St. Hugh, April 1
Kathy Rabenstein
+ Hugh of Grenoble, OSB B (RM)
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Born in the Dauphine', France, in 1052; died in Grenoble, France, on April
1, 1132; canonized by Pope Innocent II in 1134.
What an amazing modesty St. Hugh possessed. You may shrug your
shoulders, of course. The 20th century is without modesty. There is
something about the modesty of St. Hugh, that modesty which governed
and colored his life that repels and confounds us. We have lost the taste
for that lost paradise. We live as though there had never been a
paradise; we live like haggling beasts: industrious, envious,
quarrelsome, wretched beasts!
St. Hugh, instead, lived his life on the outskirts of paradise, ashamed,
always ready to abase himself.
When Hugh of Grenoble was born at Chateauneuf, the French
churchmen were very undisciplined. He was the son of the second
marriage of Odilo, an officer of excellent reputation. As a youth, St.
Hugh was a pupil of St. Bruno (f.d. October 6) at Rheims.
Good looks and a diffident manner, added to his abilities, seem to have
helped Hugh's swift rise in ecclesiastical office. Hugh, though a layman,
was made a canon of Valence Cathedral at age 25, and set out to reform
the church. Bishop Hugh of Die soon saw the young man's zeal and
appointed Hugh to his household. This bishop was particularly keen to
stamp out simony (that is sale for personal gain of positions in the
church) and Hugh played a huge part in his campaign.
In 1080, the bishop took Hugh to a council at Avignon. One of the
purposes of the council was to sort out the disorders that had arisen in
the diocese of Grenoble, whose bishop had just died. To Hugh's
surprise, the members of the council decided that this 27-year-old was
by far the best person to be consecrated bishop. He protested that he
was only a layman.
"But I repeat to you that I am not worthy of it!" sighed Hugh.
"What fairy tale is this that you're telling me?" asked the papal legate,
Bishop Hugh of Die. "Who is asking you to act on your own strength?
Count first on God, who will give you help."
Nevertheless, the bishop ordained him and then took him to Rome where
the pope consecrated Hugh as bishop though he was barely 30.
Hugh discovered that diocese of Grenoble to be in a far worse state
than he had imagined. Although the clergy had taken vows of celibacy,
many of them lived more or less openly with women. Influential laymen
had seized most of the property of the church. Hugh manfully set about
putting matters aright. His was unpopular with the nobility, whose
depredations on church property the bishop dealt with firmly.
Two years after his consecration, after having vainly opposed these
disorders as well as simony and usury through sermons, threats,
example, fast, and prayers, Hugh left the city and withdrew to the abbey
of Chaise-Dieu (Cluny).
This was the first of several times he despaired because of his lack of
progress and went to live as a monk. "But I repeat to you that I can't do
anything that's good and worthwhile!" he complained gently to those who
wanted him to give up this sudden Benedictine vocation and his seeming
lack of faith.
Each time the pope insisted that he must take up the struggle again.
"Very well, granted. You can't do anything, my son," Pope Gregory VII
said to him, "but you are bishop, and the sacrament can do everything."
Each time Hugh obeyed. This first time it took a year of discussion
before Hugh returned to Grenoble with a crushing sense of his
unworthiness and inferiority.
It was then, in 1084, that St. Bruno and his companions came in search
of silence, solitude, and a perpetual conversation with God on the
fringes of the scandals of the world. Hugh was waiting for them. He
rolled up his cassock and, like a guide, led them through the craggy rocks
of the desert called the Chartreuse. He gave this land to the monks who
built there the famous monastery of Grande Chartreuse.
Hugh knew the way to the Grande Chartreuse very well, and often
visited the monks. He came so often, in fact, and liked it so much that St.
Bruno often had to send him away. Hugh saw himself as a bad bishop
and wanted nothing more than to stay in the monastery.
During his 52-year episcopacy, Hugh vainly tendered his resignation to
each pope--Gelasius II, Calixtus II, Honorius II, Innocent II--and they
refused him because of his outstanding ability. He never ceased
imploring them to release him from the duties of his episcopal office up to
the day of his death, tormented by headaches and stomach disorders
that resulted from his long fasts and vigils.
