Vigils Reading – Holy Abbots of Cluny

FROM A LETTER OF

ST BERNARD TO POPE EUGENIUS,

On behalf of Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny6

◊◊◊

It would be silly for me to write you on behalf of the Lord Abbot of Cluny,

to act as if I wanted to befriend a man whom the entire world befriends. But

although he does not need me to write on his behalf, I am nevertheless doing so

in order to satisfy my affection for him, for this purpose alone and no other.

Although I cannot accompany him in body I shall be with him in spirit on his

pilgrimage to Rome. Nothing can separate us, not the height of the Alps, nor the

cold of the snows, nor the long distance of the journey. And I am present to him

now, stretching out my hand to him in this letter. He cannot go anywhere

without me because I am so much in his debt for the favor of his friendship. But

his favor itself acquits me of the debt, for what was a duty has become a

pleasure.

Honor this man as an honorable member of Christ’s body. He is a vessel

fit for all honorable employment, a vessel full of grace and truth, full of all

manner of good things. Send him back with joy to rejoice the hearts of many by

his return. Show him great favor, so that when he returns we may all receive of

his fullness. He should, of course, find no difficulty in obtaining from you

anything he asks for in the name of the Lord Jesus. For, if you do not know it,

he it is that holds out his hands to the poor of our Order; he it is that freely and

frequently, as far as he may without offending his own people, supports our

brethren from the possessions of his monastery.

But let me explain why I say “in the name of the Lord Jesus.

” It is because

I fear and suspect he may ask to be released from the rule of his monastery; and

no one who knows him would consider this a petition made in the name of

Jesus. I am very much mistaken if he is not more self-effacing than usual, if he

has not become more perfect since he last saw you, although it is well known

that almost from the first instant of assuming office he reformed his Order in

many ways, in the matter, for instance, of fasting, silence, and costly and curious

clothing.

6 Letter 349, The Letters of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, edited by Bruno Scott James, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1953,

pp. 427-428.15