St. Aelred of Rievaulx and His Sister

St. Aelred of Rievaulx, the Cistercian monk and abbot who wrote about Spiritual Friendship, had a younger sister who was an anchoress, living in a cell attached to a church, praying in close proximity to the Blessed Sacrament, participating in Mass and other liturgical services, etc. She asked him to write her with some advice on how to live thus, a Rule, which he did after she had already been an anchoress for some time, according to the text of De Institutione Inclusarum, which I've just read in the translation published in Mowbray's Fleur de Lys edition, edited by Geoffrey Webb and Adrian Walker (1957). Mowbrays Fleur de Lys Series included, as listed in the paperback book I bought at Eighth Day Books a couple of years ago, another work of St. Aelred, On Jesus at Twelve Years Old, works by William of St. Thierry, and others.

His instructions to her are very clear about when she is to rise and when to go to bed (depending on the season); what and when she is to eat (depending on the season), and how she is to pray; how much she should interact with those who come to the church to speak with her; what her servant is to do for her; and how much she should speak in general. Aelred explains that she has really taken on the role of Mary of Bethany, not Martha, and that therefore, she should be happy to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from Him. If she gives any alms to the poor, she should do so through another: her main form of almsgiving should be her intercessory prayer for pilgrims, nuns, monks, fatherless and motherless children, prelates, widows, and all those who labor.

But the better part of the short book, and the part that is applicable to any Christian, anchorite or not, is St. Aelred's outline of what his sister should think about while she is in her cell: the truths of the Christian life, past, present, and to come. 

The past is all about the life of Jesus from His Incarnation to His Resurrection and Ascension; the present is a meditation on the mercies and the goodness of God in our life today (how He forgives sin and offers hope for effective repentance); the future is death and judgement: the Doom of the end of the world and the beginning of the Eternal kingdom.

In his description of events from the Gospels, Aelred advises his sister to imagine that she is there, that she sees the events as a worshipping and awestruck bystander, entering into the emotions of the events. He offers a beautiful "Prayer at the Passion":

Sweet and kind Jesus, behold me here at Thy feet, a simple and devout worshipper of Thy majesty, who does not scorn They infirmity and weakness; an adorer of Thy piteous death; an acknowledger of Thy great mercy, and not a despiser of the suffering body that Thous has taken from mankind. And therefore I pray and beg Thee that  They sweet blessed manhood might pray for me, and that Thy wonderful pity might commend me to Thy Father. Sweet Jesus, say for me, who worship Thy passion and Thy death with a heart full of meekness and humility, those words which Thou didst say for them who put Thee to death. Merciful Lord, say once for me to Thy Father, 'Father, forgive him!'

Then he continues with details from the Gospels about Jesus on the Cross, Mary and St. John at the foot of the Cross, His death and His wounds, urging his sister to have compassion for these sufferings and to love Jesus.

In the chapters on God's mercy, he speaks of his own sinful past and his efforts to atone. He praises her for her purity and chastity and foretells her easier entrance into Heaven while he still prays that he will be forgiven and his sin atoned for on earth.

In describing the Last Judgment and eternal life in Heaven, Aelred again rejoices at his sister's innocence compared to his own previous lack of virtue. She will surely know the joys of Heaven and union with her Holy Spouse. 

It is a beautiful little book, filled with a spirit of faith, hope and love in Jesus, God's mercy, and the promises of Heaven. We don't know Aelred's sister's name or where she was an anchoress, but her request for him to write her a Rule has given us a wonderful letter, including what the editors rightfully call "one of the most moving [meditations on the life of Our Lord] ever written. . . . To remember the life of Christ is to be brought into His real and living presence as in liturgical prayer. . . . One can see how profoundly Aelred himself lived the gospel . . ." I am very thankful that she asked him to write to her. I plan to reread the chapters on Holy Thursday and the Passion (10, 11, and 12) during Holy Week.

More about the Mowbrays Fleur de Lys Series of spiritual classics--"A paper bound series intended to make available at popular prices some of the shorter devotional works which have come down from past ages of the Christian Church"-- here.

New Museum at Rievaulx Abbey

English Heritage just opened a new museum at Rievaulx Abbey, one of the great Cistercian monasteries of England, and the media are covering it with the theme of what Henry VIII's commissioners left behind as they ransacked the suppressed abbey. From the BBC:

Artefacts from an abbey destroyed by Henry VIII have gone on display for the first time in nearly 500 years.

The items at Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, are being displayed following a £1.8m redevelopment by English Heritage.

Objects on display include a half-tonne lead bar stamped with Henry's emblem which is all that remains of the abbey's roofs and windows.

Rievaulx Abbey was destroyed by royal command in 1538.

Other exhibits include medieval stone carvings, chess pieces and gold coins that tell the story of the first Cistercian abbey in the north of England.

Dr Michael Carter, for English Heritage, said: "Rievaulx Abbey is one of the most important abbeys in England and the setting one of the most beautiful.

"It was a place of huge spiritual significance for the country and one utterly transformed by dramatic upheavals under Henry VIII."

