ON BLESSED GERARDUS, BROTHER OF S. BERNARD, MONK OF CLAIRVAUX.
YEAR MCXXXVIII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his cult, Life, & Burial.
Gerardus Monk, brother of S. Bernard of Clairvaux (Bl.)
G. H.
[1] Joannes Grothusius, the Westphalian, of the Society of Jesus, a man of exceptional virtue, charity, humility, & excellent doctrine (as in the Library of the Society of Jesus teaches Nathanael Sotuellus page 457) among other monuments, The Life from a Ms. & printed Exordium of the Order. which the one most devoted to our studies submitted, in the year MDCXXXVII he described at Embrica, from a Ms. book of the library of the Society of Jesus, the following Acts which we subjoin: to which this title was prefixed by the transcriber: Life of Blessed Gerardus, Brother of S. Bernard, & in Clairvaux Cellarer, Religious of the Cistercian Order, written by a certain Religious of Clairvaux & placed in the book of the third selected History of the Cistercian Order . We desiring to acquire this History entire, with hope of drawing more such things from it, several times to Embrica we wrote to our own; but the answer was always, that it could no longer be found. When behold from Gaul is brought the Library of the Cistercian Fathers, in the monastery of Bonifons, in the year MDCLX & following printed in eight volumes; of which the first, after the Exordium of the Cistercian cenobium, exhibits the Great Exordium of the Order; to which in the Fusniacensian Ms. is found ascribed; This book composed, a certain Abbot, by name Conrad, of the Everbacian cenobium (this is in the diocese of Mainz) who was a Monk of Clairvaux; & that, as the editor of the printing shows Bertrand Tessier about the year MCLXXX, namely 40 years after the death of Gerardus. Of this work Distinction III, on certain brothers & disciples of S. Bernard, & other Religious of Clairvaux, displays in front Chap. I, on Lord Gerardus, brother of S. Bernard, Cellarer of Clairvaux, the same word for word as we had received described by Grothusius: hence we can scarcely doubt, that all is held printed, which before had lain hidden in manuscripts.
[2] Memory in fasti The chief virtues of Gerardus, in the sermon XXVI on the Canticle of Canticles S. Bernard himself explained: which sermon Aloysius Lipomanus published, in volume one of the Saints of the early Fathers, & following, under the title of the Life of Gerardus the monk: & by his example we have the same Sermon inserted, on this XIII day of June, in the second & third edition of Surius. Gerardus himself on the said day was referred by Molanus in the Auctarium of Usuard, Arnoldus Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Fasti. Chrysostom Henriquez, Chalemot, & the Author of the Cistercian Calendar printed at Divion, as also Ferrarius in the general Catalog. Lastly an illustrious memory of him is preserved in the Life of S. Bernard, by author William Abbot of S. Theodoricus; & in volume one of the Cistercian Annals, edited by Angelo Manrique.
[3] He on the year MCXXXVIII (in which Gerardus died was said) chap. 5 num. 6 asserts, the sacred spoils of his body, as also of the brothers, today the same tomb to illustrate, like a stone tabernacle rising against the church, Sepulchral inscription, & on the marbles a hanging tablet to indicate in this manner: Under this edifice, which is opposite the church in the cemetery of the Abbots, constructed of stone columns & arches, in the right part of the present sarcophagus, are contained the bones of happy memory of Brothers german to our Father Bernard, & also of Galdrich of Tallion uncle of him: who, despising the nobility of family, & worldly power, in which they very much excelled, & made Monks, founded Clairvaux in their blood, & left an example of monastic perfection to their posterity.
LIFE
From the Great Exordium of the Cistercian Order. By author Conrad the monk of Clairvaux, afterwards Abbot of Everbach.
Gerardus the Monk, brother of S. Bernard of Clairvaux (Bl.)
FROM MSS.
