Community Monthly Memorial of the Dead
Wednesday, January 2013
Month Memorial.
Fr. H. introduced the Mass for the Memorial of the recent deceased brethren, relatives and benefactors.
In the Intercessions, we remebered four monks who died in the month of January, at rest in Nunraw Cemetery.
JANUARY
Nunraw Memorials
9th Jan. Br. Andrew
20th Jan Br. Michael
28th Jan Br. Bede
31st Jan Br. Carthage
OCSO Menology
For the Month of
MENOLOGY JANUARY
JANUARY 1
Bernard +
1186
Abbot of
Fountains in England,
then of Citeaux for a year and a half before his death.
Henry + 1189
Entering
Clairvaux in his youth, he became abbot of Hautecombe, then of Clairvaux. He
was sent by the Pope on a mission against the Albigensians, and later made a
cardinal. He preached the third crusade in 1187
and gave its standard to Frederick Barbarossa and the kings of France, Philip II Augustus, and England,
Richard the Lionhearted.
Ulrich + 1196
A monk of
Vaucelles, he became fifth abbot of Villers. After twenty-seven years of
prudent administration, he resigned and returned to Vaucelles, where he lived
in holiness until his death at the age of eighty.
Vincent de Paul
Merle 1769-1853
A secular
priest, he became a monk. In 1811, de Lestrange sent him with others to Canada in view
of founding a refuge for the French monks. When in 1814 the others returned to France, through
an accident, Father Vincent was left behind. He was shopping for supplies when
the ship sailed without him. He became a missionary to the Indians until, in
1825, with the help of a small colony from Bellefontaine, he established Petit
Clairvaux in Nova Scotia.
During a cholera epidemic in Halifax,
he administered the sacraments to hundreds of dying persons, and was held in
high esteem by all who knew him.
Lekai, p.
184
JANUARY 2
Louis
Quinet 1595-1665
Born of peasant
stock, he entered Val-Richer at the age of sixteen. Denis Largentier,
recognizing his talent and piety, had him transferred to Pont-a-Mousson and
later Estree. He made profession in 1615, went to Paris for studies, and obtained a doctorate
in theology. He was confessor of the convent of Maubuisson, prior of Royaumont
and in 1638 abbot of Barbery in Normandy,
which he reformed. He belonged to a circle which included St John Eudes,
Dominique Georges and Ven Mechthilde du Saint-Sacrement. He published seven or
eight books of spirituality and was considered one of the most enlightened
spiritual directors of his century.
Bernadine
Bernard + 1867
A lay-brother
from Aiguebelle, he was sent on the foundation of Les Dombes. Brother was
instrumental in founding a society to carry out the words of Our Lord to St
Margaret Mary, "I wish to form about my Heart a crown of twelve stars made
up of my most faithful servants".
JANUARY 3
William III +
1194
Abbot of
Citeaux.
Godfrey of St
Maur + 1611
Feuillant monk
and priest.
Dorotheus Jacob
+ 1716
Monk of La
Trappe, converted late in life. Tepid as a novice, after his profession he was
filled with gratitude for his vocation and spent the remainder of his monastic
life in great fervor.
Eugene
Boylan 1904-1963
Born in Derry into a family where religion, culture and music
played an important part. He entered the diocesan seminary but left after two
years, and studied science at University
College, Dublin. After receiving his degree, he gained
a scholarship which enabled him to spend two years studying in Vienna. Returning to Ireland, he
lectured at his college for a few years but left in 1931 to become a monk at
Roscrea.
Ordained priest
in 1938, he was appointed to teach philosophy and to hear confessions in the
public church. In this latter task he soon won a reputation as a spiritual
director. From this experience came his first book, Difficulties in Mental
Prayer which became very popular and exerted a wide influence. It was
followed by several other books, notably This Tremendous Lover.
In 1953 he was
sent to Australia
to look for suitable property for a foundation. He acquired the site of
Tarrawarra, and was appointed procurator of the new community. However, shortly
afterwards he was named superior ad nutum of Caldey Abbey. In this
position he was able to help the community to find its identity and a more
solid economy.
When Caldey
elected its own abbot, he returned to Roscrea and resumed his work of spiritual
direction, writing and giving retreats within and outside the Order.
In 1962 he was
elected abbot of Roscrea. Aged fifty-eight at the time, he could be expected to
have a long tenure of office, but in
fact, only seventeen months later he died from injuries received in an
automobile accident.
