From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   February 24th - Blessed Robert Of Arbrissel, Abbot   
   (1045-1117)   
      
   Blessed Robert, one of the principal historical figures of his time and one   
   of the most astonishing Saints of the Church, was born at Arbrissel, now   
   Arbressec, a short distance from Rennes, in about 1045. He studied in Paris,   
   sustained in his poverty by the assistance of charitable benefactors, and   
   became there a celebrated doctor in the sacred sciences. His remarkable   
   gifts were everywhere appreciated. It is supposed that he was ordained a   
   priest in Paris, before the bishop of his native diocese of Rennes recalled   
   him in 1085 to assist him in reforming his flock. There in Brittany, as   
   archpriest, Robert devoted himself to the healing of feuds, the suppression   
   of simony, lay investiture, clerical concubinage and irregular marriages. He   
   was compelled, by the hostility his reforming zeal had caused, to leave the   
   diocese when his bishop died in 1093.   
      
   After teaching theology for a time in Angers, in 1095 he became a hermit   
   near Laval with several others, two of whom later founded monasteries, as he   
   himself did in 1096, at the site where they were then dwelling in the forest   
   of Craon near Roe. The reputation of the solitaries had attracted many to   
   visit them, and the piety, kindness, eloquence and strong personality of   
   Robert in particular drew many followers; it is said that the forest of   
   Craon became the dwelling-place of a multitude of anchorites, as once the   
   deserts of Egypt were.   
      
   Blessed Robert was summoned by Pope Urban II to go to Angers to preach for   
   the dedication of a church; the Pope sent him out from there as apostolic   
   missionary, on a preaching tour of the various provinces. He left his abbacy   
   in the region of Roe and taught abandonment of the world and evangelical   
   poverty all over western France.   
      
   His gifts of grace and nature attracted crowds and effected countless   
   conversions. His disciples were of all ages and conditions, including   
   lepers; even whole families followed him everywhere. Thus was founded his   
   famous monastery of Fontevrault, not far from Cannes, to lodge these flocks   
   of determined followers of the Gospel. The men dwelt in a separate region   
   from the women; each group had its chapel, and the lepers their quarters   
   apart. Charity, silence, modesty and meekness characterized these   
   establishments, which were sustained by the products of the earth and the   
   alms offered by the neighboring populations.   
      
   Until the death of the holy patriarch in 1117, he continued to preach   
   everywhere in western France. The enemy of souls could not remain   
   indifferent to all of this Christian sanctity. Persecuted by certain   
   heretics and others during his life, Blessed Robert was accused of   
   exaggeration and calumniated after his death, but the accusatory writings   
   were eventually declared to be forgeries. A calumniatory letter, attributed   
   falsely to an abbot of western France, who had in other situations shown a   
   vindictive spirit, was definitely proved not to be from his hand, but   
   written by the heretic Roscelin and containing pure fabrications.   
      
   Blessed Robert is remembered for his ideal of perfect poverty, both exterior   
   and interior, according to the words of Our Lord, His first beatitude:   
   "Blessed are the poor in spirit." He was buried at Fontevrault, as he had   
   desired to be, but his remains were later transferred to a house of the   
   Order, restored in 1806 after the revolution, at Chemillé in the diocese of   
   Angers.   
      
   The first biography of Blessed Robert was written by Baudri, Archbishop of   
   Dol in Brittany, his intimate friend, at the request of Venerable Petronilla   
   of Chemillé, widow, and first Abbess of this immense and celebrated   
   monastery, who was named by Blessed Robert to replace him at his death as   
   Superior General of the Order of Fontevrault. The feast of Venerable   
   Petronilla (d. 1149) was celebrated by the Order of Fontevrault on April   
   24th. The Bollandists remark: "Her existence was marked by many   
   contradictions, but she had the courage to pass beyond the judgment of human   
   beings and to walk without deviating on the path to heaven."   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 3; The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by   
   C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York,   
   1908).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We must not content ourselves with liberty and consolation and gust in   
   prayer. We must come out from prayer the most rapturous and sweet, only to   
   do harder and ever harder works for God and our neighbors. Otherwise the   
   prayer is not good, and the gusts are not from God.   
   -Saint Teresa of Avila   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And he said to them: You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God   
   knoweth your hearts; for that which is high to men, is an abomination before   
   God.   (Luke 16:15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A hymn of praise, to our Blessed Mother:   
      
   Hail, Mother most pure!   
   Hail, Virgin renowned!   
   Hail, Queen with the stars,   
   As a diadem, crowned.   
      
   Above all the angels,   
   In glory untold,   
   Standing next to the King,   
   In a vesture of gold.   
      
   O Mother of mercy!   
   O Star of the wave!   
   O Hope of the guilty!   
   O Light of the grave!   
      
   Through thee may we come,   
   To the haven of rest;   
   And see heaven's King,   
   In the courts of the Blest!   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)