OCSO
Menology
for the
Month of
December
DECEMBER 1
Hugh of Chalons-Sur-Marne + 1158
Abbot of Trois Fontaines, he was named cardinal and bishop of Ostia by Pope Eugene III.
Mark de Villalba + 1590
Abbot of Fiterbo, Spain, and reformer general of the Congregation of the Regular Observance.
DECEMBER 2
Robert + 1185
A monk of La Criste in Champagne, he became abbot of Matallana.
Mary Louise Ambrosetli + 1922
A native of Italy, she became the first novice at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Macon, France, and experienced its painful beginnings. Later she became subprioress. She was full of zeal for the Divine Office and for charity, strong in faith and patient in sufferings. She died in Brazil where her original convent had been transferred.
DECEMBER 3
St Galgan 1151-1181
He lived as a hermit near Siena. The abbots of Casamari and Fossanova, returning from France and passing Monte Sepi, where he lived, found him dead. For burial they clothed him in the habit of a Cistercian lay-brother.
Louis de Gonzague Martin 1853-1899
He was received at Our Lady of the Snows at the age of eleven. At twenty-nine he was appointed first superior of the foundation to be made in Syria, a task presenting many difficulties which he bore with equanimity and cheerfulness. Eight years later he was elected third abbot of Staouelli, Algeria.
A man of great faith, incapable of giving himself by halves, he had an intense love for the Eucharist, the Mother of God and the writings of St Bernard.
Pio Heredia
Prior of Viaceli. During the Spanish Civil War, he and twelve of his monks, arrested on September 8, 1935, were shot and their bodies thrown into the sea.
Thomas Merton, Waters of Siloe, p. 211
DECEMBER 4
Christian + 1244
Abbot of Leckno, Poland, in 1206 he crossed the frontier of Prussia and finding the people were ready to accept the faith, he obtained authorization from Pope Innocent III and began to preach the gospel with such success that he is known as the apostle of the Prussians.
Zosimus Jansen 1836-1915
He was a lay-brother first at St Benedict, Achel, Belgium, and later at the new foundation of St Remy, Rochefort. Of a happy disposition, he was always courteous and obliging to his confreres. He spent most of his free time in church, and lived, as it were, on the thought and love of Mary.
DECEMBER 5
Werric + 1217
Prior of Aulne, Hainaut, Belgium, he was a monk of simplicity, piety, gentleness and peace.
Joanna, Countess of Flanders + 1244
For forty years she wisely and magnanimously governed her people. During her reign, fifteen convents of Cistercian nuns were founded in her domain. As she neared the end of her life, she received the habit of oblate at the convent of Marquette.
DECEMBER 6
Moses Picault de Ligre 1664-1707
Having been converted from an irregular way of life by the death of his mother, he entered La Trappe at the age of forty. Here he was eager to make atonement for his sins, and to grow in the love of Christ. Three years later he died after a brief illness.
DECEMBER 7
Humbert + 1148
Having spent twenty years in the Benedictine abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, he entered Clairvaux. St Bernard, who esteemed him greatly for his charity and compassion, made him prior and then first abbot of Igny. However, against Bernard's wishes, Humbert resigned and returned to Clairvaux.
Gerard of Farfa 12th century
He was sent by his dying abbot of Farfa, a Benedictine abbey in Italy, to St Bernard at Clairvaux. His special virtue was compunction and he had the gift of tears. He lived to be over ninety, seeming daily to grow younger in the ardor of his indefatigable spirit.
DECEMBER 8
Placid Pozzancheri + 1775
Successively abbot of Casamari and president of the Congregation of St Bernard in Italy, bishop of Imeria, bishop of Tivoli. He was also confessor to Pope Benedict XIII.
Seraphim Roger + 1883
Prior of Sept-Fons under three successive abbots who were required by their office of vicar-general and
their many daughter houses to be absent often from the monastery, he was responsible for maintaining peace and
discipline and fostering the spiritual life in the community, and he discharged this office admirably.