A strong, even flamboyant personality, with a
keen, incisive mind and a great capacity for sympathy with human weakness, he
helped many people break away from a legalistic spirituality and come to an
understanding of the love of God and of the true meaning of "partnership
with Christ."
"We can
truly say that Our Lord loves each of us with the same intensity, the same
eager devotion to our happiness and the same intense interest in our life as if
no one else existed." Partnership With Christ
"One cannot
improve on the will of God as a means of sanctification, whether He sends joy
or sorrow. It is His will - and that is all that really matters." This Tremendous Lover
JANUARY 4
Roger
An Englishman,
he entered Lorroy in France.
He was sent as abbot to the foundation at Ellant, where he was loved for his
charity and fatherly solicitude.
William Walsh +
1577
A monk of Bective, Ireland,
he was made bishop of Meath. He traveled throughout Ireland encouraging the
Catholics. Captured by Protestants, he
was imprisoned in an underground dungeon for seven years. His jailer, admiring
his courage and constancy, connived at his escape. He made his way to Spain and spent his last days at
the Cistercian College of Alcala.
Edmond Obrecht
1852-1935
At twenty-three
he entered La Grande Trappe. Immediately after his ordination in 1879, he was
sent to Rome to
be secretary to the procurator general of the three Trappist observances. In
1893 he was asked to go to America
to collect alms on behalf of Tre Fontane. Shortly after his return to Europe, he was appointed superior of the abbey of
Gethsemani; his canonical election as abbot took place less than a year later,
in November 1898.
A born leader,
administrator and organizer, a man of unusual tenacity of will, zealous for the
Rule and for regularity, by strong measures he built Gethsemani materially and
spiritually into a thriving, vital and fervent community.
JANUARY 5
Gerard + 1176 or
1177
A monk of
Clairvaux under St Bernard, he became
abbot of Eberbach, Germany from 1173 to his death; a
man of great integrity, purity and innocence.
JANUARY 6
Guido
He was a monk of Citeaux and bishop-elect
of Sorsina, Italy, but was murdered before his
installation.
Elizabeth Tubbac
Nun of Roosendael, Belgium.
JANUARY 7
Godfrey of
Peronne
The leader of a
group of nobles and scholars whom St Bernard brought back to Clairvaux from Flanders. On their
journey, he was assailed by a violent temptation, but delivered by the prayers
of St Bernard. Later he was prior of Clairvaux.
John Eichhorn +
1630
Young monk of Schoenthal, Germany.
JANUARY 8
Lucia Asinara +
1655
Nun of St Anne's
convent, Asti, Italy. On the day of her profession
she was stricken with illness and remained bed-ridden for forty-five years.
JANUARY 9
Br. (William) Andrew McCahill (73) Nunraw Abbey
First novice to be received at the monastery of Sancta
Maria Abbey, NUNRAW, 8 Dec 1946.
On Friday, 9th JANUARY 1987, Brother ANDREW died in East Fortune
Hospital. He was a
colourful character, intelligent, humorous, fiery, dedicated, courageously
battling against ill-health for most of his adult life; first, arthritis, and
then his first stroke in February, 1971. On August 31st last year he had his
final stroke.
Antoinette
Mezerette-Desloriers 1795-1872
She
entered St Catherine's Convent, Laval,
at age thirty-three, and was sent as a foundress of La Cour-Petral, where she
was subprioress, mistress of novices, and prioress.
JANUARY 10
Bl William +
1160
In 1137 he was
sent from his abbey of Morimond to found Aiguebelle, and became its first
abbot.
St William of Bourges + 1209
A canon of Paris, he became a monk
of Grandmont. Later he was prior
successively of Pontigny, Fontaine-Jean and Chalis, then was made archbishop of
Bourges.
MBS, p. 14
John of St Jerome + 1620
Feuillant monk,
second vicar-general of the Congregation.
Maria de la Esperanza Roca y Roca + 1924
She was abbess of Valdoncella, Catalonia. Desiring to restore the primitive customs of
Citeaux in her convent, she wrote new constitutions for it. When the convent
was destroyed in 1909, she built a new one better accommodated to the rules of
the Order.
JANUARY 11
Constance Borosa
+ 1500
Nun of St
Clement's, Toledo.
Hilarion
Mathijssen + 1921
He was a
lay-brother of Westmalle. From his
youth, he had been desirous of the monastic life, but since he was obliged to
support his parents, it was only at the age of forty-five that he was able to
fulfill his desire. He was diligent at work, a lover of peace, with an uncommon
wisdom in spiritual matters. For the
last ten years of his life he suffered from cancer of the stomach, but in spite
of his pain, he maintained his gentleness, courtesy and piety.
