Love Reaches Out
Moreover, this is the rule of love: the good that we desire for ourselves
we desire for our neighbor also; and the evil that we are unwilling to
undergo we wish to
prevent from happening to our neighbor.
All who love God will have such a desire toward everybody.
Prayer. O Lord, my God, let my soul praise you that it may love you. Let
it
recount to you your
mercies that it may praise you for them all.
-Confessions 5, 1 Augustine
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February 24th - Blessed Robert Of Arbrissel, Abbot
(1045-1117)
Blessed Robert, one of the principal historical figures of his time and
one
of the most astoni****ng Saints of the Church, was born at Arbrissel, now
Arbressec, a short distance from Rennes, in about 1045. He studied in
Paris,
sustained in his poverty by the assistance of charitable benefactors, and
became there a celebrated doctor in the sacred sciences. His remarkable
gifts were everywhere appreciated. It is supposed that he was ordained a
priest in Paris, before the bishop of his native diocese of Rennes
recalled
him in 1085 to assist him in reforming his flock. There in Brittany, as
archpriest, Robert devoted himself to the healing of feuds, the
suppression
of simony, lay investiture, clerical concubinage and irregular marriages.
He
was compelled, by the hostility his reforming zeal had caused, to leave
the
diocese when his bishop died in 1093.
After teaching theology for a time in Angers, in 1095 he became a hermit
near Laval with several others, two of whom later founded monasteries, as
he
himself did in 1096, at the site where they were then dwelling in the
forest
of Craon near Roe. The reputation of the solitaries had attracted many to
visit them, and the piety, kindness, eloquence and strong personality of
Robert in particular drew many followers; it is said that the forest of
Craon became the dwelling-place of a multitude of anchorites, as once the
deserts of Egypt were.
Blessed Robert was summoned by Pope Urban II to go to Angers to preach for
the dedication of a church; the Pope sent him out from there as apostolic
missionary, on a preaching tour of the various provinces. He left his
abbacy
in the region of Roe and taught abandonment of the world and evangelical
poverty all over western France.
His gifts of grace and nature attracted crowds and effected countless
conversions. His disciples were of all ages and conditions, including
lepers; even whole families followed him everywhere. Thus was founded his
famous monastery of Fontevrault, not far from Cannes, to lodge these
flocks
of determined followers of the Gospel. The men dwelt in a separate region
from the women; each group had its chapel, and the lepers their quarters
apart. Charity, silence, modesty and meekness characterized these
establishments, which were sustained by the products of the earth and the
alms offered by the neighboring populations.
Until the death of the holy patriarch in 1117, he continued to preach
everywhere in western France. The enemy of souls could not remain
indifferent to all of this Christian sanctity. Persecuted by certain
heretics and others during his life, Blessed Robert was accused of
exaggeration and calumniated after his death, but the accusatory writings
were eventually declared to be forgeries. A calumniatory letter,
attributed
falsely to an abbot of western France, who had in other situations shown a
vindictive spirit, was definitely proved not to be from his hand, but
written by the heretic Roscelin and containing pure fabrications.
Blessed Robert is remembered for his ideal of perfect poverty, both
exterior
and interior, according to the words of Our Lord, His first beatitude:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit." He was buried at Fontevrault, as he had
desired to be, but his remains were later transferred to a house of the
Order, restored in 1806 after the revolution, at Chemillé in the diocese
of
Angers.
The first biography of Blessed Robert was written by Baudri, Archbishop of
Dol in Brittany, his intimate friend, at the request of Venerable
Petronilla
of Chemillé, widow, and first Abbess of this immense and celebrated
monastery, who was named by Blessed Robert to replace him at his death as
Superior General of the Order of Fontevrault. The feast of Venerable
Petronilla (d. 1149) was celebrated by the Order of Fontevrault on April
24th. The Bollandists remark: "Her existence was marked by many
contradictions, but she had the courage to pass beyond the judgment of
human
beings and to walk without deviating on the path to heaven."
Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin
(Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 3; The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited
by
C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York,
1908).
Saint Quote:
We must not content ourselves with liberty and consolation and gust in
prayer. We must come out from prayer the most rapturous and sweet, only to
do harder and ever harder works for God and our neighbors. Otherwise the
prayer is not good, and the gusts are not from God.
-Saint Teresa of Avila
Bible Quote:
And he said to them: You are they who justify yourselves before men, but
God
knoweth your hearts; for that which is high to men, is an abomination
before
God. (Luke 16:15)
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A hymn of praise, to our Blessed Mother:
Hail, Mother most pure!
Hail, Virgin renowned!
Hail, Queen with the stars,
As a diadem, crowned.
Above all the angels,
In glory untold,
Standing next to the King,
In a vesture of gold.
O Mother of mercy!
O Star of the wave!
O Hope of the guilty!
O Light of the grave!
Through thee may we come,
To the haven of rest;
And see heaven's King,
In the courts of the Blest!
Amen.
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