The Telegraph story explains the significance of that lead bar:

It is all that remains of the abbey’s roof and windows, melted down and stamped as crown property, ready to add to the haul from the site.

Instead it remained were it was left for centuries until eventually being found under a pile of fallen rubble.

Historians believe it may have been trapped when the commissioners, in their haste to extract anything of value, caused part of the building to fall buring (sic) their haul beneath.

The Guardian describes the collapse of the tower:

It may have been the work of stripping the abbey of anything saleable – tomb ornaments, altar slabs, good timbers, metal, windows, cut stone – which destabilised the whole structure. The tower collapsed into the nave, burying the salvaged material that had been stacked up for removal, and the stretch of medieval tile paving beneath it. . . .

“There were no skeletons in the rubble so we think the collapse must have happened overnight,” said curator Susan Harrison. “It must have happened literally the night before they were going to take it all away, because it was all found stacked up neatly just inside the door, ready to be moved out.”

The Daily Mail has a great photo post as two Cistercian monks visit their order's great abbey's ruins:

These ghostly pictures show monks returning to the derelict ruins of an abbey 500 years after it was pulled down by Henry VIII.

The men can be seen walking around the grounds of Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley in North Yorkshire, which was once one of the richest and most spiritually significant abbeys in England - before it was destroyed on the orders of the king and Thomas Cromwell in 1538.

The crumbling ruins - which were visited by Father Joseph and Brother Bernard - stand out as they sit against the leafy background of the North York Moors.

The Cistercian monks read from a 500-year-old prayer book as they wondered (sic) around the shell of the ancient building.

St. Aelred of Rievaulx, pray for us! St. Waldef of Melrose, pray for us!

Image credit, under CC license from Wikipedia.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians in England

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us!

Rievaulx Abbey Ruins (photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tintern Abbey ruins (photo credit: Wikipedia)

We beseech Thee, almighty God, grant that we who celebrate the heavenly birth of the blessed English Cistercian Martyrs, may be strengthened by their intercession in the love of Thy Name.

According to this blog, these are the Cistercian martyrs of England:

Under King Henry VIII's order, many Cistercian monks were cruelly put to death for Catholic faith, the (sic) [though] some may argue about pretexts.

In the months of March and May 1537, died for the Catholic faith
--Dom John Harrison, Abbot of Kirkstead, with Dom Richard Wade, Dom William Small and Dom Henry Jenkinson;
--Dom John Paslew, Abbot of Whalley, with Dom William Haydock and Dom Richard Eastgate.
--The Abbot of Fountains and a monk of Louth Park.
In 1538, these Cistercians were martyred:
--Dom Robert Hobbes, Abbot of Woburn, with Dom Rudolph Barnes and Dom Laurence Blunham.

The Church also acknowledges as authentic confessors of the faith:

--Dom Thomas Mudd, monk of Jervaulx, who died on September 7, 1583;
--Dom John Almond, who died on April 18, 1585;
--Dom Gilbert Browne, the last Abbot of Sweetheart, who died on March 14, 1612.

The Catholic Encyclopedia provides some detail about the history of St. Bernard's order in England:

St. Stephen Harding, third Abbot of Cîteaux (1109-33), was an Englishman and his influence in the early organization of the Cistercian Order had been very great. It was natural therefore that, when, after the coming of St. Bernard and his companions in 1113, foundations began to multiply, the project of sending a colony of monks to England should find favourable consideration. In Nov., 1128, with the aid of William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, a settlement was made at Waverly near Farnham in Surrey. Five houses were founded from here before 1152 and some of them had themselves produced offshoots. But it was in the north that the order assumed its most active developments in the twelfth century. William, an English monk of great virtue, was sent from Clairvaux by St. Bernard in 1131, and a small property was given to the newcomers by Walter Espec "in a place of horror and dreary solitude" at Rivaulx in Yorkshire, with the hearty support of Thurston, Archbishop of York. By 1143 three hundred monks had entered there, including the famous St. Ælred, known for his eloquence as the St. Bernard of England. Among the offshoots of Rivaulx were Melrose and Revesby. Still more famous was Fountains near Ripon. The foundation was made in 1132 by a section of the monks from the great Benedictine house of St. Mary's, York, who desired to lead a more austere life. After many struggles and great hardships, St. Bernard agreed to send them a monk from Clairvaux to instruct them, and in the end they prospered exceedingly. The great beauty of the ruins excites wonder even today, and before 1152 Fountains had many offshoots, of which Newminster and Meaux are the most famous. Another great reinforcement to the order was the accession of the houses of the Savigny foundation, which were incorporated with the Cistercians, at the instance of Eugenius III, in 1138. Thirteen English abbeys, of which the most famous were Furness and Jervaulx, thus adopted the Cistercian rule. By the year 1152 there were fifty-four Cistercian monasteries in England, some few of which, like the beautiful Abbey of Tintern on the Wye, had been founded directly from the Continent. Architecturally speaking the Cistercian monasteries and churches, owing to their pure style, may be counted among the most beautiful relics of the Middle Ages. To the wool and cloth trade, which was especially fostered by the Cistercians, England was largely indebted for the beginnings of her commercial prosperity.