JANUARY 12
St Aelred 1110-1167
Born in Hexham,
he was educated there and in Durham.
As a young man, he lived at the Scottish court. He entered Rievaulx in 1134,
became novice master, then first abbot of Revesby. In 1147 he was elected abbot of Rievaulx,
which post he maintained, in spite of increasing ill-health, until his death.
His writings
include The Mirror of Charity, On Spiritual Friendship, Rule
for a Recluse, Jesus at the Age of Twelve, Pastoral Prayer. His was a radiant and sympathetic
personality, unique among the writers and abbots of that age. Highly gifted,
strong both to do and to suffer, he was an abbot whose wisdom appeared
primarily in his personal love and sympathy and his wise direction of
souls. As his disciple and biographer
Walter Daniel could say: "He who
loved us all was deeply loved by us in return, and counted this the greatest of
all his blessings." His last words
were, "Festinate, for crist luve." Walter Daniel explains: "He spoke the Lord's name in English,
since he found it easier to utter, and in some way sweeter to hear in the
language of his birth."
CS 2; CS 50
"Love may truly be called the heart's own
sense of taste, since it enables us to feel thy sweetness. Love is the eye by means of which we can see
that thou art good. Love is a capacity
for God who transcends all things, and whoever loves God gathers God to
himself. The more we love God, the more
we possess Him, simply because God is love." Mirror of Charity, ch. 1
Berno + 1191
Monk of
Amelunxborn, Germany, made
first bishop of Schwerin.
Called the apostle of the Abodrites, a Slavic tribe.
Conan
Abbot of Margon,
Wales.
Paul Cahill,
1814-1894
Monk of Mt
Melleray, renowned as a confessor.
JANUARY 13
Yvette + 1228
Left a widow
with three children after five years of marriage, she led a pious life in the
world, then cared for lepers for ten years, and finally was enclosed as a
recluse adjoining the monastery of Villers, where she spent the remaining
thirty-six years of her life. Her father became a monk of Villers, her elder
son abbot of Orval, her younger son a monk of Trois-Fontaines.
Peace Weavers, CS 72, p.
138
Ida + 1226
Raised in the
Benedictine convent of St Leonard at Liege, she became a Cistercian nun at Val-Notre-Dame, and
was later made abbess of Argensolles in Champagne.
JANUARY 14
Amadeus the
Elder + 1150
After his wife's
death, he entered Bonnevaux with sixteen companions and his only son, Amadeus
(August 30). A year later he took his son to Cluny, but afterwards returned to Bonnevaux
and did penance for his infidelity.
MBS, p. 9; Simplicity and Ordinariness, CS
61, p.14
Luppert von
Boderike + 1330
Abbot of
Marienfeld, Westphalia, for thirty-seven
years.
JANUARY 15
Placid of St
Maur Bernarducci + 1610
Monk of Les
Feuillants.
Augustin Onfroy
+ 1857
A priest and a pastor, he became a novice at
Grosbois. Compelled to leave during the Napoleonic persecution, he later, at
his bishop's suggestion, founded a new monastery, Our Lady of Grace,
Bricquebec, where he was abbot.
JANUARY 16
Bernardine Juif
+ 1836
A
monk of Lutzel, he was driven from his country at the end of the 18th century,
but returned in disguise to minister to the faithful. Later he joined Oelenberg, but again in 1830
he was compelled to leave the cloister and once again became a pastor of souls.
Eusebius Manuel + 1846
Novice at Aiguebelle. He made his vows on his death bed.
JANUARY 17
William of St
Alexius Gallet 1556-1623
The
first monk to receive the habit of the Feuillant Congregation, assistant to Dom
Jean de la Barriere; a monk with a great spirit of simplicity, humility and
prayer.
Elizabeth
Castella de Gruyere 1578-1611
Nun of La
Maigrauge, with a special zeal for silence.
Mary Anne
Elizabeth von Gottrau + 1919
A novice at La
Maigrauge, especially devoted to the Sacred Heart and desirous of making
reparation, she became gravely ill and made her vows on her death bed.
JANUARY 18
William of
Champeaux + 1122
Bishop of
Chalons-sur-Marne, he gave St Bernard the abbatial blessing. Clairvaux's first
foundation, Trois-Fontaines, was made in his diocese.