DECEMBER 9
Henry Corff + 1350
A monk of Marienfeld in Westphalia, humble, obedient and thoroughly peace-loving.
Lorenzo Gonzalez + 1591
Abbot of Valbuena and Villaneva, Spain, exceptional for his religious fervor.
DECEMBER 10
Ida of Nivelles 1198-1231
Her father died when she was nine, and her mother three years later. From the age of nine to sixteen she lived with religious women of her town. She then entered the Cistercian convent of Kerkom. Flemish was spoken there, and her ignorance of that language constituted one of Ida's trials, but it also led her to a deep love of silence and prayer, and an appreciation of non-verbal communication. Later when she had become bi-lingual, and the community had transferred to La Ramee in the French-speaking area of Flanders, she was able to render service as an interpreter. She was much loved by her sisters, and when, at twenty, she seemed at the point of death, they stormed heaven for her recovery. She did recover and lived thirteen years more. One of her great virtues was compassion for others; not only did she pray for them, she was also willing to suffer with and for them.
Life, translated by Martinus Crawley; MBS, p. 309
Louis (Thomas) Merton 1915-1968
Born in Prades, France, of an American mother and New Zealander father, both artists, his early life was unsettled, spent in America and England. In 1938, while studying at Columbia University, he became a Catholic. Three years later he entered Gethsemani, as he himself put it: "Heading for the woods with Thoreau in one pocket, John of the Cross in another and holding the Bible open at the Apocalypse," determined to give himself completely to the monastic life. His autobiography, Seven Storey Mountain, was published in 1947 and became a best-seller. From then on he was the most widely known and influential monk in the West, but probably the highest compliment ever paid to him was that of his abbot: "I never had a more humble or obedient monk." He served as master of scholastics and novices before becoming a hermit. Through the years he never stopped growing, reaching out. He had an almost unlimited capacity for absorbing and assimiliating other traditions: Christian, Zen Buddhist, Sufi. Always torn between the desire for solitude and the need to communicate, he "managed to combine inconsistency and stability in a creative tension that brought a large measure of unity and integration to his life". He met his death, accidentally and somewhat mysteriously, while attending an East-West monastic conference in Bangkok, Thailand. CS 27; CS 42; CS 52; CS 74; CS 92; CS 102; CS 103
"Can I tell you that I have found answers to the questions that torment the man of our time? I do not know if I have found the answers. When I first became a monk, yes, I was more sure of 'answers'. But as I grow old in the monastic life and advance further into solitude, I become aware that I have only begun to seek the questions." The Monastic Journey
"I leave everything in the hands of God and find my solitude in his will, without being theatrical or glowingly pious about it. I am content. But the right kind of contentment is a perfect solitude. When one is more or less content with the 'nothing' that is at hand, one finds in it everything." Letter to Jean LeClercq 1956
DECEMBER 11
Bl David + 1179
A native of Florence, he became a novice at Clairvaux, but, because of his poor health, he was dismissed. Disconsolate, he remained at the gate until St Bernard re-admitted him, realizing that his courage and faith would compensate for lack of physical strength. Soon after his profession in 1134, he was sent with the monks who were to found Himmerod in Germany. By fervent prayer he obtained strength to assist in the construction of the new monastery. He served God and his brethren with great joy of spirit. Whoever came to him sad, went away happy and with spirits uplifted.
MBS, p. 306
Francois Lotin de Charney + 1716
As a young man he was somewhat frivolous, but, having visited La Trappe a number of times, he was moved to become a monk. He embraced his new life with his innate magnanimity, animating the observances with the spirit of humility, obedience, compunction, piety and a deep devotion to Christ's Passion.
Martin Martin 1856-1908
At the age of twelve he was received as a student or oblate at Our Lady of the Snows. He later made profession as a monk, was appointed to various offices and finally elected abbot. He was most kind and solicitous for his brethren, and his entire regime was imbued with the goodness and mercy of Christ.
DECEMBER 12
Franco of Archennes 13th century
A knight of Brabant, he became a crusader and fought in the Holy Land with his two sons, who were killed in battle. Returning home, he became a monk at Villers, serene, kind and affable.