[1] Prologue. Now indeed to the elders, who, under the most blessed Father our Bernard & afterwards, in Clairvaux shone, let us turn our stylus: men truly religious, sublime in contempt of the world, fervent in emulation of the order, shining with the grace of various charisms as the stars of heaven, of holy contemplation watching with study without weariness of mind; who adorned the name & habit of Monk with holy morals & best conversation: because, that this which they were called they might truly be, with admirable insistence of devotion they labored. Of whom the first, as it were the first-born, which in the Law to the Lord is commanded to be offered, not undeservedly we shall place Lord Gerardus, formerly the Cellarer of Clairvaux, German brother of our holy Father Bernard, & very much beloved by him; who the more difficulty at the beginnings of conversion to consent he seemed, the more tenaciously afterwards in all his conversation he adhered to the exercises of the same conversion. For when the servant of God Bernard in adolescence, as the most tender shoot of wood, being delicate, prevented by the Holy Spirit, had proposed to put forth his hand to strong things, & had vowed to the Lord the grace of conversion conceived in mind; by the same Spirit also he was gathering everywhere companions for conversion inflamed.
[2] Gerardus, resisting S. Bernard, And when already his other brothers had given assent to the salutary admonitions a, Gerardus the wholesome counsel more reluctantly admitted; because being a Soldier, vigorous in arms, valid in the strength of youth, of great prudence, exceptional benignity, & who was loved by all; he had fixed the root of his heart deeper in this world's pomps & vanities. And when with obstinate mind he was repelling his brother's admonitions; Bernard, now fiery in faith, & roused in a wonderful way by the zeal of fraternal charity; I know, said he; I know, vexation alone will give understanding to the hearing. from his presage And lo presently in the side of his brother a lance was seen fixed, a presage of future things: & soon putting his finger in the place of the side, in which he alone saw the lance , he said; A day will come; will come, when a lance fixed in this side will make a way to thy heart for the counsel of thy salvation, which thou despisest; & thou shalt fear indeed, but in no way die. So said, so it was done. wounded & captured, For a very few days having passed, surrounded by enemies, he is taken & wounded, according to the word of his brother; & drawing the lance fixed into that same side & the same place, as had been foretold ; & dreading death as now present, he was crying out; I am a Monk, I am a Monk Cistercian. Nonetheless yet also was shut in custody. Afterwards from the wound, beyond hope, he quickly recovered; but the purpose or vow, which he had vowed, he did not change. And when his brother was laboring that he might be drawn out, but nothing he was profiting; Gerardus more and more saddened, began to be anxious; because he was prohibited from rendering the vow which he had vowed; & because, when it had been free for him, by the love of the world delighted, he had contemned to vow & render. But Bernard, when he was not even permitted to speak to him, approaching to the prison, cried: Know, brother Gerardus, that we are going into this monastery soon, vows to enter the Order: & we shall enter: but thou, since to go out is not permitted, here be a Monk; knowing, that what thou willest, & canst not, may be reckoned as done.
[3] Therefore for some time shut in prison & bound with fetters, he learned, divinely freed, hard it is for him to kick against the goad of God's grace. He learned, I say, the gall-bitter sweetness of love of this world, with how many calamities, how many bitternesses is filled. At length when sufficiently & wholesomely for his obstinacy he had been chastised by the Lord, on a certain night he heard in dreams a voice, saying to him: Today thou shalt be freed b. So on that same day about evening his fetters were divinely broken, comes with his brothers to Cîteaux: the locks even of the prison were of their own accord opened: & Gerardus going out through the midst of those who had captured & shut him in, free was walking: & so from the twofold captivity, namely of body & soul, by the great mercy of God freed (so that out of the sentence he could say, Thy rod & thy staff, O Lord, themselves have consoled me; Ps. 22, 4 with his brothers & the rest, who in the same sacraments of spiritual warfare had sworn, to Cîteaux came: about to render the vow which he had vowed to the Lord so much more humbly & devoutly, the more from divine grace alone & the will of vowing & of the same vow the faculty of fulfilling, so manifest by miracle instructed, he knew was in himself.
[4] But afterwards, when the most reverend Father c Stephen, Cistercian Abbot, Bernard & his brothers with other religious men, sent to build the house of Clairvaux, in Clairvaux is appointed Cellarer: & venerable Bernard had set over the rest as Abbot; Lord Gerardus in the same house was constituted Cellarer. How vigorously indeed, how prudently & humbly he administered the office entrusted to him , we shall better explain with the words of B. Bernard himself than with ours. When after his death the same venerable Abbot, with that noble eloquence of his, made a sermon full of most pious grief, in the assembly of the Brothers, among other things he said thus.
