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| Bl. Humbeline, 12 February |
Friday, 12 February 2011
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Blessed Humbeline.
February 12
Menology: Bl Humbeline
St Bernard's only
sister. Married to a nobleman, Guy de Marcy, she enjoyed
the life of a noble lady in the world, but a visit to her brothers at
Clairvaux brought about a great change in her. She began to lead a life of piety, and two years
later entered the Benedictine convent of Jully. In 1130 she became superior. She died on August 21, probably 1141, in the
presence of Bernard, Andrew and Nivard. MBS,
p. 52
A Reading about
Blessed Humbeline.
Humbeline was the only sister
of St Bernard. She was born the year after him and they were always very
close to each other. Like Bernard she was naturally well-endowed. When her
brothers and father joined Citeaux in 1113, she came into a good part of
their estates. And she married Guy de Marcy, a rich nobleman of the house of
Lorraine.
In the happiness of the first
years of her marriage Humbeline was very popular among the nobility of
Burgundy. She gave herself to the fascinating intellectual and social
fashions of her century -the age of 'courtly love'; this was the clever and
entertaining society in which women were beginning to play an important part.
One day she decided to visit
her brothers at Citeaux. At first St Bernard refused to see her, when he saw
the rich splendour of
her cavalcade and the vanity of her life. As she guessed what it was that had
upset him, she sent word that she would do as he said if he came out to see
her. After speaking with Bernard she left the monastery chastened. From then
on she turned away from the pursuit of empty pleasures and sought her
happiness in the things of God. She spent much time looking after the poor,
the sick and the needy. After several years Humbeline began to think of the
cloister. Eventually, with her husband's consent, she entered the Benedictine
convent near Troyes. Humbeline's life in the convent was characterized by
great generosity. And, in a Iife of unusual fasting and other physical
austerities, she continued to live in the spirit of her conversion.
When the abbess, who was her
sister-in-law, left to found another convent near Dijon, Humbeline was
appointed in her place. The convent very soon began to flourish under
Humbeline's leadership and, within two or three years, twelve new foundations
were made. One of these, the convent of Tart, later became the first house of
Cistercian nuns.
As Humbeline approached her
death her brothers were called to her bedside. And as she lay dying she spoke
of the love that existed between all the members of her family and which had
helped to sanctify them all. We see here the fundamental sanity of the early
Cistercians whose holiness consisted not in crushing and exterminating
natural affection but in elevating and sublimating it. What they renounced
was the selfishness in that affection. They gave their whole nature, with all
of its powers and gifts, to God .and thev served him in those among whom he
had placed them.
It is no wonder then that
Humbeline died with the words of the psalmist on her lips: 'I rejoiced in the
things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord.' This
recalls the words of the Canticle: 'Draw me, and we shall run after you ...
'. When God takes someone to himself he never draws that one person alone.
With the individuals who die God draws all those who have been bound to them
with special ties of love in this world; they wi II be united with them in a
particularly intimate way in the next.
Adapted from Modern
Biographical Sketches of Cist. Blesseds and Saints. Gethsemanl, 1954, Book
IV, pp. 52-56, and Butler's Lives of the Saints, August, p 265.
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