July Menology

09 July 2011

OCSO

Menology

for the

Month

of

July

Nunraw July Memorials

Br. Joseph Woods - Born 30 March 1915, Entered 3 March 1943, Professed 9 September 1948, Died 11th July 1986

Dom Columban Mulcahy - born 1901, entered 1924, priest 1929, abbot 1948, died 15 July 1971.

Br. Oliver McIvor – born 11 July 1899, died at Nunraw 22 July 1975

Dom Malachy Brasil - born 2 February 1883, entered 15 August 1905, professed 28 December 1910, ordained 23 June 1911, Abbot Mount Saint Bernard 1933 –1959, died, Nunraw, 28 July 1965.

JULY 1

Elizabeth De Wans + 1250

During the first year of her marriage, arranged by her parents, she lived in celibacy with the consent of her husband. After this they separated and Elizabeth entered the monastery of St Desiderius in Champagne where she later became abbess. Resigning after three years, she transferred to Aywieres where she lived as a simple nun; her intimacy with the crucified Christ becoming the preoccupation of her life.

JULY 2

Diego Velasquez

A monk of Fitero in Spain, he was instrumental in founding the Order of Calatrava which was formally incorporated into the Cistercian Order in 1187. After many victories and then the loss of the Calatrava stronghold to the Moors in 1195, Diego retired to the monastery of San Pedro where he became abbot. He died a few years later at the beginning of the 13th century

Lekai, p. 56; NCE, Vol. 2, p. 1056

Macarius + 1403

Lay-brother of Valbuena, Spain, he served as porter with great patience and cheerfulness.

Bernadine Dufour + 1859

            A diocesan priest in France, he desired solitude and more time for prayer. At forty-four he entered Port du Salut and ten years later was elected abbot. Awareness of God's will dominated his spiritual life and from this flowed his great charity and peace. He was especially devoted to Our Lady and died on this day while his community was celebrating the feast of the Visitation.

Edmund Mikkers 1911-1993

Born in the Netherlands, he studied at the minor seminary, and entered Achel in 1929. He was ordained priest in 1937; from 1936-1939 he studied in Rome. Returning to his monastery, he             continued to sttudy the Cistercian heritage and to pass it on to his confreres. He and Fr. Roger de Ganck founded the quarterly Citeaux in 1949, and Fr. Mikkers was editor in chief from 1963-

1985. He was also librarian of his monastery. He encouraged monastic formation, lectio and studies by means of study weeks in the Dutch region, publications, and the conferences he gave in Europe and the United States. A special chapter of his life began in 1970 with the foundation of Klaarland. He was its chaplain from the beginning and helped the community with its Cistercian development.

Throughout his 63 years in the Order he combined immense erudition with simplicity, humility and a deep commitment to the monastic life.

JULY 3

Mennas Effleur +1764

Abbot of Orval in Belgium, he encouraged the study of theology among his monks. He was known and loved for his great kindness and gentleness.

JULY 4

Richard Patard + 1895

From Paris, he entered the monastery of Sept-Fons where he made profession as a lay-brother and eventually became assistant cellarer. For forty years he gave himself in service to his community, putting the concerns of his confreres before his own. He died faithful to his vocation to the end.

James Calmettes + 1895

Lay-brother of Bonnecombe. He entered the monastery at the age of forty, suffered a grave fall during his novitiate, and made profession on his death bed.

JULY 5

Everard

Lay-brother of Villers. He set a guard over his tongue and was zealous for silence.

Martha  13th century

Nun of La Cambre, Brussels, she was the faithful servant of Bl Aleydis (June 12).

Mother Anna Maria + 1746

Nun of Valladolid in Spain, she had an intense love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and helped to spread this devotion throughout her country.

JULY 6

Albert + 1239

Lay-brother of the monastery of St Andrew in Liguria, Italy, he worked many years in the kitchen, generously giving to the poor whenever possible. Feeling himself called to a deeper solitude, he obtained his abbot's permission to live as a hermit in the neighboring woods where he spent the last thirty years of his life.

MBS, p. 200

Bl Elias Desgardin 1750-1794

He entered Sept-Fons as a lay brother in 1777. Being skilled in medicine, he served the community as infirmarian. When the monastery was suppressed in 1791, he went with the prior and 20 of the monks to live in Dijon. He was arrested and sentence to deportation. Detained on ship board, he became a dedicated infirmarian to the sick prisoners, until he himself succumbed to illness. He was beatified along with other French religious in 1995.

Two other monks of Sept-Fons, Fr. Macarius and Br. Rene were arrested, condemned and imprisoned with Br. Elias, and died later that summer.

