Benedictine saints & blesseds: January 2009 Archives

God of power and might, you have given us in your saints a living witness to religious perfection. Schooled in their principles and observances, may we, too, strive to show that same faith and live in our lives.

 

Knit together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, the blessed abbots Robert, Alberic, and Stephen chose to be poor with the poor Christ, and so went forth to a desert wilderness to abide in the place you had prepared for them.

Schooled in all things by the Rule of Saint Benedict, their father, they sought only to live in peace according to the truth of the Gospel.

Setting nothing before the love of Christ,
and zealous for the praise of your Majesty, their example drew many to take up the strong and glorious weapons of obedience.

Behold a great priest, who in his days pleased Godm and was found just.

 

O God, Who did give Thy people blessed Idelfonso as a minister of eternal salvation, we beseech Thee; grant that we may deserve to have him as an intercessor in heaven, whom we had as a teacher of life on earth.

 

 

A brief sketch:

- Born 18 January 1880 at Rome, Italy: known in history as Alfredo Ludovico Luigi Schuster;

- Educated at Saint-Paul-Outside-the-Walls and then entered the novitiate there in 1896 taking the name Ildefonso and professing solemn vows on 13 November 1890;

- Ordained a priest in 1904; he was novice master, prior and procurator for the Cassinese Congregation of Benedictine monks before being elected Abbot-Nullius of his abbey on 6 April 1918;

- He was devoted scholarship and teaching and appointed president of the Pontifical Oriental Institute from 1919 to 1922. His Liber sacramentorum, Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal is well known and used for liturgical history and theology studies;

- Pope Pius XI nominated Abbot Idelfonso Schuster the Archbishop of Milan on 26 July 1926 and was made a cardinal in 1929;

- Died 30 August 1954 at Venegono, Italy of natural causes;

- Beatified 12 May 1996 by Pope John Paul II and with the liturgical memorial on 30 August.

O God, you have filled us with wonder by the example of monastic observance in the lives of your blessed confessors Maurus and Placid. As we celebrate their memory and follow in their footsteps, may we come to share in their reward.

 

What we know of these saints we know from Saint Gregory the Great

who introduces them in his Life of Saint Benedict. These early companions of Saint Benedict are what you may call the first Benedictine oblates, ones who made an offering of themselves to God's service. In time they lived their monastic life fully and without reservation.

 

On the life of Saint Maur.

The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord, all my being, bless his holy name (Rom 5:5; Ps 102:1).

O God, who gave the blessed Abbot Aelred the grace of being all things to all men, grant that, following his example, we may so spend ourselves in the service of one another, as to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The New Advent bio

Saint Aelred authored several influential books on spirituality, among them The Mirror of Charity and Spiritual Friendship. He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to King Henry II of England advising him how to be a good king. The twentieth century has seen a greater interest in Saint Aelred as a spiritual writer than in former times when he was known to be a historian.

This year we honor the 900th anniversary of Saint Aelred's birth, though some the anniversary in AD 2010.