[5] You know, O sons, how just my grief is, how doleful my plague. Sermon 26 on the Canticle. You see indeed how faithful a companion has deserted me, on this way on which I was walking; how watchful for care, how unfailing for work, how sweet for morals. Who was so very necessary to me? to whom was I equally beloved? He was brother by family, the chief helper of S. Bernard. but in religion more truly germane. Grieve I pray for my place, you to whom these things are known. I was weak in body, & he carried me; little of heart, & he comforted me; lazy I was & negligent, & he aroused me; improvident & forgetful, & he reminded me. How hast thou been torn from me? how hast thou been snatched from my hands, unanimous man, man according to my heart? We loved in life, how in death are we separated? Most bitter separation, & which altogether could not be effected except by death. For how wouldst thou desert me living thee living? Altogether the work of death, a horrendous divorce. For who with so sweet a bond of our love would not have spared, except death the enemy of all sweetness?
[6] To everything that has emerged, I look for Gerardus, as I was wont; & he is not. Alas? then I groan. Wretched I; a man without help. Whom shall I consult in ambiguities? in whom in adverse things trust? who shall bear burdens? who shall drive off dangers? Was not everywhere before my steps the eyes of Gerardus going? Did not, Gerardus, thy breast more closely know my care than my own? more familiarly did they encounter? more sharply did they press? Did not with that thy placable & potent tongue most frequently me from the discourses of the world didst thou claim, & restore me to friendly silence? The Lord had given him a learned tongue, that he might know, when he ought to bring forth speech. So at last, in the prudence of his responses, & in the grace given him from above, both to the domestics he satisfied & to the externals , that through me no one sought, whom Gerardus might first chance to meet: he was meeting moreover the coming, generous to others in helping, sparing to himself: opposing himself, lest suddenly they should attack my leisure. If however to some he could not satisfy through himself, these he was leading to me; the rest he was sending away. O admirable industry! O faithful friend? And to the friend he was bearing the habit, & to the offices of charity he was not lacking. Who departed empty-handed from him? if rich, counsel: if poor, a subsidy from him he was carrying back. Nor did he seek the things which were his own, he who was thrusting himself into the midst of cares, that I might be free. For he hoped, as he was most humble, greater fruit from our quietness, than if he were free himself. Yet sometimes he was asking to be absolved, & to give way to another, as one who could provide better: but where would he be found? Nor with petulant mind, as is usual, was he held in this office by affection, but by the sole regard of charity. Indeed he labored more than all, & took less than all; so that often, when he ministered necessities to others, he himself lacked in many, namely in food, drink, or garment.
[7] Thanks to thee, brother, for all the fruit of my studies, if any there is, in the Lord. To thee I owe, if I have advanced, if I have profited. Thou wast involved, & I by thy benefit at rest sat with myself, or certainly with more holy occupations of divine services, instructed in spiritual things: or to the doctrine of the sons I more usefully attended. For why should I not be so secure, when I knew thee acting outside as my right hand, light of my eyes, my breast & my tongue? But why did I say acting outside? as if Gerardus was ignorant of internal things, & was destitute of spiritual gifts? They know, who know him spiritual, how his words breathed the Spirit: the companions know, how his morals & studies tasted not of the flesh, but glowed with spirit. Who more rigid than he in the custody of discipline? who more strict in chastising his body? who more suspended in contemplating? more subtle in discoursing? How often discoursing with him, did I learn the things which I knew not; & I who had come to teach, departed more taught? Nor wonder about me; since wiser men themselves nonetheless testify the same thing has happened to them about him. He did not know letters, but had the sense of the inventor of letters, had also the illuminating Spirit; nor in the greatest only, but in the least was he greatest.
[8] What, for example's sake, in buildings, in fields, gardens, waters, & finally in all arts or works of rustics, what, I say, even in this kind of things eluded the expertise of Gerardus? diligent in temporal administration. To masons, smiths, farmers, gardeners, cobblers, & weavers he was easily master: & though by the judgment of all, he was wiser than all, alone in his own eyes he was not wise. Would that many, even though less wise, were not touched by that malediction! Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes. To those knowing these things I speak: & still more about him to those experienced & tested. I spare however, because he is my flesh & my brother. helping in all things S. Bernard, This however securely I add, that to me he was useful in all things & before all things. Useful in small & great, in private & public, without & within. Rightly on him I depended wholly, who to me was everything; he had left to me almost only the honor & name of provisor, for the work himself he was doing. I was called Abbot, but he was presiding in solicitude. Rightly my spirit rested on him, through whom it was permitted to delight in the Lord, to preach more freely, to pray more securely. Through thee, I say, my brother, was to me a sober mind, grateful rest, more effective speech, fatter prayer, more frequent reading, & more fervent affection.