Amandus
Levecque 1765-1848
A Benedictine,
he became a Cistercian at Darfeld. De
Lestrange entrusted him with various offices;
eventually he became a monk of Port du Salut.
JANUARY 19
Anne d'Orvire De la Vieuville + 1618
Abbess of Leyme.
She reformed her house despite opposition from the nuns and outsiders,
encouraged and counselled by de Rance.
Les Moniales, p. 109
JANUARY 20
Brother
Michael Peter McGinlay (90) Nunraw Abbey
29 June 1906 - 20 JANUARY 1996, was born in Dumbarton
on June 1906. His father was a journeyman riveter and after secondary school at
St Patrick's, Peter followed him into the Clydeside shipyards and became a
master joiner. During the war he served as a leading fireman. He was active in
the parish as a pass-keeper and in the work of the Knights of St. Columba. He
was later very proud to receive his Golden Jubilee medal from the Knights.
In 1954 he felt the call to the religious life and came to Nunraw at the
advanced aged of forty-eight. It was a happy calling for one who wished to
offer his considerable manual skills and he found fulfilment in collaborating
in the building of the new Abbey. He was professed as a monk on 19 May 1957.
To his vocation of prayer and religious life he brought all the methodical and
persevering application which. distinguished him to the end. Even in the last
weeks he declined to go to hospital, stating very clearly that he wished to die
in his monastery, where he died peacefully on Saturday 20 JANUARY , aged 89
Daniel of
Grammont + 1196
Monk of
Clairvaux, sent by St Bernard to Cambrai in Hainaut, Belgium,
where he became its third abbot.
Anne Louise de Crevant d'Humieres + 1710
Abbess and
reformer of Mouchy in France.
Catherine
Castella + 1770
Mistress of
novices at La Maigrauge.
Bl Cyprian
Tansi 1903-1964
He was born in Nigeria of
pagan parents. They sent him to a Christian school at the age of eight, and two
years later he was baptized receiving the name of Michael. The piety and
austerity which were to characterize his whole life began early.
At sixteen he
became a school teacher, and in five years a headmaster. Desiring to dedicate
himself more fully to God, he began studies for the priesthood at the age of
twenty-two. He was one of the first Nigerians to be ordained. As a priest he
served in four vast parishes. His priestly life was characterized by great
zeal, firmness almost to the point of rigidity, but balanced by great kindness
especially to the poor, the sick and to women whose champion he became. He was
much loved and revered by the people he served.
For a long time
he felt an attraction to a life of deeper prayer and self-surrender. In 1950
his bishop arranged for him to enter Mt St Bernard. Here he was given the name
of Cyprian. In his monastic life he manifested a scrupulous fidelity to the
Rule, great docility, self-effacement, and patience in his growing physical
infirmities and interior trials.
Abandonment to
God's will, complete and utter detachment, and an uncompromising dedication to
what he considered was required by the Catholic faith, were the chief
characteristics of his spirituality. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in
1998.
"If you are
going to be a Christian at all, you might as well live entirely for God."
JANUARY 21
Pachomius de
Marville + 1792
Priest of the
diocese of Laon, he joined the monks of La Trappe who were fleeing to La Val
Sainte.
JANUARY 22
Walter of Bierbeek + 1206
Monk and
guestmaster of Himmerod, greatly devoted to Our Lady.
MBS, p. 22
JANUARY 23
A commemoration
of the monks of Engelszell, Austria, who perished at Dachau in 1940.
Thomas Merton, The
Waters of Siloe, p. 219
JANUARY 24
Blessed Felix
O'Dulany + 1202
In his youth he
became a Cistercian either at Mellifont or Baltinglass Abbey. Having excelled in regularity and ability, he
was sent as superior of the foundation at Jerpoint, which prospered so well
that in six years it was able to found a daughter house at Kilkenny. In 1178 he
became bishop of Ossory, a territory ravaged by invasion. He governed the
diocese wisely, fostering peace between the Celts and the Normans.
MBS, p. 24
Angela
Norton 1911-1986
Born and raised
in New York.
At twenty-seven she entered the Dominicans in Sparkill,
New York, and in 1947 transferred to the abbey
of Bon Conseil in Canada.
In 1949 she returned to the USA
when Mt St Mary's Abbey was founded in Wrentham. Appointed superior in May
1952, three years later she was elected abbess. She guided her community with
wisdom and love for thirty-three years, and founded two houses, one in Iowa, the other in Arizona,
and initiated a third in Virginia.
JANUARY 25
Paul Piroulle +
1711
Abbot and
restorer of the monastery of Val-Dieu in Belgium, he combined gentleness
with great fortitude.