Jean-Antoine de Somont 1659-1701
Abbot of Tamie. Having visited La Trappe, he reformed his own monastery and joined it to the Strict Observance. In 1682 he was appointed procurator of the Order, and thus was able to aid in the reform of other monasteries and convents.
DECEMBER 13
Nicolas
A monk of Santa Maria dell'Arco, Nieti, Sicily.
DECEMBER 14
14. Nunraw Abbey: Brother Brendan Denis Kelly
6 August 1910 - 14 December 1949
Denis Kelly was Baptised and confirmed in the Parish of Oghil & Kiltormer,
Diocese of Clonfert, Ireland
He began his monastic life at Roscrea Abbey. He was among the founders of Nunraw in 1946. In the following year he was found to be suffering from tuberculosis. He was the first monk to die and to be buried at Nunraw.
Louise-Therese Perrucard de Ballon 1591-1668
Born in Vanchy, Savoy, she was taken to the convent of St Catherine de Semnoz at the age of seven. Professed at sixteen, she soon afterwards made a retreat under the direction of her kinsman, St Francis de Sales, which profoundly changed her life. Since the convent was not amenable to reform, she with four other sisters began a new community at Rumilly, which became the nucleus of the Bernadines of Divine Providence, and at the time of the French Revolution counted twenty-five houses.
DECEMBER 15
Jacques Puiperon + 1674
A member of the Order of Celestines, he entered La Trappe and lived in humility and charity to his brethren. Fourteen months before his death, he contracted tuberculosis, and bore the sufferings this entailed not only with equanimity, but even with joy in the Spirit.
Constant Jouvin 1837-1906
Obliged to care for his father, he had to wait until the latter's death before he could enter Bricquebec as a lay-brother at the age of forty-eight. He was at the service of his brethren in everything and had a special gift for expiating the faults of others by a more generous mortification in union with Christ.
DECEMBER 16
16. Nunraw Abbey: Br Antony Patrick Hopkins
12 September 1918 - 16 December 1985
Br Anthony suffered a heart attack and died peacefully in his sleep. Patrick
Hopkins was born in Dublin in 1918, where he first experienced life in an
Orphanage. One has only to look round the Church at Nunraw to see marks of his workmanship everywhere. In the course of almost forty years, the call on his skills in woodwork were as constant as the great demands in establishing a new monastery. In practice he could always be called upon for a much wider range of services in the community; assisting in the guesthouse, shopkeeper, cook and in one of the great loves of his life, the liturgy.
Rainald + 1150
A monk of Clairvaux, elected fifth abbot of Citeaux in 1133, he was a man of nobility, decorum and religious fervor. He is said to have collected the statutes and definitions of the first Cistercians into a single volume.
DECEMBER 17
Nunraw Abbey: Father Andrew Hart 10 Oct 1906 – 17 December 1992.
Born in Dumbarton in 1906, Fr. Andrew - Hart joined the Abbey of Mount
Saint Joseph, Roscrae, Ireland, in September 1936. He had received a B.Sc. degree from Glasgow University in 1928, and a Teachers Diploma in 1929
He made Solemn Profession vows on 30 October 1941 and was ordained priest on 25 February 1944. After teaching in the college attached to the Abbey he was named as one of the founders of the Abbey at Nunraw in 1946. He was appointed Novice Master, the role in which he made his best contribution to the community. As a young monk studying theology he was noted as a faithful follower of St Thomas Aquinas and, with the years, this became more deeply rooted in Sacred Scripture. In his later years this was evident in his sermons and in the spiritual direction for which he was much in demand. With his strong physique he did not understand illness and although sickness did come his way, he battled on. As someone said, his motto could have been, ‘Bury me in my boots’. Indeed, the Lord called him while still active in the company of the brethren.
Marie Moennat + 1650
She became abbess of Fille Dieu in 1613, and amid great opposition, restored enclosure and abstinence with the help of her brother, Dom William, abbot of Hauterive (September 1).
Les Moniales, p. 105
