Benedictine saints and blesseds – Page 9

Saint Peter Damian

Saint Peter Damian is most known as the 11th century-Ravenna-born-monk and author. Peter was, in fact, a hermit. He was keen on the rights of the Church but also with the personal renewal and reform (i.e., conversion) as being an authentic witness to the gospel. The the primacy of discipleship with Christ as Lord and Savior was key. He was a Doctor of the Church.

In 2007, Pope Benedict dedicated a letter to the religious superior of the Monastery of San Gregorio al Celio, Father Guido Gargano on the 1000th anniversary of Saint Peter Damian’s birth. Read it here.

With Pope Benedict’s impending renouncing of the Peterine ministry, one can’t help but thinking that Saint Peter Damian is a personal model for Benedict’s forthcoming monastic retreat.

With the Church we pray,

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we may so follow the teaching and example of the Bishop Saint Peter Damian, that, putting nothing before Christ and always ardent in the service of your Church, we may be led to the joys of eternal light.

Saints Maurus and Placid

In the Benedictine tradition today is the feast of the young disciples of Saint Benedict, Maurus and Placid. The tradition holds that after the holy Benedict had established his twelve monasteries at Subiaco, noble Christians came from Rome, presenting their sons to be raised and educated among the monks. Not unusual given the state of Roman culture at that time. Among them were Maurus, an adolescent, the son of Euthicus, and Placid son of the patrician Tertullus. These young people become the first “oblates” in monastic life; they become models for all Benedictine Oblates today.

While the names of Maurus and Placid are not well known in “normal” Catholic circles except in Benedictine monasteries, we do recognize a few things today because of them. The oblation of the family to the Man of Blessing is where we get the idea of an Oblate in the Benedictine charism. You may have heard of the Blessing the Sick through the Intercession of Saint Maurus or even be familiar with the famous story of being saved from drowning.

The narrative of Placid being saved is given to us in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. There Gregory tells us Maurus and Placid went to fetch water in the lake. Placid falls into the water. Saint Benedict, aware of the situation due to God’s grace, sends Maurus to rescue the child Placid. Maurus, having received his abbot’s blessing, runs over the surface of the water, grabs Placid by the hair, pulls him out, and then runs back over the water to dry land, carrying the little one in his arms. Saint Benedict attributes the miracle to Mauris’ obedience; Maurus attributes it to Saint Benedict. But it was Placid who settles the debate: “When you pulled me out of the water, he says, I saw over my head Father Abbot’s hood, and I saw that it was he who pulled me from the water.” Listening to the Collect it seems that obedience wins: both Benedict and today’s saints are correct.

For us the story of Saints Maurus and Placid is very much connected with the notion of to whom do we belong; whom do we follow. That is, with whom do we share friendship (on the supernatural level)? God or creation? What we see in these two is the development in Benedict’s line of spiritual paternity of persevering in the seeking of God. One can only wonder what better eye witnesses there could be than Maurus and Placid in the mercy of God and the trust in Divine assistance in times of suffering. Perhaps this is why they are asked for intercession for the sick and why became patrons of Benedictine novices.

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx: God is friendship

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.

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167) (1110-1167), consider to be the “Saint Bernard of the North,” was abbot of Rievaulx in England from 1146 until his death. The author of Spiritual Friendship, Saint Aelred’s Pastoral Prayer is a profound meditation on the Rule of Saint Benedict which shaped his thinking and led him (and his disciples) to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

So, with today’s liturgical memorial of Saint Aelred celebrated especially by Benedictines and Cistercians, the Church’s memory of the life and teaching of Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, ought to open for us a renewed interest in friendship with Christ and with one another, as well as a more sincere devotion to the Cross. It is the Cross that shapes the life of the Christian and more poignantly, that of the person professing monastic vows as a monk, nun or the oblate promise. In his well-known treatise, Spiritual Friendship, Saint Aelred has a well-known and bold teaching: “God is friendship.” This is clearly an understanding of Saint John’s theology, “God is love.” In any case, God is friendship is Saint Aelred’s personal experience of God’s intimacy with him.

If God is “friendship,” then implications are unbelievably beautiful. I will leave you to tease out the application to your life.

Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn

The Church celebrates two Benedictine friends in several days: Saints Mechtilde and Gertrude. By today’s standards of canonizations, neither were formally canonized by the Church; until recently Hildegard enjoyed a canonization status only observed in Benedictine communities. Her liturgical observance is recognized more universally today. Pope Benedict XVI spoke eloquently of Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn at a 2010 Wednesday Office. The Pope gives a superb insight into the person of Saint Mechtilde that is extraordinarily helpful.

Saint Mechtilde (1240-1298), the sister of Gertrude of Hackeborn (not Gertrude the Great [celebrated on Nov. 16], thought there is great confusion about this relation) attended the monastery school where her sister was a nun and after graduation she entered monastic life. Like Gertrude the Great Saint Mechtilde was known as a serious and gifted student and teacher. Someone described her having a “voice of a songbird.” Her wonderful personality was an asset for her Benedictine community and it likely led to her being a 40 year abbess. As it turns out, Gertrude the Great was a student of Mechtilde’s. Both of whom had a profound love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Privacy issues today weren’t known in the 13th century. Mechtilde’s spiritual experiences were recorded by Gertrude. Though unnerved by the perceived violation of boundaries, the Lord assured her that it was OK. In time Gertrude’s work was the basis of Mechtilde’s “Book of Special Grace” or later known as “Revelations of Saint Mechtilde,” a book that is oriented to the liturgical year and focussed on Christology and Trinitarian theology. The Pope tells us that Mechtilde’s starting point is the sacred Liturgy and her mystical experiences relate us back to the liturgical experience through the lens of the biblical narrative. Saint Mechtilde ought to be one of the heavenly patrons of liturgical studies.

