Trappistine Macao - Our Saints of today

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

20 August

Bernard was born into a noble family in Fontaines, France, the third of seven children. His parents instilled in him a deep faith, and he received a comprehensive education. He excelled at Scripture study and was devoted to the Blessed Virgin. He entered the newly formed Cistercian monastery in Cîteaux, the Abbey of Notre Dame. His virtue, clarity of purpose, and evident holiness then inspired thirty young noblemen to join him, including all of his brothers except the youngest, who would join him later, as would his father. His sister (Saint Humbelina) would become a Benedictine nun.

Bernard founded many monasteries, assisted popes and bishops with Church needs, was an eloquent apologist in defense of the faith, defended persecuted Jews, assisted at Church councils, preached at the second Crusade, and helped resolve many disputes. Many miracles were attributed to him, including healing the sick, casting out demons, multiplying food, calming storms, and raising the dead. With spiritual discernment, he was able to read people’s inner thoughts and intentions.

Bernard was canonized just 21 years after his death by Pope Alexander III.

In 1830 Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.

Taken from: My Catholic life, Brittanica

Blessed Guerric of Igny

19 August

Guerric of Igny (c. 1070/80-1157) was a Cistercian abbot. Little is known about his early life. He may have been educated at Tournai's cathedral school, perhaps under Benedictine monk, Odo of Cambrai.

Guerric appears to have lived a life of prayer and study near the Tournai Cathedral. His monastic formation was directly influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux, who praises him in several letters. In 1138, he became abbot of Igny Abbey, in the diocese of Rheims, a house dependent on Clairvaux.

Here Guerric ruled as abbot until his death on 19 August 1157. It was here that he composed the 54 liturgical sermons that constitute his surviving works. His spirituality was said to be influenced by Origen. Guerric was raised to the rank of Blessed; his relics are still venerated in Igny (France).

Source: Cistercian Father No. 32

Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant (1878-1903)

17 June

Joseph-Marie was born on March 6,1878 in Cassaneuil, diocese of Agen, France. As a child, he was deeply impressed by the ceremonies of the liturgy and greatly desired to become a priest.

As he had no aptitude for studies, he, upon the advice of his pastor, entered at the age of sixteen, the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of the Desert. Physically weak and lacking the ability for work, he was prone to temptations of sadness and discouragement, but with the support of prayer and obedience, he overcame them and was never wanting in courage, always with a smile on his face.

He rejoiced in the accomplishment of Jesus’ will alone; he wished to have Jesus ever present to him and living with him. Inspired by his motto: “All for Jesus, all through Mary “and also by his devotion to the Eucharist, he made progress in simplicity of heart.

Six years later, he professed solemn vows and after two years, on October 12, 1902, after great hardship and struggles, he was ordained a priest. Exhausted by tuberculosis, he offered his sufferings for love of Jesus and for the Church. He died on June 17, 1903 at the age of twenty- five. He was beatified by St. John Paul II on October 3rd,2004.

From Cistercian Menology Year I

Saint Lutgard (1182-1246)

16 June.

Born of Bourgeois parents in Tongres, Belgium, Lutgarde’s father had planned a marriage for his daughter, but when the money invested for her dowry was lost, her mother persuaded her to enter the Benedictine convent of St. Trond, where she was elected prioress in 1205.

Seeking more solitude and a stricter observance, she transferred to the Cistercian convent of Aywieres. The passion of Christ was the center of her religious life. There took place between Christ and Lutgarde a mystical change of hearts. In her 29thyear, she received the spear wound and carried the scar to her death.

The ideal of vicarious suffering in reparation for sin was highly developed in her spirituality. She undertook, at Our Lady’s request, three seven-year fasts, in reparation for the Albigensians heresy. She was also sought by many, including Abbots and Dominican friars, for the help of her counsel and intercessory prayers,

Eleven years before her death, she became blind. During the last year of her life, Christ asked three things of her: to offer thanks for all the benefits she had received, to pour herself out in prayer for sinners, to be without solicitude but full of longing.

Life of St. Lutgarde

By Thomas Cantimpre,

Translated by Martinus Cawley

Saint Alice

(Aleydis of Schaerbeek)

12 June

Aleydis of Schaerbeek, who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century

was a nun of la Cambre, a Cistercian monastery near Brussels, the present-day Belgium.

Having lived the monastic life since childhood with fervor and generosity, at some point in her life, she contracted the dreaded disease of leprosy. She found in it a second vocation, that of sharing in a very special way in the Passion of Christ by her physical sufferings, her isolation and all that her condition imposed on her.

She had climbed Saint Benedict’s twelve degrees of humility and Saint Bernard’s three steps of truth, all apparently without any great difficulty.

Was there any further step she had to take on her journey to God? One night she had a kind of dream-vision. She seemed to be standing before an altar, praying, and saw a golden cross let down to her from heaven. It was a cross: symbol of suffering and trial, which had been endured by Christ and which He expected his followers to embrace, and yet it was golden: precious, beautiful.

From then on Aleydis’ life was to be more and more marked with the paradox of the cross as she lived out its mystery in all its agony and travail splendor and glory in her own life.

From Hidden Spring Book I, CS.113A

Edited by Sr, Edith Scholl OCSO

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