Caroline
Castella de Gruyere + 1829
Cellarer of La
Fille Dieu, she served the community with humility and was able to bring the
convent out of its state of extreme poverty.
She was elected abbess eight months before her death.
JANUARY 26
Solemnity of our Holy Founders Saints Robert,
Alberic and Stephen.
See April 29 for
St Robert of Molesme, and March 28 for St Stephen Harding.
St Alberic c. 1040-1109
Nothing is known
of his origins or early life. According to the Exordium Parvum he was
"a man of letters, well versed in divine and human science." He
became a disciple of St Robert, first at Colan and later at Molesme, where he
was prior. He was a prime mover in the desire for reform which led to the
foundation of Citeaux. There he was again prior, and shortly after Robert's
return to Molesme, was elected second abbot.
It fell to Alberic
to effect the consolidation of the New Monastery, both materially and morally.
One of his first moves was to obtain a bull of papal protection for Citeaux
from Pope Paschal II. Finding the original site unsuitable, he moved the
location of the monastery a short distance away, and saw to the construction of
the permanent buildings. He was probably responsible for the first
"Institutes" of Citeaux. He died after ten years in office. Evidently
a man of ability and firm character, no higher estimate of his worth could be
given than the succinct and pregnant characterization of the Exordium Parvum:
"a lover of the Rule and of the brethren."
Exordium Parvum; MBS, pp. 26,
126, 204; Father Raymond, Three Religious Rebels; The Cistercian Spirit,
especially pp. 1 and 88; Lekai, p. 11
Haseka + 1261
Recluse near the
monastery of Sittichenbach.
Eustace of St Paul + 1640
Feuillant, prior
of San Bernardo alle Terme, in Rome.
Peter Emberger +
1924
Monk of
Schlierbach in Austria.
JANUARY 27
Antonia Alvarez
+ 1717
Nun of San
Quirce, Valladolid.
Favored with bilocution, she gave instruction in the faith to Mohammedans in
Africa and Indians in America.
Ursus Schute +
1718
Monk of
Wettingen in Switzerland.
JANUARY 28
Br Bede (John)
Daley, Nunraw Abbey (76) 27
November 1912 - 27 JANUARY 1989 was born at Houghton-le-Spring, Co.
Durham, 27th November 1912. His parents, John and Susan, had four sons and
three daughters. He is survived by brothers Felix, Michael, and Anthony. John
was a foreman baker. Active in Catholic life, his vocation to become a monk
grew from a sense of dedication. He took part in the national Cross Pilgrimages
to Walsingham in 1949. His reading of Thomas Merton, ‘Elected Silence’ drew him
to the Cistercians and Nunraw. Before he entered Nunraw in 1950, he went to Fatima and experienced the faith and devotion to Our Lady
in a way that was to remain with him. Cheerful and adaptable he joined the
growing community of Nunraw and made his final profession in March 1956.
Margaret
Antoinette Piquet + 1674
Nun of St
Bernard's Convent, Vienne.
JANUARY 29
A number of
monks and lay-brothers of Goldenkron, Koenigssaal, Kamenz, Heinrichau, Luba,
Neuzell, Altzell, Zwettl and Walderbach were put to death by Hussites between
1420 and 1432.
JANUARY 30
Ignatius, Nivard
and Linus Loeb
Blood brothers,
Jewish converts, monks of Koeningshoeven, and their sisters, Hedwig and
Theresa, nuns of Berkel, were arrested in 1942 by the Nazis, deported to Poland and
killed.
Thomas Merton, The
Waters of Siloe, p. 224
JANUARY 31
Br
(Thomas) Carthage
Brosnan (65) 9 September
1913- 31 JANUARY 1979, was born on 9th September 1913 in
Faranfore, Co. Kerry. He was educated at Mount Melleray
College and entered the
Abbey of Mt. St Joseph on the 12th October 1934, taking the name of Br.
Carthage. Here he made his Simple Profession on the 2nd May 1937 and Solemn
Profession 2nd May 1940. He fulfilled the usual duties of a novice and young
monk and was community cook for some time. He was one of the founders to
establish Nunraw in 1946. He was farm manager there from 1970 and died suddenly
31 Jan 1979.
Peter
Lay-brother of
Villers.
Maria of the
Mother of God 16th century
Nun of St Mary
Magdalen's Convent, Yepes in Spain; foundress and abbess of the convent of the
Most Pure Conception in the valley of Pinto.