It was this humility--which once almost became a blasphemy against
Divine Providence--that unwittingly made Hugh such a good bishop. Out
of the fear and shame that he was better nourished, housed, and
dressed than the poor, he sold his ring, other jewels, furs, golden
chalice, and ornaments to raise money and gave it to the poor.
He wept when he heard a penitent's confession and when the disorders
of his retinue were brought to his attention, he blamed himself as though
it were a personal fault. Hugh also founded a hospital at Grenoble and
provided a stone bridge over the Isere. For 52 years Hugh labored as
bishop of Grenoble, dying at age 79, having restored the diocese both
financially and morally.
He took upon himself all the sins of others, and the cross that he carried
was so heavy laden, so holy, and so redemptive that two years after his
death, he was canonized amid the jubilation of the people and of his
church. By order of Pope Innocent II, Hugh's Carthusian friend Gigues
wrote the saints _Life_ which brings out the attractiveness of this
modest man's character (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Gill).
In art, St. Hugh is a bishop seeing a vision of seven stars. Sometimes he
is shown (1) with a lantern; (2) with three flowers; (3) with St. Bruno, to
whom he entrusted the Grande Chartreuse; or (4) turning partridges
served to Carthusians on a fast day into tortoises (Roeder). St. Hugh is
invoked against headache (Roeder).
Other Saints Honored April 1
=================================
+ = celebrated liturgically
Berhard B ()
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Died 644. Berhard was a saintly bishop who had a great affection for
St. Valery (below) and who tried to have him buried in his cathedral in
Amiens (Encyclopedia)
Caidoc and Fricor (Adrian) HH (AC)
--------------------------------------------------
7th century. Two Irishmen who evangelized the country of the Morini in
northern France, who counted among the souls they won for Christ St.
Ricarius (Riquier; f.d. April 26), the future founder of Centula. Their relics
are still venerated at the parish church of Saint-Riquier in the diocese of
Amiens (Benedictines).
+ Catherine Tomas (Thomas) of Palma, OSA V (RM)
--------------------------------------------------
Born in Valdemuzza, Majorca, Spain, in 1533; died 1574; canonized in
1930; feast day formerly on April 5. An unhappy little girl who, after
being subjected to indignities in the house of her paternal uncle passed
into the service of the canonesses of St. Augustine in their convent of
St. Mary Magdalen in Palma, where she spent the balance of her life.
Her sanctity did not remain hidden for long. She was subjected to a
great number of strange phenomena and mystical experiences. During
the last years of her life she was continually in ecstasy (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
Cellach (Ceilach, Keilach) of Armagh B (AC)
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9th century. It seems that St. Cellach may have been abbot of Iona and
founder of the abbey of Kells before his consecration as archbishop of
Armagh, Ireland (Benedictines).
Dodolinus of Vienne B (AC)
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7th century. Bishop of Vienne, Dodolin's feast is celebrated in the
Dauphine' (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Blessed Gerard of Sassoferrato, OSB Cam. (AC)
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Born in 1280; died November 18, 1367. At 9 years of age, Gerard
received the Camaldolese habit at the abbey of the Holy Cross in
Sassoferrato. After his ordination, he was entrusted with the pastoral
care of the parish, which he served with untiring zeal (Benedictines).
+ Gilbert of Caithness B (AC)
--------------------------------------------------
Died 1245. St. Gilbert was bishop of Caithness for 20 years during
which he built the cathedral of the diocese. He was a valued servant of
the Scottish kings, and a zealous upholder of Scottish independence
against the archbishop of York (Benedictines).
+ Hugh of Bonnevaux, OSB Cistercian, Abbot (AC)
--------------------------------------------------
Died 1194. A nephew of St. Hugh of Grenoble (today), St. Hugh of
Bonnevaux became a Cistercian monk at Mezieres. In 1163, he was
made abbot of Leoncel, and, in 1169, promoted to Bonnevaux. He was
possessed of singular powers of divination and exorcism, but he is
chiefly remembered as the mediator between Alexander III and
Barbarossa (1177) (Benedictines).
