Trappistine Macao - Our Saints of today

Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn

(1241-1298)

November 19

Born is 1241, Saint Mechtilde belonged to the family of barons of Hackeborn. At the age of seven, she was entrusted to the nuns of Rodalsdorf, who shortly afterward elected her elder sister Gertrude as their Abbess. Mechtilde herself became a nun, and mistress of the school when the house moved to Helfta.

In this capacity, it became her lot to train a five-year of who entered the monastery in 1261 and went on to become St. Gertude the Great. The pupil wrote of her mistress:” There has never been anyone like her in our monastery, and I am afraid there will never be again.”

In collaboration with another nun, St. Gertrude wrote an account of Mechtilde’s spiritual teaching and mystical experiences entitled, The book of Special Grace which was made public after her death in November 19,1298.

Though never canonized, her feast is celebrated in Benedictine convents.

Cistercian Menology

Saint Gertrude the Great

(1256 - 1302)

November 16

Patron Saints of nuns

Invoked for poor souls in Purgatory

She was canonised in 1606.

St. Gertrude the Great is the only female saint titled "the Great," bestowed by Pope Benedict XIV in the mid-eighteen century for her extraordinary contribution to mystical theology.

Born in Eisleben, Thuringia, in the Holy Roman Empire, today's Germany. At the age of five she was entrusted to the MOnastery of St. mary in Helfta, later moved to Hackebon where (Blessed Abbess Gertrude of hachebon was creating "the crown of German convents."

The sisters contemplated Christ's love, resolved to journey toward divine union, loved Jesus' Sacred Heart, and exhibited deep devotion to the Eucharist. In daily life, they sang, prayed the Divine Office, celebrated Mass, studied Scripture and the Church Fathers, performed manual labor, and lived in community.

In January 1281, St. Gertrude (25 years old) had her first mystical vision in which she saw a thorny hedge that represented her many sins, dividing her from Jesus. Jesus streched out His hand, which bore the marks of the nails, but communicated to her His promise to draw her to himself.

St. Gertrude, pray for us so to be closed always with and in the sacred heart of Jesus.

Saint Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard von Bingen was a German composer, Abbess, mystic visionary, herbal healer, scientist, poet, and more. She was born on September 16, 1098 in the town of Bermersheim to a noble family.

She first started having visions when she was only five years old, and three years later her family sent her to a small nunnery attached to the Benedictine Monastery at Disibodenberg where she was a novice. She took religious vows at age 15 at this nunnery, and when its Prioress died in 1136 Hildegard took over that position.

In 1141, Hildegard received a vision of tongues of fire descending on her from heaven, and from that time forward she dedicated her life to following that vision.

Pope Eugenius III validated her vision in 1148 and she was given permission to record them in written form.

By 1150, she had founded a new abbey at Rupertsberg in the Rhine valley, and around 1165 had established a daughter abbey to it at Eibingen. She died on September 17, 1179 at the age of 81, leaving behind prophetic and apocalyptic writings, books on natural history and medicine, books on lives of the Saints, sermons on various topics, and poetry and music.

She was canonized as a Saint and made a Doctor of the Catholic Church in 2012. Her liturgical feast day is celebrated on September 17 each year.

Ogier was a monk at the Cistercian abbey of Locedio, northen Italy.

He served Abbot Peter II as Vicarius and secretary and succeeded him in 1205. He remained abbot until his death.

In 1205 Ogier–also known as Oglerus, Oglerius, was elected abbot of Locedio, a former Benedictine abbey, re founded in 1124 under the Cistercians. Little else is known of his activities before his deal on 10 September 1214.

In Praise of God's Holy Mother and On Our Lod's Word to His Disciples at the Last Supper were written between 1205 and 1214 at the abbey of Italy Locedio, in the diocese of Vercelli, northern Italy.

The homilies not only bear witness to his own spirituality, but articulate the devotion of the earth thirteenth-century to the Virgin Mary and to the Eucharist.

"The homilies, in fact, offer a deep and rewarding spirituality and well repay meditative reading, or what Ogier, naturally, would call lectio Divina. That, after all, was their purpose. As to the translation itself-the first in English-it is accurate and elegant, sometimes very elegant indeed."

From: Citeaux: Commentarii Cistercienses

and Cistercian Father Series No.70

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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