From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Let charity be exercised by your living good lives   
      
   The heedless person forgets to put an end to a quarrel; the stubborn   
   one is loath to grant pardon when asked; the person who is proudly   
   ashamed disdains to beg pardon. Animosities live on in these three   
   vices, but they kill the soul in which they don't die. Let a spirit of   
   recollection keep watch against heedlessness, of compassion against   
   vindictive stubbornness, of gentle good sense against proud shame. If   
   you recall that you have neglected to make it up with someone...   
    --Augustine of Hippo*   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   10 September – Blessed Oglerio O.Cist   
   (also known as Ogerius, Ogler, Oglerius.)   
      
   Cistercian Monk, Abbot, Mediator and peace-maker, Reformer, Penitent,   
   Writer – born in c 1136 in Trento, Trino Vercellese, Italy and died in   
   1214 of natural causes. Blessed Oglerio was devoted to Mary and in his   
   writings praised her prerogatives, especially the Immaculate   
   Conception. Not only a man of learning but of humility as well, he was   
   found by Pope Innocent III to be an “instrument of peace” in settling   
   quarrels among warring factions in Italy.   
      
   It can be said that Trino Vercellese is a land of the blessed. In   
   addition to Blessed Magdalene Panattieri and Blessed Arcangela   
   Girlani, Blessed Oglerio, Abbot of St Maria di Lucedio is also the   
   pride of the people of Trento. This was an important Cistercian Abbey,   
   founded in 1123 as a subsidiary of the Monastery of La Fertè, in a   
   vast wooded plain not far from Trino. In those days, the abbeys were   
   indeed centres of spirituality but they also had the important   
   economic role of managing many lands recovered from the state of   
   abandonment.   
      
   Oglerio was born around the year 1136, the son of a wealthy family.   
   Even today in the city, his birthplace is traditionally indicated   
   which, despite the inevitable alterations, retains three coats of arms   
   from the 8th century on the facade. There is also a fresco depicting   
   the three local blessed.   
      
   In 1248 the young Oglerio witnessed the solemn passage of St Bernard   
   of Clairvaux who accompanied, together with fourteen cardinals,   
   Blessed Pope Eugenio III (also a Cistercian) on the journey from Asti   
   to Vercelli, for the Consecration of the Basilica of St Mary Major.   
   The great Doctor of the Church, with his exceptional charisma, broke   
   into the heart of Oglerio who, probably already a student at Lucedio,   
   wore the white Cistercian habit three years later. According to the   
   Benedictine Rule, he alternated study with work, he took his vows in   
   1153 and in 1161 he was Ordained a Priest. He killed his own body with   
   penance and fasting but he was meek with others, revealing that   
   character that would distinguish him throughout his life.   
      
   In 1174, when Bernard of Clairvaux was Canonised, Lucedio was at its   
   peak. About ten years later Peter II was elected Abbot and Oglerio,   
   his right hand, was often his companion in the many missions he   
   undertook in the ecclesiastical and civil sphere. On behalf of Pope   
   Celestino III they settled the disputes between the Bishop of Tortona   
   and the Templars. From the successor Pope Innocent III, they had the   
   task of reconciling Parma and Piacenza (1200), reforming the important   
   Monastery of Bobbio and, with the Bishop of Vercelli, the congregation   
   of the Umiliati of that city, to smooth out the discords between the   
   Monks and Canons of St Ambrogio of Milan (1202) and between the Bishop   
   of Genoa and the Chapter of his Cathedral (1203).   
      
   In 1202 they preached the IV Crusade in Trino, one of the captains was   
   Bonifacio del Monferrato. The Crusade failed in its intent, also   
   because the Venetians, despite the dissent of the Pope, exploited it   
   for their own political gain. Boniface, however, was awarded the title   
   of King of Thessaly and the Abbot Peter II was elected Bishop of Ivrea   
   and later Patriarch of Antioch. Oglerio became the eleventh Abbot of   
   Lucedio who, in that year (1205), had fifty Monks.   
      
   The Blessed always had a great love for his country and several times   
   he acted as a “peacemaker” in the long-standing conflicts that arose   
   between the Bishop and the Municipality of Vercelli. In 1210, Trino   
   acquired a certain autonomy and the Emperor Otto IV granted the   
   Monastery, possessions and privileges, that benefited the surrounding   
   territory – great was the charity of the Monks who drew from the   
   Abbey’s granaries to help the needy in the many periods of need.   
      
   Oglerio also had many diplomatic assignments, on behalf of the Order   
   of Cîteaux, the Apostolic See and the local dignitaries – on behalf of   
   the Marquis Guglielmo il Buono, he went on a mission to the Emperor   
   Conrad and the King of France Louis VII. In 1212 Pope Innocent III   
   appointed him Arbitrator between the Canons of Casale and those of   
   Paciliano and the following year he had the task of re-establishing   
   the rights of the Cistercians at the Monastery of Chortaiton, near   
   Thessalonica, devastated by the Saracens. The Bishop of Novara Gerardo   
   had him reform a female Convent and settle some disputes between   
   Lucedio and the municipality of Vercelli.   
      
   However, Oglerio was, above all, an excellent spiritual father, in the   
   years in which the Church opposed the heresy of the Albigensians.   
   Fortunately, the “Tractatus in laudibus Sanctae Dei Genitrix” and an   
   “Expositio super Evangelium in Coena Domini” have come down to us of   
   his writings, also precious from a literary point of view. The first,   
   addressed in particular to consecrated women, narrates the glories of   
   Mary, through the passages of the Gospel and defends her immunity from   
   original sin from conception (what will be the dogma of the Immaculate   
   Conception). The second contains thirteen homilies on the Eucharist,   
   “bread of the Spirit”, dealing with chapters XIII – XV of the Gospel   
   of John. Oglerio indicates Jesus as the Lamb sacrificed for the   
   salvation of men and to his Monks he says the Eucharist is “the way,   
   whereby you must go through, the truth you must come to, the life you   
   must remain in” (sermon VII). Christ prevails over the devil for the   
   virtues of “humility, patience and kindness” (sermon IX). He who   
   “loved you without measure, without measure you must love Him” (Sermon   
   I). Mary is “the uncorrupted virgin, the untempered virgin, the virgin   
   before childbirth and after childbirth” (sermon III). His works, for a   
   long time, were believed to be of St Bernard but, in 1661, Cardinal   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)