JULY 7

A lay-brother of Clairvaux, whose name is unknown, when dying surprised his abbot, St Bernard, by his calm assurance that he was going to heaven. He said he had always tried to live out St Bernard's counsel that it is only through obedience that we win the kingdom of heaven, and now he had full confidence in the mercy of Christ. St Bernard was delighted with this reply.

JULY 8

Bl Eugene III + 1153

Bernard Paganelli was born of poor parents in Pisa, Italy. He came under St Bernard's influence in 1134 and followed him to Clairvaux. In 1140 Bernard sent him as founding superior of Tre Fontane in Rome. While filling this office, to his surprise and dismay, at the death of Pope Lucius III, the cardinals elected him Pope. His reign of eight years was filled with political and ecclesiastical crises, among them his frequent exiles from Rome, the foment caused by Arnold of Brescia and the failure of the Second Crusade. He held synods and the important Council of Rheims. Profiting from St Bernard's advice, (De Consideratione, CF 37), he remained faithful to his monastic vocation amidst all the viscissitudes of his reign. In 1147 he attended the General Chapter at Citeaux, remarkable for his humility and simplicity. He died six weeks before St Bernard.   

Lekai, p 28; MBS, p. 195; NCE, vol. 5, p. 625

Sebastian Devaulx + 1751

Monk of La Trappe.

JULY 9

St Theobald

The eldest son of Burkhard de Montmorency, he was born in Marley near Paris in 1200. As a young man he went to the court of Philip II, was knighted and became renowned at tournaments. When twenty-five years old, under the influence of Our Lady, he turned his back on the world and entered Vaux-de-Cernay, west of Paris. He was docile to the guidance of his superiors, was made prior and, in 1235, elected abbot. In this office he was determined to grow in humility, serving his brothers. When he had to leave the monastery on business, he longed to return to his community and solitude. He was instrumental in averting the separation of Louis IX and Queen Margaret who both attributed to his prayers their ability to have children.

MBS, p. 193; NCE, vol. 14, p. 12

JULY 10

Ephrem Ferrer + 1839

Fervent in prayer during his childhood, as a teenager he abandoned his Catholic religion while attending school in Toulouse. However, God's grace pursued him and, after many struggles, his conversion was effected and he entered the monastery of Aiguebelle where he gave himself to his monastic life with enthusiasm and joy.

Candidus Villemer + 1905

After his military service, he became a lay-brother at Bricquebec, having been instructed to do so, as he believed, by St Joseph. He possessed great purity of heart and innocence of soul, combining a deep spirit of prayer with a boyish gaiety.

JULY 11

The Solemnity of our Father, St Benedict, lawgiver of our Order.

Bertrand + 1149

Abbot of Grandselve, a few years before his death he was overjoyed when St Bernard agreed to affiliate his community to Clairvaux. He led his monks into the ways of simplicity and purity of heart with gentleness and love.

Angela Frances Losada y Guiroga + 1711

Nun of St Anne's Convent, Valladolid, Spain.

Br. Joseph Woods, Nunraw, - Born 30 March 1915, Entered 3 March 1943, Professed 9 September 1948, Died 11th July 1986

JULY 12

Gabriel

Called by Our Lady to enter the Cistercian Order, he became a novice at the monastery of Nogales in Spain. However, he became ill and died before the end of his year of probation.

JULY 13

Giles de Roye + 1478

After entering Citeaux, he was sent to the College of St Bernard in Paris from where he was chosen as abbot of Royaumont. After six years he resigned and retired to the abbey of the Dunes where he shared his great learning with his fellow monks. The latter came to love him for his humility and patience.

Simon Dupont  1872 -1898

Lay-brother of Our Lady of the Lake, Canada. He had a special love for the common life. Suffering from poor health, he pronounced his solemn vows in the infirmary and died at the age of twenty-six.

JULY 14

Roland + 1200

Fourth abbot of Chezery in Savoy.

Juana Maria de Rojas y Contreras + 1757

Nun of San Quirce, Valladolid, Spain. Throughout her long life she endured many sufferings. She had a special grace for assisting the dying.

JULY 15

Bl Teresa + 1260

In Aragon died the former queen, Teresa Gil de Vidaure. Separated from King James after what she believed to be a lawful marriage, Teresa turned her back on the pomp of the world. She obtained from the king a former Moorish palace at Valencia which she converted into a monastery and at her request twelve Cistercian nuns came from Valbona. She became one of the community and inspired all by her deep humility.  At her death she was acclaimed a saint not only by her sisters but by the people of her realm.

Dom Columban Mulcahy, Nunraw, - born 1901, entered 1924, priest 1929, abbot 1948, died 15 July 1971.

     

JULY 16

Today marks the anniversary of the canonization of our father, St Stephen (March 28).

