St Aelred of Rievaux

Saint Aelred 2nd Patron of Nunraw Abbey

Chapter Sermon by Fr. Mark

St Aelred 12 January, 2009

It is interesting that St Aelred and his beloved Rievaulx lie not only nearer to us here at Nunraw than to any other Cistercian house but that he actually lived and was educated for some time in Scotland. Through his father and grandfather there is also a link with the life and cult of St Cuthbert, another of our local saints. This geographic connection with us is important. Vatican II stressed that the heart of the Church lies in its local rooted-ness. The whole Church is the summation of all the local Churches throughout the world. Each place and the people who live in it helps each of us go to God.

Wherever there is an encounter with God, there we have a sacred place; and those who experience God in that place are on the way to holiness and are saints of God.

Aelred was born in 1109 at Durham. He was sent to the Scottish court for his education. It is not very clear why this came about. But at the time relations between Northumbria and Scotland were close and representatives of Scottish royalty were often to be found in Durham. Northumbria had a long history as an independent kingdom that at times stretched from the Yorkshire wolds as far north as the Firth of Forth. As Aelred’s family were well-placed it is not surprising that they would have seen a future for him within the royal Household of the Scottish Court under King David. Aelred’s later writings show that he had received a well-rounded education there in his youth and that he had been a friend of the future king. Increasingly, however, he found the trappings of court life unsatisfying. At the age of 24 he entered Rievaulx.

Aelred’s whole being longed for God because, he said, God had instilled this desire in his heart. According to Aelred, man seeks to become like unto God, even when he wanders in the "land of unlikeness" because of his sins. It is only through Christ that man can realize his inmost desire, and hence he should love Christ as his dearest friend. Indeed, "God himself is friendship," and "he who dwells in friendship, dwells in God and God in him." This is where human friendship, if it is spiritually based, can be a means of friendship with God. Anyone who enjoys such a spiritual human relationship is by that very fact a friend of God.

For Aelred, the monastery is not only, as St. Benedict stated, a "school for the Lord's service" it is also a "school of love." Under the abbot, who stands in the place of Christ, the monks are brought to friendship with God through their fraternal love in community. Yet this does not mean that the monastic life is a source of continual joy. The abandonment of human will to the divine involves suffering, and daily life in community often presents trials and crosses. Some monks may even ask themselves, as did St Bernard, why they have come to the monastery or what is the value of their hidden life. To this, Aelred would respond by showing the importance of the imitation of Christ and of his apostles who suffered persecution and death.

It is everyone's lot in charity to help anyone journeying with them on the path to God. This peaceful confidence in the monastic life is not peculiar to Aelred, but he sets it forth with a charm that is entirely his own. St. Bernard, his master, is a Doctor of the Church. St. Aelred is only a doctor of the monastic life; and yet his teaching has a universal value.

(Taken from ‘Aelred of Rievaulx, A Study’ by Aelred Squire and some online material:)