – to thank the Lord who provides the food, as Cuthbert did, and to share in the ministry of hospitality, like the woman on the farmstead.