Blessed Humbeline

BLESSED HUMBELINE
From the Life of St Bernard 2
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From earliest childhood Humbeline and Bernard had been drawn together
by a special bond of affection and sympathy, due to identity of interests and tastes.
After her marriage, forgetful of her mother’s example and exhortations, she began
to follow the fashions of the world. In 1117 she came to Clairvaux surrounded with
all the splendor of dress and attendants that unlimited wealth could bestow,
thinking, so it seems, that she was doing her brother honor. Her brother Andrew,
the porter, in announcing her arrival, did not omit to describe to his Abbot the
pomp and ceremony that attended her. It grieved Bernard to hear that his beloved
sister had become a worshipper at the shrine of vanity. He refused to see her
himself, nor would he allow any of his brothers to see her, but told Andrew to tell
her from him that with these worldly ornaments she was making herself the devil’s
instrument for the ruin of immortal souls. Andrew delivered the message, adding
on his own: “Why so much solicitude to embellish a body destined for worms and
rottenness, while the soul that now animates it is burning in everlasting flames?”

Humbeline burst into tears, crying out: “I deserve it all because I am a
sinner. Yet it is for such as I that Christ suffered on the Cross. Indeed it is because
of my sinfulness that I seek counsel and encouragement from the saints. If my
brother Bernard, who is the servant of God, despises my body, let him at least have
pity on my soul. Let him come; let him command; and whatever he thinks proper
to enjoin I am prepared to carry out.”

There was no resisting such an appeal. Bernard and his brothers hastened
to meet her and to confirm her in these good dispositions. It was the holy Abbot’s
desire that she should enter religion; but as this was unlawful without her
husband’s consent, he recommended her to live as much as possible like a recluse
in the world, shunning ostentation and all kinds of vanity, and devoting herself,
after her mother’s example, to the service of God and the poor. She promised to do
so.

Five years later, in 1122, having obtained after much resistance her
husband’s consent, she left the world altogether and entered the convent of Jully
where Elizabeth, her sister-in-law was superioress. When the latter went forth
about 1130 to found a new convent in the neighborhood of Dijon, Humbeline was
appointed to succeed her. Under her direction the house flourished greatly; the
noblest ladies of the land sought admission in such numbers that she was forced
to make about a dozen new foundations. She rivaled Bernard himself in her love of
the Cross. Of food and sleep she allowed herself much less than the minimum
which nature demands; her clothes were the meanest she could find, and it was her
happiness to be employed in the humblest occupations. When her nuns begged her
to be more careful of her health, which seemed in danger of breaking down under
such austere practices, she replied: “For you, my dear sisters, whose lives have been
consecrated to the service of God, this is an excellent counsel. But for me, who have
lived so long amidst worldly vanities, no kind of penance can be excessive.”…
Her last hours were consoled by the presence of three of her brothers,
Bernard, Andrew and Nivard… When about to breathe her last she looked with a
radiant smile at Bernard and said: “Oh, how happy I am to have followed your
counsel and consecrated myself to God! And what a beautiful reward I expect to
receive for the love I have entertained for you in this life! It is to that love that I
owe the joy and glory awaiting me in the homeland.” Then turning to the others
she cried out: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the
house of the Lord.” With these words, she gave up her spirit.

2 Life and Teaching of St Bernard by Ailbe J. Luddy, O. Cist., pg. 68-69, M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1937.