Alan of Lille  c. 1114-1202

Alan is known as the  Doctor Universalis. He was well-read with an almost encyclopedic learning, a philosopher, theologian, preacher, polemicist, poet, spiritual writer and canonist. We know nothing of his conversion to a deeper spiritual life, but grace  brought him to abandon his eminent place in the world and to enter and persevere as a lay-brother at Citeaux.

MBS, pp. 213-216; NCE, Vol I, pp 239-240  

"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

In 1925, Pope Pius XI beatified thirty-two women religious

who were martyred at Orange, France between July 6 and July 26, 1794. Among their number were two Cistercian nuns, Marguerite de Justamont martyred on July 12 and her sister, Madeleine, who went to the guillotine on July 16. While in prison, the thirty-two nuns formed a kind of religious community, chose a superior and spent several hours each day in prayer until, being condemned for fanaticism and superstition, they were led to the guillotine.

NCE, vol. 10, p. 712

JULY 17

Augustin de Lestrange  1754-1827

Ordained to the diocesan priesthood, in order to escape being made a bishop, he entered La Trappe where he became novice master. When the French Revolution broke, he obtained the Abbot General Trouve's consent to take twenty-one monks and leave France. They fled to Switzerland and took up their abode in the abandoned Carthusian monastery of La Val Sainte, (see May 28) which became an abbey in 1794, with Dom Augustin elected abbot. When French armies invaded Switzerland, he left with his community which now included monks, nuns and his "Third Order" (sixty boys and forty girls), about 254 persons. Thus began the famous "monastic odyssey" of great hardship. Eventually when peace came again, he returned to France and restored La Trappe from which numerous lasting foundations were made.

Visiting the abbey of Vaise where the nuns were celebrating the feast of St Stephen, July 16, he died while they were singing the Te Deum at the end of Vigils. His motto:  "the holy will of God".

Lekai, pp. 181-185

JULY 18

Dietrich of Treiden + 1219

The remarkable Cistercian missionary, Dietrich, was a monk, probably of Loccum. He was adviser to Meinhard, first bishop of Livonia. Together with Bishop Albert, he founded the city of Riga, and six times he journeyed to Rome to inform Innocent III about the northern missions.

Later he became abbot of Dunamunde and then bishop of predominantly pagan Estonia. With the help of King Waldemar II of Denmark, Dietrich launched a crusade against his resisting subjects who killed him in a skirmish in 1219. He died forgiving them and begging God's blessing upon them.

Lekai, pp 58-61

Bertha de Marbais + 1247

She had been married to the Lord of Malemboix. After her husband's death, she retired to Aywieres, and then was chosen first abbess of the convent of Marquette, which she governed well for twenty years.

JULY 19

Gertrude + 1209

Foundress and abbess of St John's Convent in Wurzburg, Germany, Mother Gertrude had been a countess before entering upon total dedication to Jesus whose humility she sought to reproduce in her own life.

Peter Haas + 1644

Prior of Schoenthal, Germany, he had great devotion to Our Lady and to St Bernard. He left to his community the doctrine that had always inspired him:  "Love, obey, persevere".

JULY 20

John Lenzingen + 1547

As abbot of Maulbronn, Germany, he refused to permit confiscation of the abbey's goods by the government. He was forced to flee first to Spires and then to Switzerland where he died in 1547.

Bartholomew of St Faustus + 1636

A Feuillant monk, he was an accomplished moral theologion and writer, and visitator-general of his Congregation.

Charles Denys + 1675

Ordained a priest of the Oratory, he entered La Trappe where he could live out his desire to be "a stranger to the world" and give himself totally to God. As his death approached, he joyously repeated over and over, "I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever".

JULY 21

Arnulfus  12th century

A monk of Clairvaux under St Bernard, he had been a nobleman in Flanders, the father of a large family, when he received the gift of a monastic vocation and the grace to accept it - to leave all to follow Christ. Delighted at his conversion, St Bernard guided him in the ways of monastic living with such a wholehearted response on the part of Arnulphus, that Bernard could assure him on his deathbed that the fullness of eternal life would be his.

JULY 22

Dominic

Monk and hermit of Carracedo, Spain. Entering the monastery in early youth, he lived in the midst of his community until old age, and then asked and received his abbot's permission to embark on the eremetical life. In his new solitude he drew ever closer to God through compunction and prayer.

Br. Oliver McIvor, Nunraw,  – born 11 July 1899, died at Nunraw 22 July 1975

JULY 23

Bl Berthold + 1198

As abbot of Loccum, Germany, he was able to contribute successfully to the preaching of Bishop Meinhard. At the latter's death, clergy and people were unanimous in their desire that Berthold succeed him. Inspired to evangelize Livonia, he and his monks set out to conquer this land for Christ. But the pagan Livonians resisted to the point of killing the Bishop who died a martyr's death at their hands.

Jerome Llamas + 1610

Abbot of Carracedo, Spain, he was a man of exceptional learning and ability, as well as of eloquence and integrity of life.