[9] grieving over his death, Alas! thou hast been taken away, & all these things at once. With thee equally have departed all my delights & joys. Now cares have rushed in, now troubles strike me, & straits everywhere have found me alone, alone to me with thee departing have remained: alone under the burden I groan: either to put down or to be crushed is necessary, because thou hast withdrawn thy shoulders. Who shall grant to me quickly to die after thee? for in place of thee I would not, nor to defraud thee of thy glory. Moreover to outlive thee is labor & sorrow. Go forth tears, long ago wishing to go forth: go forth, because he who had obstructed your passage Gerardus, mine plainly (Is he not mine, who is brother in blood was, son by profession, father by solicitude, partner in spirit, intimate in affection?) he has departed from me. I feel, I am wounded, & gravely. Forgive, sons, nay, if sons, grieve a father's place. I grieve over thee, dearest Gerardus, not because to be grieved for, but because taken away; & therefore perhaps to me rather over me, who drink the cup of bitterness. & weeping for the common good. Where is thy victory, O death? where is thy sting, O death? Gerardus does not fear thee, masked effigy: Gerardus through the middle of thy jaws passes to his country, not only secure, but also rejoicing & praising. I lament therefore first over my own plague, & this house's loss. I lament next over the necessities of the poor , of whom Gerardus was father. I lament certainly also over the state of our whole Order, & of our profession; which from thy, Gerardus, zeal, counsel & example, was taking no mediocre strength. I lament lastly, even if not over thee, yet for thy sake. Hence indeed, hence I am affected gravely, because vehemently I love.
[10] This is the testimony, which about the life & conversation of his beloved brother Gerardus the Most Reverend Father Bernard gave, The deceased's abstinence is praised, which we excerpting from his long sermon in various places, to show the virtues of so great a man, have placed continuously. We know moreover that the deceit of flattery from such a Father of ours, in words & senses, was far removed; nor was drawn by affection of blood, that he would praise by even one word more than him, whom mere truth required to be praised. Therefore, if it is true; nay, because his testimony is true; it is clear that the servant of the Lord Gerardus was perfect in virtues, to whom by the great gift of God for the observance of true religion the administration of externals nothing was harmful, which is wont to turn so many from the path of cloistral discipline, & to plunge into the gulf of secular conversation . But who can sufficiently admire the proclamation of such great praise? he who laboring more than all, who laboring more than others, received less, was taking less than all; who was held by no petulant affection in his office (which indeed in our times is most rare) but only by the regard of charity; who, while he was ministering necessaries to the others, was himself in need of many things. Indeed to prove, how rigid he was in observance of discipline, & how strict a chastiser of his body; we shall set one of his praiseworthy deeds as example, so that those who study to search out the virtues of holy Fathers for their advancement, if fervent in religion, may have what they ought to imitate; if however remiss or infirm, may have whence to grieve over themselves.
[11] The servant of the Lord Gerardus was wont, going around the granges from the duty of his office, [& on account of infirmity ordered to drink wine, he poured it into the water set out for all.] to be content with the common table & food of the Brothers, drinking water with them himself; nor easily did he allow anything else besides the common dishes to be set before him. It happened on a certain occasion, that going to a grange he fell ill: which the Brother knowing who was to go with him , approached the Prior, & suggested that the Cellarer was sick; saying he feared, that if he drank water in the grange, as he was wont, the weight of his illness would increase. So by the Prior's order a small vessel full of wine he took with him, the Cellarer entirely ignorant of this; which also to him sitting with the Brothers at table he offered, making the sign (as is the custom) from the Prior, that on account of his infirmity that little wine he alone should use. When indeed that most fervent emulator of poverty & common life, would consent in this, that, with all others drinking water , he alone should be delighted with a cup of wine? But there was a vessel full of water placed in the middle, whence the Brothers should drink. Briefly therefore within himself, what he should do, deliberating; continually he arose, & taking the little vessel of wine, with all seeing, poured the wine into the urn which held the water; making the sign that all should drink in common: for he preferred his body to be endangered by infirmity, than in such a little remission of abstinence to give a stain to his conscience. About this so religious deed of his the Brothers cheered together & edified, drank more delightfully that water, than if most precious wine had been offered them. They were reading doubtless in the life & morals of their best Cellarer, how to be despised is the enticement of the flesh, who not even for preserving or recovering his body's health acquiesced to take a cup, from which to the infirm an occasion of scandal he would seem to have given.
