Vigils Reading – Bl Guerric

THE LIFE OF

BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

By Fr Hilary Costello, OCSO1

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Guerric of Igny was born around 1075 at Tournai and was educated in the

humanities, dialectic and theology at the cathedral school. Guerric was first

attracted to the eremitical life. He went to Clairvaux without any idea of staying

there. He only wanted to derive spiritual advantage from a meeting with the

Abbot Bernard. Bernard saw the makings of a good monk in Guerric and urged

him to stay.

Like so many of the Clairvaux community, Guerric was considerably older

than his abbot. By human standards he was more mature and experienced.

Guerric remained at Clairvaux for thirteen years. Igny was founded as the fourth

foundation of Clairvaux in 1127.

In 1138 the first abbot of Igny, Humbert, resigned and returned to

Clairvaux. Guerric was chosen as its second abbot. There is a passage in the Vita

Hugonis which suggests that Bernard influenced the choice considerably. “It

was Bernard who brought Guerric to the monastic life and Bernard favored

his election as abbot. He knew of no man living more holy than Guerric and so

declared him the one candidate for the office.” But this does not indicate that

Guerric was imposed on the community. The monks of twelve years standing

would have known him at Clairvaux. Guerric himself says that the community

chose him: ‘I am no physician and, in my house, there is no bread’. That is what

I said from the start: ‘Do not make me your leader.’ It is not right for one to

rule who cannot be of service. And how can he be of service who is not a

physician and in whose house there is no bread? He has neither the art of

healing souls nor learning to feed them with? I told you this, but you would5

not listen. You made me your superior.” Guerric may indeed have been about

sixty years old, but then his long experience both before and after his entrance

into Clairvaux must have been thought a valuable asset.

Igny flourished under Guerric. Vocations were plentiful and so were

benefactors. Much land and money was given to the monastery during his

tenure. It was none of this that was to make the abbot’s name known to

posterity, but the spiritual teaching committed to writing in his sermons. He

seems to have died on August 19, 1157. More than six hundred years later his

remains were taken into a new church.

Along with Bernard, Aelred of Rievaulx and William of St Thierry, Guerric

has been called the four evangelists of Citeaux.