JULY 24

Bl Baldwin  12th century

An Italian nobleman and brother of the abbot of Monte Cassino who later became a cardinal, Baldwin left Italy and traveled to France with the express purpose of entering Clairvaux. Under St Bernard, he embraced monastic life with ardor and fidelity. Sent by Bernard  to be prior of the new foundation, Chiaravalle, he later became abbot at San Pastore in Rieti. It was here that he received a letter from St Bernard in which the saint tells him, "You say you have no capacity for these things.... Prepare yourself to answer for the one talent entrusted to you and set your mind at peace about the rest." And, "... feed your sheep by word, example and prayer."

MBS, p 217; James, Letters of St Bernard, Letter 259

JULY 25

Henry + 1284

Elected abbot of Heiligenkreuz, Austria, in 1252, he served in this office for seven years when he resigned and gave himself to greater solitude and silence. In 1263, he was sent as superior of the foundation of Goldenkron where he remained for seventeen years. He again resigned and returned to Heiligenkreuz to take up the life of a simple monk.

Gerekinn + 1345

Lay-brother of Alvastra in Sweden, he was outstanding for his fidelity to monastic enclosure. He became a spiritual friend of St Brigid when she began her religious life on the monastery grounds. It was she who foretold the day of his death.

JULY 26

We remember the monks and nuns of our Order in France

who suffered martyrdom during the political upheaval at the close of the 18th century. On February 12, 1790, the French Assembly was told: "The religious orders are incompatible with the social order and public welfare; they must all be destroyed without restrictions." Monks and nuns were maltreated, exiled, shot or beheaded; abbeys demolished for the exploitation of property. To these brothers and sisters of ours, loyalty to Christ and his Church meant more than life itself.

Lekai, p. 170     

JULY 27

Edmund Futterer  1901-1984

He became a Paulist, later transferred to the Passionists and then entered Our Lady of the Valley where he became abbot in 1945. When fire destroyed this abbey, on March 21, 1950, he took his community to St Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, where he remained abbot until his resignation in 1961.

During these eminently fruitful years, Dom Edmund sent his monks to New Mexico (Our Lady of Guadalupe, later transferred to Oregon), Virginia, Colorado and to Argentina and Chile to found new monasteries. Together with Cardinal Cushing, he brought the first Trappistines to the USA in Wrentham, Massachusetts from Glencairn, Ireland.

In 1966, he went to Our Lady of the Angels, Azul Argentina, to take up once again the life of a simple monk, to live intensely the doctrine he had preached, until his death.

A spiritual master, by his firm but gentle direction, Dom Edmund led many to the Heart of Jesus. His overwhelming passion was the will of God, and during his years as abbot, as well as the years of apparent failure and contradiction, this grace sustained him.

"God is where his will is."

JULY 28

Dominic Maussier + 1815

 As a Carthusian, he was taken prisoner and released after three months of torture and incredible suffering. He fled to La Val Sainte and became a member of that community and later a companion of Dom Urban Guillet. He died in Kentucky. Gentle and a monk to the core, Father Dominic was much loved.

Dom Malachy Brasil, Nunraw, - born 2 February 1883, entered 15 August 1905, professed 28 December 1910, ordained 23 June 1911, Abbot Mount Saint Bernard 1933 –1959, died, Nunraw, 28 July 1965.

JULY 29

Bl Alexander + 1178

While preaching the Crusade in Germany, St Bernard met Alexander who was then a canon and doctor. Seeing in him a true vocation to the monastic life, St Bernard advised him to pursue this at Clairvaux. At first, the saint's advice went unheeded, but then moved by grace, Alexander was able to renounce his standing in the world and enter Clairvaux. Subsequently, he was appointed abbot of Grandselve, and from there he was elected abbot of Citeaux. During his nine years as head of the Order, he was engaged in many of the political tensions of his day, among them persuading Emperor Frederick to accept Alexander III as lawful pope.

JULY 30

Guido de Pare + 1206

Elected abbot of Citeaux in 1193, he was destined to hold this office only six years. In 1199, Innocent III made him a cardinal and legate to Germany.

Especially devoted to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Guido established the custom of the ringing of a bell when the Blessed Sacrament was carried to the sick so that along the way all who were near might adore Christ. He was later made archbishop of Rheims.  It was while in this office that his talent as a peacemaker was used effectively to reconcile King Philip Augustus of France and King John of England.

JULY 31

Godfrey

 A monk of Villers, he so valued the observances of the Order as a means to deeper union with God, that he inspired his brethren with the same fervor. His ardor flowed from a deep conviction that devoted exterior observance must spring from a heart full of love. The solitude of the cloister was a joy for him and the enclosure an entering ever more into its mystery.

AUGUST . . .