June 30th – St. Theobald of Provins, OSB, Hermit

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June 30th – St. Theobald of Provins, OSB, Hermit
Also known as
Teobaldo
Theobaldus
Thibaud
Thibaut
Thibault

THIS Theobald was of the family of the counts of Champagne, son of
Count Arnoul, and was born at Provins in Brie in 1017. In his youth he
read the lives of the fathers of the desert, and was much struck by
the examples of self-denial, contemplation and Christian perfection
which were set before him: the lives of St. John the Baptist, of St.
Paul the Hermit, St. Antony and St. Arsenius in their wildernesses,
charmed him, and he greatly desired to imitate them. And when he was
ordered to lead a body of troops in the field, he represented so
respectfully to Count Arnoul the obligation of a vow by which he had
bound himself to quit the world, that he at length obtained his
consent.

With another young nobleman, called Walter, he went to the abbey of
St. Remi at Rheims, and thence they set out in the clothes of beggars.
First to Suxy in Ardenne, and then in the forest of Pettingen in
Luxembourg they found a convenient solitude for their purpose, and
built themselves there two little cells. Manual labour is a necessary
duty of an ascetic or penitential life, and not being skilled in the
making of mats or baskets or similar work, they went into the
neighbouring villages, and there hired themselves by the day to serve
the masons, or to work in the fields, to carry stones and mortar, to
load and unload wagons, to muck out the stables of the farmers, or to
blow the bellows and make charcoal for the forges. With their wages
they bought coarse bread, which was their whole subsistence. Whilst
they worked with their hands, their hearts were employed in prayer;
and at night they watched long, singing together the divine praises.
The reputation of their sanctity became a nuisance to them, so they
resolved to leave a place where they were no longer able to live in
obscurity. They went on pilgrimage, first to Compostela and then to
Rome, and after they had visited all the holy places in Italy, they
chose for their retirement a woody place called Salanigo, near
Vicenza. Here, after two years, God called Walter to Himself. Theobald
looked upon this loss as a warning that he had not long to live, and
he redoubled his austerities. A number of disciples gathered round
him, and the bishop of Vicenza promoted him to priest's orders, so
that they might the more profit by his direction.

His lineage and quality being discovered, his parents were informed
that their son was alive, and that the hermit of Salanigo, of whom
such stories of sanctity, prophecies and miracles were told, was he
whose absence had been the cause of so long a mourning; and, aged as
they were, they journeyed into Italy to see him. Gisela, the saint's
mother, obtained her husband's consent to finish her life near her
son, who made her a little hut at some distance from his own. St.
Theobald was shortly after stricken with his last sickness: a painful
and repulsive disease which he bore with great patience. A little
before his death he sent for an abbot of the Camaldolese hermits from
whose hands he had already received the religious habit. To him he
made his profession, recommended his mother and his disciples, and,
having received viaticum, died in peace on the last day of June, 1066.
He was canonized within less than seven years by Pope Alexander II.

A full contemporary biography by Peter, abbot of Vangadizza, has been
printed by Mabillon, and by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. vii. By some curious confusion Theobald has been
erroneously honoured as founder of the church and town of Thann in
Alsace. See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiv (1905), p. 159; and R.
Thompson, Two Old French Poems on St. Thibaut (1936). The saint is
patron of charcoal-burners, and is sometimes called “le Charbonnier."


Saint Quote:
If you wish to arrive speedily at the summit of perfection, animate
yourself to the true love of shame, insults, and calumny.
--St. Ignatius

Bible Quote:
And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and
shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall
seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many
shall grow cold.  But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be
saved.  (Matt 24:10-13)

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Aspirations

Omnipotence of the Father, help my frailty, and rescue me
from the depths of misery.

Wisdom of the Son, direct all my thoughts, words, and
actions.

Love of the Holy Spirit, be the source of all the operations of
my soul, so that they may be entirely conformed to Thy
Divine Will.

Eternal Father, by the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ,
glorify His most holy Name according to the desires of His
adorable Heart.

We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits.
Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.