BIO: Early Abbots of Cluny (30 April 909-1109)
JEK%NIHC...@asu.edu
(NOTE: The observance is transferred this year to May 17.)
The monastery of Cluny (in France, northwest of Lyons) was a center
for the reform and spiritual renewal of Western monasticism in the
tenth and eleventh centuries. It was founded in 909 under Abbot
Berno, as a reformed monastery, observing the Benedictine Rule with
a strictness unusual at the time. In its earliest years it attracted
very little attention.
Its second abbot was Odo (born 879 at Tours, monk in 909, abbot in
927, died 18 November 942). He obtained papal and royal charters
which guranteed the monastery freedom from outside interference.
Under his guidance Cluny attracted many men seeking to follow its
discipline, and Abbot Odo was instrumental in introducing the
Cluniac observances into many Italian monsasteries as well. He
insisted on silence, simplicity of diet, and strict observance of
chastity for his monks, but he was not rigid of temperament: many
stories survive of his generosity to the poor and to prisoners.
Because he had no wordly ambitions, he was often called to mediate
disputes between men in power.
The third abbot was Aylward, who held office from 942 to 965. He was
blind from 954 on.
Mayeul (or Maieul or Maiolus) was born at Avignon around 906, became
a clergyman, was made archdeacon of Macon, and fled to Cluny in
order to avoid being made bishop of Besancon. At Cluny, he was made
librarian and bursar. When Abbot Aylward became blind, he appointed
Maiolus his assistant, and in 965 at the death of Aylward he became
abbot. Under his guidance, Cluniac influence expanded, but by
example and advice rather than by jurisdiction. Maiolus had the
support and admiration of the Emperors Otto I and Otto II, and the
latter wanted to make him Pope in 974, but he refused. When old, he
chose Odilo as his successor, and retired to contemplation and
penance. He died in 994.
Odilo, the fifth abbot, was born around 962, became a monk as a
young man, was made assistant to Mayeul in 991, and became abbot in
994. He held office for 55 years, during which time thirty abbeys
accepted Cluny as their mother house, and its practices were adopted
by many more which did not affiliate. Thus the Cluniac reform spread
through Burgundy, Provence, Auvergne, Poitou, and much of Italy and
Spain. In his day, there was a great deal of fighting of minor wars,
raids, and skirmishes between feudal lords and others. Odilo reduced
the effect of this by persuading the combatants throughout most of
France and some other regions to agree that churches and monastic
holdings were strictly off limits in fighting, and that there was to
be a truce from Fridays to Mondays, as well as throughout all of
Advent and Lent, to enable all parties to worship unmolested. Odilo
wrote many sermons and poems on the mystery of the Incarnation, and
his references to the role of Mary as the means through whom the
Incarnation took place greatly influenced Bernard of Clairvaux a
century later. Odilo instituted the observance of 2 November as All
Souls' Day, a day of prayer at first for the dead brothers of the
Abbey and later for all who had died in the faith of Christ. In the
years from 1028 to 1033, when crop failures created great hunger
among the poor in the vicinity of Cluny, he melted down and sold
most of the treasures of Cluny to relieve them. As an abbot, he held
both himself and his monks to a strict observance of the Rule, but
he said that he would rather be damned for being to merciful than
for being too severe. He died in 1049 at the age of 87.
Hugh, the sixth abbot, was born in 1024, the oldest son of a
Burgundian nobleman (the count of Semur), entered Cluny when about
16, and became abbot when only 25 years old. He was abbot for 60
years, during which time the number of monastic houses that
recognized Cluny as their mother house grew from about 60 to about
2000. It was under his abbacy that the Cluniac reform was introduced
into England (at Lewes in Sussex in 1077). He increased the control
of the mother house over the daughter houses (at the cost, as some
have thought, of a certain flagging in their spiritual enthusiasm).
Hugh was an accomplished diplomat sent at various times by nine
different popes to conduct delicate negotiotiations in Hungary,
Toulouse, Spain, and all over Europe. He mediated between pope and
emperor in the confrontation at Canossa, and must be reckoned as one
of the most influential figures of his day. He died in 1109.
PRAYER (traditional language):
O God, by whose grace thy servants the Holy Abbots of Cluny,
enkindled with the fire of thy love, became burning and shining
lights in thy Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the
spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as
children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with
thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one
God, now and for ever.
PRAYER (contemporary language):
O God, by whose grace your servants the Holy Abbots of Cluny,
kindled with the flame of your love, became burning and shining
lights in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with
the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as
children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever.