From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 8th - St. Stephen (Etienne) of Grandmont (of Muret)   
      
   Born in Thiers, Auvergne, France, 1046; died 1124; canonized by Pope Clement   
   III   
   in 1189 at the request of King Henry II of England.   
      
        Saint Stephen was the son of the virtuous viscount of Thiers. His life   
   from   
   infancy presaged uncommon sanctity. Father Milo, then the dean of the church   
   of   
   Paris, was appointed his tutor. At age 12, Stephen accompanied his father,   
   lord   
   of the district, to the tomb of Saint Nicholas of Bari. He fell ill at   
   Benevento   
   and remained there to continue his education under Milo, who had become   
   Benevento's archbishop.  At the appropriate time, he ordained Stephen a   
   deacon.   
   Following Milo's death, Stephen pursued his studies in Rome for four years.   
   In   
   the meantime his parents died.   
      
       In 1076, on his return to France, Stephen renounced inheritance to   
   become a   
   hermit in the mountains of Ambazac at Muret (northeast of Limoges). He led   
   an   
   austere life, with little food or sleep for 46 years. He wore a metal   
   breastplate (one of his attributes in art) instead of the usual hairshirt.   
   When he was not employed in manual labor, he lay prostrate on the ground in   
   profound adoration of the majesty of God. The sweetness which he felt in   
   divine   
   contemplation made him often forget to take any refreshment for two or three   
   days together. Stephen remained deacon throughout life, never seeking   
   presbyterial ordination.   
      
   As with many of the holiest hermits, disciples gathered about him. There on   
   the   
   mountain-top he founded a congregation of Benedictine hermit-monks using the   
   model he observed in Calabria; thus, its rules was based on his sayings.   
   Although he was strict with himself, he was mild to those under his   
   direction,   
   and proportioned their mortifications to their strength. But he allowed no   
   indulgence with regard to the essential points of a solitary life, silence,   
   poverty, and the denial of self-will. He behaved himself among his disciples   
   as   
   the last of them, always taking the lowest place, never suffering any one to   
   rise up to him; and while they were at table, he would seat himself on the   
   ground in the midst of them, and read to them the lives of the saints. He   
   ruled   
   but never seems to have become a monk himself.   
      
   The order is conspicuous for its intransigent insistence on total   
   renunciation.   
   Stephen compared monastic life to life in a prison. "If you come here, you   
   will   
   be fixed to the cross and you will lose your own power over your eyes, your   
   mouth, and your other members. . . . If you go to a large monastery with   
   fine   
   buildings, you will find animals and vast estates; here, only poverty and   
   the   
   cross." To those wishing to join his community, he would say: "This is a   
   prison   
   without either door or hole whereby to return into the world, unless a   
   person   
   makes for himself a breach. And should this misfortune befall you, I could   
   not   
   send after you, none here having any commerce with the world any more than   
   myself."   
      
   God give Stephen the ability to read hearts. The author of his now lost   
   vita,   
   the fourth prior Stephen de Liciaco, gives a long history of miracles which   
   he   
   wrought. But the conversions of many obstinate sinners were still more   
   miraculous; it seemed as if no heart could resist the grace which   
   accompanied   
   his words. Saint Stephen died at Muret. In his last hours he was carried   
   into   
   the chapel, where he heard mass, received extreme unction and the viaticum.   
   His disciples buried him privately, but news of his death drew many to his   
   tomb,   
   which was honored by innumerable miracles.   
      
       Four months after his death, the priory of Ambazac, dependent on the   
   great   
   Benedictine abbey of St. Austin, in Limoges, put in a claim to the land of   
   Muret. The disciples of the holy man immediately gave up the ground without   
   any   
   contention, and retired to Grandmont, taking Stephen's remains with them. It   
   is   
   from this site that the congregation received the name Grandmontines.   
        With its austere rule it never became widespread; however, the   
   successors   
   to Stephen's spirit gained the admiration of many. Abbot Peter of Celles,   
   calls   
   them angels, and testifies that he placed an extraordinary confidence in   
   their   
   prayers (Epistle 8). John of Salisbury, a contemporary author, represents   
   them   
   as men who, being raised above the necessities of life, had conquered not   
   only   
   sensuality and avarice, but even nature itself (Poly. l. 7, c. 23).   
      
      The rule of the Grandmontines consists of seventy-five chapters. The   
   prologue   
   reminds its members that the rule of rules, and the origin of all monastic   
   rules, is the gospel: they are but streams derived from this source, and in   
   it   
   are all the means of arriving at Christian perfection pointed out. It   
   recommends   
   strict poverty and obedience, as the foundation of a religious life; forbids   
   compensation for their Masses or to open their oratory to outsiders on   
   Sundays   
   or holy days, because on these days each should attend his parish church.   
   Its   
   religious are forbidden to engage in any lawsuit or to eat meat even in time   
   of   
   sickness. The rule prescribes rigorous fasts, with only one meal a day for a   
   great part of the year.   
      
        The rule abounds with great sentiments of virtue, especially concerning   
   temptations, the sweetness of God's service and his holy commandments, the   
   boundless obligation each has to love God and the incomprehensible   
   advantages of   
   praising Him, and the necessity of continually advancing in fervor. It   
   speaks of   
   good works as the flowers of the garland of which our lives should be   
   composed.   
      
      King Saint Henry II was one of the admirers of the order. He founded   
   several   
   monasteries for the Grandmontines in France and England, and petitioned the   
   Vatican for Stephen's canonization.   
   austerity of Saint Stephen inspired Armand de Rancé &Charles de Foucauld   
   (Benedictines Encyclopedia Farmer Husenbeth).   
      
      
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   Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. --Lk. 14:11   
      
   "Whoever is not very humble, can never draw profit from contemplation, in   
   which   
   any little atom of insufficient humility, though it may seem nothing, works   
   the   
   greatest harm"   
   --St. Teresa   
      
         Because the blessed Clara of Montefalco experienced a vain pleasure in   
   some things she had done, the Lord withdrew from her, for fifteen years, His   
   lights and celestial consolations, which she could not regain during all   
   that   
   time, though she begged for them earnestly, with tears, prayers, and the use   
   of   
   the discipline.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
      
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   A prayer for choosing a state of life:   
      
   O my God, Thou who art the God of wisdom and good   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)