Jacqueline V Hermit ()
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Died 1220. The Roman orphan Jacqueline lived in a hut in Greece and
passed herself off as a monk. Later she continued her life as a recluse
in Sicily, where she lived in a tree. She reprimanded Pope Innocent III
(Encyclopedia).
Leuconus B ()
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Died 666. Leuconus was the 18th bishop of Troyes, who founded
Notre-Dame-des-Nonnains (Encyclopedia).
+ Macarius the Wonder-Worker, Abbot (RM)
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Born in Constantinople; died on Aphusia Island, Bithynia, on August 18, c.
830. Piously baptized Christopher in Constantinople. Became a monk at
Pelekete under the name of Macarius. Eventually he was elected abbot
and became known for the miracles he wrought.
Macarius was ordained by Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople, was
imprisoned and tortured for his opposition to the iconoclasm proclaimed
by Emperor Leo the Armenian, and was released by Leo's successor,
Emperor Michael the Stammerer. When he refused Michael's demands
that he support the iconoclastic heresy, he was exiled to the island of
Aphusia off the coast of Bithynia and died there (Benedictines, Delaney,
Encyclopedia).
Marcella ()
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Date unknown. A little shepherdess of the Auvergne (Encyclopedia)
+ Melito of Sardis B (AC)
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Died c. 180. Bishop Melito of Sardis, Lydia, was an ecclesiastical writer
of the period of the apologists. There are some writings attributed him
that are now believed to have been composed by an unknown writer
(Benedictines).
Blessed Nicholas of Neti, OSB Cist. (AC)
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Died c. 1220. A Cistercian monk of the community of Santa Maria
dell'Areu near Neti, Sicily (Benedictines).
Quintian and Irenaeus MM (RM)
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Date unknown. Armenian martyrs about whom nothing else is known
(Benedictines).
Theodora of Rome M (RM)
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Died 132. According to the _Acta_ of Pope Alexander I, Theodora buried
St. Hermes (f.d. August 28), her brother, after assisting him in prison and
as he was tortured. She was herself martyred some months later.
Brother and sister were buried side by side (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
Venantius of Spalato BM (RM)
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Died c. 255. St. Venantius was a Dalmatian bishop whose body was
brought to the Lateran at Spalato by Pope John IV in 641 (Benedictines).
Victor and Stephen MM (RM)
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Date unknown. Egyptian martyrs (Benedictines).
+ Walaricus (Valery, Walericus) of Leucone, Abbot (RM)
--------------------------------------------------
Died c. 622. Born of poor parents in Auvergne, he discovered
Benedictine life at Issoire, developed it at Auxerre, fructified it at Luxeuil
under St. Columbanus (f.d. November 23), and multiplied it with
missionary work at Leuconnais (Leuconay), in the Somme region of
northern France. King Richard the Lion Hearted had his relics restored to
St. Valery-sur-Somme. Two towns in the Somme district are called
Saint-Valery after him (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Sources:
========
Attwater, D. (1983). The penguin dictionary of saints, NY:
Penguin Books.
Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The
book of saints: A dictionary of servants of God canonized
by the Catholic Church extracted from the Roman and other
martyrologies. NY: Macmillan.
Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1966). The
book of saints: A dictionary of persons canonized or
beatified by the Catholic Church. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell.
Bentley, J. (1986). A calendar of saints: The lives of the
principal saints of the Christian year, NY: Facts on File.
Delaney, J. J. (1983). Pocket dictionary of saints, NY:
Doubleday Image.
Encyclopedia of Catholic saints, March. (1966).
Philadelphia: Chilton Books.
Gill, F. C. (1958). The glorious company: Lives of great
Christians for daily devotion, vol. I. London:
Epworth Press.
Roeder, H. (1956). Saints and their attributes, Chicago: Henry
Regnery.
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Kathy R.
krab...@ana.org