From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   August 3rd  - St. Waltheof of Melrose, Abbot (AC)   
    (Also known as Waldef, Walden, Wallevus, Walène, Walthen)   
      
   Died August 3, c. 1160. Waltheof was the grandson of the Northumbrian   
   patriot Saint Waldef, and the second son of Earl Simon of Huntingdon and   
   Matilda (Maud), daughter of Judith, the niece of William the Conqueror.   
   During their childhood, his elder brother Simon loved to build castles and   
   play at soldiers, but Waltheof's passion was to build churches and   
   monasteries of wood and stones. When grown up, Simon inherited his father's   
   martial disposition as well as his title; but Waltheof had a strong   
   inclination toward the religious life, and was mild and peace-loving. When   
   their father died, King Henry I gave their mother in marriage to King Saint   
   David of Scotland. Waltheof followed his mother to the Scottish court, where   
   he became an intimate friend of Saint Aelred, who was master of the royal   
   household at that time.   
      
   Soon Waltheof decided to enter religious life. He left Scotland, and, about   
   1130, professed himself an Augustinian canon regular at Nostell, near   
   Pontefract in Yorkshire. He was soon chosen prior of the recently founded   
   Kirkham (1134) in the same country, and, realizing the obligations he now   
   had to work for the sanctification of others as well as himself, he   
   redoubled his austerity and regularity of observance.   
      
   In 1140, Waltheof was chosen by the canons of York to succeed Thurstan as   
   archbishop, but King Stephen quashed the election because of Waltheof's   
   known Scottish sympathies.   
      
   Waltheof, impressed by the life and vigor of the Cistercian monks, became   
   anxious to join them. At first he tried to unite his community en bloc with   
   that of Rievaulx, but met with opposition. Naturally he was encouraged by   
   the advice of his friend Aelred, then abbot of Rievaulx, and accordingly he   
   took the habit at Wardon (Waldron) in Bedfordshire.   
      
   Perhaps because one of his own traits was undaunted cheerfulness, Waltheof   
   found Cistercian life excessively severe. The canons also put obstacles in   
   his way. But he persevered as a Cistercian and moved to Rievaulx, where   
   Aelred had been elected abbot in 1148. Only four years after profession,   
   Waltheof was chosen abbot of Melrose in 1149, recently founded on the banks   
   of the Tweed by King David. He had succeeded a man of ungovernable temper,   
   so his sweetness must have been a shock for his brothers. He won their love   
   and respect through humility, simplicity, and kindness. Like Saint Mayeul of   
   Cluny, he preferred to be damned for excessive mercy rather than for   
   excessive justice. With the help of King David, he also founded monasteries   
   at Cultram and Kinross.   
      
   Whenever he fell into the smallest failing by inadvertence, Waltheof   
   immediately made his confession, a practice of perfection which the   
   confessors found rather trying, as one of them admitted to Jordan, the   
   saint's biographer. In 1154 (or 1159), Waltheof was chosen archbishop of   
   Saint Andrew's; but he prevailed upon Aelred to oppose the election and not   
   to oblige him to accept it.   
      
   Upon his death, this saint of unbounded generosity to the poor was buried in   
   the chapter house at Melrose. In 1207, his body was found to be incorrupt   
   and was translated. When it was again translated in 1240, it was corrupted.   
   Waltheof was never formally canonized but a popular cultus continued until   
   the time of the Reformation.   
      
   Many miracles were recorded of Saint Waltheof during his lifetime. He had   
   Eucharistic visions of Christ in the form appropriate to the feasts of   
   Christmas, Passiontide, and Easter, and visions of heaven and hell. He   
   multiplied food and had the gift of healing (Benedictines, Farmer, Walsh).   
      
   In art, Saint Waltheof is portrayed as a Cistercian kneeling by a block of   
   stone at sunrise. Sometimes he may be shown restoring sight to a blind man   
   (Roeder).   
      
   Quote:   
   I am a Christian.  It seemed a while ago as if God rejected me as a stone   
   unfit to enter His building, but He has the goodness to take me now to be   
   placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for His name, that I may have   
   a part in His kingdom with His Saints.   
   --St Serenus   
      
   Bible Quote   
   This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. /13.   
   Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his   
   friends. /14. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.   
   (John 15:12-14)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph I love You   
   Rescue the Unborn,   
   Save souls and grant eternal rest   
   to the Souls in Purgatory.   
   Amen   
      
   <><><>   
   Jesus, gentlest Savior,   
   God of might and power,   
   Thou Thyself art dwelling   
   In us at this hour.   
   Nature cannot hold Thee,   
   Heaven is all too strait   
   For Thine endless glory   
   And Thy royal state.   
      
   F. Faber: An Art of Thanksgiving. (19th cent.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)