In several places you’ll read that Dante used Saint Mechtilde for his Donna Matelda of his volume of the Purgatorio, Canto XXVII. Whether is true is not yet known. That Dante’s Donna Matelda and Saint Mechtilde are mystics, one wonders if the saint is fictionalized.

Saint Gertrude the Great

One a few saints with the title “the Great” Saint Gertrude (1256-1301/2) is clearly a woman with a mission. Given by her parents to the Benedictine monastery at Hefta (some say it was a Cistercian house), a monastery known for its learning and saint-making, Gertrude excelled in her studies. One day, around the age 24, she realized that the excellence she had in secular learning was not what she needed, in fact, she considered this way of living vain, and therefore she was called to do by the Lord: to live singularly for Him. Was it earthy wisdom that saved, or heavenly wisdom? She began to change her modus operandi and followed the advice of the Apostle to be totally concerned with heavenly wisdom.

Before it was a popular devotion, Saint Gertrude was known for her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist.

Saint Gertrude’s extant writing includes “The Herald of Divine Love,” The Life and Revelations,” and the “Spiritual Exercises.”

May Saint Gertrude’s greatness inspire us to live more intensely for a deeper communion with the Lord, in this life so as to be with Him in the next.

“My heart has said of you, I have sought your presence Lord.

It is your face, O Lord, that I seek.”

Blessed Maria Luisa Prosperi

Today, the Church beatified the Venerable Servant of God Maria Luisa (nee Gertrude Prosperi; 1799-1847), a former Abbess of the Benedictine Abbey in Trevi in what is now known as the Diocese of Spoleto-Norcia (Italy). Her name is now added to the long list of Benedictine saints and blesseds.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints pronounced the papal decree of beatification. His homily may be read in Italian here.

What can we learn from Maria Luisa Prosperi?

Our new blessed was devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament, the contemplation of the cross with a profound and exemplary love for the infinite mercy of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is Benedict XVI who tells us to recognize in Abbess Maria Luisa a singular love for the Lord’s Passion. Maria Luisa was known as a “woman in love with God.”

Blessed Maria Luisa’s liturgical memorial will be 12 September.

Blessed Maria Luisa was born on 15 August 1779 and died on 12 September 1847. She became a Benedictine nun of the Monastery of Saint Lucy in 1820 in a monastery founded in 1844.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen

O Lord, you were generous with your gifts of grace to the virgin Hildegard. By following closely her example and teaching, may we pass from the darkness of this life into your marvelous light.

Saint Hildegard (1098-1179) was a Benedictine of great learning ( a true polymath), a holy woman who was known for her visions, prophesies, poetry and spiritual guidance. Some have likened her to Dante and William Blake. She was given the title of the Sibyl of the Rhine. Since the 15th century Hildegard’s name was in the Roman Martyrology but was not officially canonized. On May 10, 2012 Pope Benedict XVI gave the entire Church the liturgical memory of Saint Hildegard (the equivalent of canonizing her); the Pope stated that on October 7, 2012 he will name the Saint a Doctor of the Church.

We pray for the Benedictine Congress in Rome that begins today and goes until the 25th through the intercession of Saint Hildegard.

Saint Gregory the Great

Blessed Gregory, raised upon the throne of Peter, sought always the beauty of the Lord and lived in celebration of that love.

O God, who care for the your people with gentleness and rule them in love, though the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory, endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom those to whom you have given authority to govern, that the flourishing of a holy flock may become the eternal joy of the shepherds.

Let us pray for the Pope, Benedict XVI and his ministry as pastor. Likewise, I would like to remember in prayer the monks of Portsmouth Abbey who live under the patronage of Saint Gregory the Great.

Blessed Ildefonso Schuster

Almighty God, who through your grace, the Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso, by his exemplary virtue built up the flock entrusted to him, grant that we, under the guidance of the Gospel may follow his teaching and walk in sureness of life, until we come to see you face to face in your eternal Kingdom.

Today we honor the Church honors a great 20th century Benedictine monk, priest, bishop and cardinal, Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster. He died on this date in 1954. At the time of his death he was the cardinal-archbishop of Milan.

Blessed Ildefonso is one of my great Benedictine heros. He’s known for promoting catechetics and the role of the laity in life of the Church in a time prior to it becoming a “normal” thing. Moreover, he diligently looked after the poor, denounced the totalitarian thinking of Facism, Nazism and racism, proposed models of holiness for all people –not just the clerical elite– and he lived the sacred Liturgy and founded the Institute of Ambrosian Chant and Sacred Music.

When the process of beatification came to a certain point, church officials opened Cardinal Schuster’s tomb and found his body to be incorruptible. A more certain sign of holiness. He was announced as a Venerable Servant of God on March 26, 1994 and beatified by Blessed John Paul II on May 12, 1996.

For more info, see his birthday post and another post on his feast day.

Saint Bernard Tolomei

An obscure Benedictine saint is liturgically honored by the Church today. Saint Bernard Tolomei, (1272-1348) the founder of the Benedictine Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto (near Siena) in 1319. He was beatified in 1644 but not canonized until 2009, though he was revered as a saint for a long time before Pope Benedict canonized him.

The Olivetan monks have an intense devotion to the Virgin Mary due to the founder’s attribution to the healing of his blindness by the intercession of the Virgin; their life has been one of penance and silence. Hence, Saint Bernard is called the “hero of penance and martyr of charity.” And this is our desire today.

Saint Bernard Tolomei’s brief biography can be read here and a set of photos can be viewed here.