[12] in the company of S. Bernard, sick at Viterbo, When, for ending the schism of Peter Leon, the holy Father Bernard for the third time, called by Lord Pope Innocent, had entered Italy d, & was shining everywhere with great signs & miracles, Lord Gerardus his Cellarer, as the most faithful helper & most prudent counsellor, through all things he had with him. It happened when they were at Viterbo, that the same Lord Gerardus, seized with most grave illness, lay on the bed; & rendered venerable Abbot greatly disturbed & consternated. And when manifest signs announced an exit of death to threaten; the servant of the Lord Bernard most distressed, the companion of pilgrimage, & that companion, in a foreign land to leave, nor to render up to those who had committed him to him (since he was loved by all, as he was very loveable ) with weeping & groaning turned to the Lord; Wait, said he, Lord, wait until the return: restored to friends, take him if thou wilt, & I shall not delay. But how should the pious & merciful Lord look down on his most humble servant, praying with such contrition of heart in his own cause; by his prayer he recovers. whom with such facility, as with benignity in foreign causes he was wont continually to hear? Indeed beyond the hope of all, as if from the gates of death recalled to life, Gerardus quickly recovered: & the businesses perfected, the peace of the holy Roman Church restored, the Leonine rage utterly extinguished, they returned to their country, with rejoicing of the whole land, bringing back the sheaves of peace.
[13] afflicted by his last illness, But not much time after this elapsed e, as if the Lord had now satisfied the vows & desires of his faithful servant Bernard; again Gerardus began suddenly to be destitute of the strengths of body, & gradually to approach the exit: he who indeed had patiently borne the occupation of Martha for the office enjoined on him, but had embraced the leisure of Mary with the whole effort of mind. So feeling most certainly himself about to depart, & from the laborious cares of this world to the kingdom of eternal blessedness to pass; where beginning to be free, he might taste & see, how sweet is the Lord; & might confirm, that in no way he had been held in his office by any carnal or worldly desire ; with eyes lifted to heaven, God, said he, thou knowest, that as much as was in me, I always desired rest, to be intent on myself, free for thee; but involved held me thy love & the study of obeying, above all however the german love of the Abbot & my brother. About the middle of the night, which was the last he passed with wretched mortals, in a wonderful way with cheered face, in a voice of exultation suddenly he burst into that Davidic, with those standing by stupefied: Praise the Lord from the heavens, before death joyful he sings: praise him in the heights, for now to this blessed man at midnight it was already becoming day, & his last night was being illumined as the day. Ps. 148, Truly that night, his illumination, in the delights of the eternal light, which is Christ the Lord. For how do shadows not turn into light, where a man dies singing, & singing dying ? Thou art usurped, O enemy death, for gladness, though thou art of grief: thou art usurped for glory, adversary of glory: thou art usurped for the entrance of the kingdom, gate of hell: thou art usurped pit of perdition, for the discovery of salvation. The Brothers therefore who were present, astonished at the novelty of so great a miracle, ran quickly to his beloved brother S. Bernard, the man, exulting in death & insulting death, announcing; who when weak & infirm hastening had come; the last parts of the Psalm, which he was singing, with him hearing he completed in a clear voice. & saying Father into hands &c. And looking up to heaven he said; Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And repeating the same speech & frequently doubling, Father, Father; turned to the holy Abbot & his brother , with cheered face, How great, said he, is the dignation of God, to be a father to men! how great glory of men, to be sons of God, to be heirs of God! So that holy soul, joyful dies: in jubilation & exultation of spiritual joy, loosed from the flesh, & mingled with the hymn-singing choirs of Angels, with so much freer flight sought the sidereal mansions, the more his own nothing in it the host of malign spirits could find. S. Bernard celebrates the funeral. To his funeral the holy Abbot & his brother the due office of commendation & funeral rites, with the sweetest affection of mind, devoutly paid: yet with others weeping he wept not, but the tears longing to break forth with great constancy of faith chastised; lest as if he should seem to lament & weep for him as dead, whom from his death into eternal life & eternal glory he doubted not to be born.
NOTES BY D. P.
d In the year 1137.
e In the year 1138.