Sint-Coleta:
beeld van een retabel in de Sint-Coletakerk te Gent.
Statue
d'un retable de l'église
Sainte-Colette à Gand.
Sainte Colette de Corbie, vierge
Colette Boylet est née en 1381 à Corbie, en Picardie. Orpheline à 18 ans, elle obtint du Père abbé d'un monastère voisin, la possibilité d'entrer chez les béguines d'Amiens malgré son âge. Elle n'y resta qu'un an jugeant leur vie trop douce. Même déception chez les bénédictines, puis chez les clarisses. Son père spirituel, franciscain, comprend son désir d'austérité et la fait entrer dans le Tiers-Ordre de Saint François comme recluse à Corbie. Mais elle se sent appelée à plus de pauvreté encore Elle obtient de rencontrer Benoît XIII à Nice, qui reçoit la profession religieuse de sainte Colette dans la règle de Sainte Claire et lui confie le soin de réformer et de rétablir le second Ordre de Saint-François, la nommant abbesse de tous les monastères qu'elle sera amenée à fonder ou réformer. Cette décision de l’antipape Benoît XIII sera confirmée par le pape Innocent IV. Colette vient alors en Franche-Comté où la duchesse de Genève, Blanche de Savoie, met à sa disposition une partie de son château de la Balme, d’où elle réforme en premier lieu le monastère de Besançon puis bien d'autres en Savoie, Artois, Allemagne et Belgique. Elle mourra à Gand en 1447 et son corps sera, par la suite, transporté à Poligny dans le Jura.
SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/03/06/13341/-/sainte-colette-de-corbie-vierge
Bleiglasfenster in der Kirche (Langhaus, rechte Seite) Saint-Jean-Bosco in Paris (79, rue Alexandre-Dumas im 20. arrondissement), Darstellung: hl. Colette de Corbie
Sainte Colette de Corbie
Réformatrice des Clarisses (+ 1447)
Martyrologe romain
Je vous recommande toujours la sainte Règle, que vous
preniez bien garde que tout soit bien fait et bien gardé, afin que, de la
charge qui vous est commise, vous puissiez rendre bon compte à Dieu. Le labeur
est bref mais le repos est long.
Sainte Colette à ses sœurs - 18 juillet 1446
Verrière représentant sainte Colette de Corbie, église Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire de Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis)
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/03/06.php
Nicolette, par abréviation Colette, était fille d'un charpentier de Corbie, en Picardie; elle reçut ce nom parce que sa naissance fut le fruit des prières persévérantes de sa mère à saint Nicolas de Myre.
Agée de dix-huit ans, un jour qu'elle priait, elle vit Jésus-Christ irrité des péchés des hommes, et saint François d'Assise qui la demandait au Seigneur pour devenir réformatrice des Clarisses et travailler à la conversion des âmes; Jésus accepta la demande du Saint. Doutant d'elle-même et résistant à l'indication céleste, elle devint muette et aveugle, et ne fut guérie qu'après avoir mis la main à l'oeuvre que le Ciel lui imposait. Cette oeuvre réussit d'une manière admirable, malgré les efforts conjurés du monde et de l'enfer.
Colette eut beaucoup à souffrir de la rage des démons, mais elle endura leurs persécutions avec une invincible constance. Son amour pour l'Eucharistie la dédommageait de toutes les épreuves. Elle ne pouvait entrevoir un Tabernacle sans éprouver des tressaillements du coeur. Ses communications avec Jésus-Eucharistie étaient si intimes, qu'elle sentait Sa présence et Son absence.
Parmi ses miracles, on rapporte la résurrection d'un enfant et la résurrection d'une de ses religieuses condamnée à l'enfer, qu'elle rappela à la vie le temps nécessaire pour faire sa confession.
A sa mort, on entendit, dans plusieurs de ses couvents, des anges chanter d'harmonieux cantiques, et son corps répandit une très suave odeur. Les fruits de ses travaux persévèrent encore dans les monastères des ferventes Clarisses réformées.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_colette.html
Mais elle est surtout connue pour protéger les femmes enceintes. L'un n'empêchant pas l'autre. De son vivant, devenue clarisse et une grande réformatrice franciscaine, elle donnait aux femmes attendant un enfant une prière à réciter et à avaler :
O Vierge Marie, vous êtes demeurée Immaculée dans votre conception. Priez pour nous Dieu le Père, dont vous avez mis au monde le Fils. Amen.
Elle demandait aux femmes d'écrire cette prière sur un bout de papier fin et de l'avaler, tous les jours, jusqu'à la naissance de l'enfant.
Aujourd'hui encore on peut se procurer un grain, ou une graine, de sainte Colette chez les clarisses, qui consiste en un grain de riz recouvert d'une feuille de papier à cigarette sur laquelle est écrite la prière.
On peut aussi prier sainte Colette pour éviter les fausses-couches et pour la santé des enfants prématurés, puisqu'elle ressuscitait les enfants morts-nés.
SOURCE : http://www.allianceetfecondite.org/desir/prieres/priere-sainte-colette-contre-la-sterilite.html
_-_Chapelle_Sainte-Colette.JPG)
.jpg)
La chapelle Sainte-Colette de Corbie (Somme).
Construite en 1959 à l'emplacement de la maison natale de Sainte Colette.
Also known as
Coleta
Colette Boylet
Collette of Corbie
Nicholette Boilet
Nicolette
6 March (Roman Martyrology)
7 February (Franciscans, Capuchins)
Profile
Carpenter‘s
daughter whose parents were near 60 at her birth. Colette was orphaned at
age 17, and left in the care of a Benedictine abbot. Her guardian
wanted her to marry,
but Colette was drawn to religious
life. She initially tried to join the Beguines and Benedictines,
but failed in her vocation. Franciscan tertiary. Hermitess.
On 17
September 1402, at
age 21, she became an anchoress –
walled into a cell whose
only opening was a grilled window into a church.
She had visions in which Saint Francis
of Assisi ordered her to restore the Rule of Saint Clare to
its original severity. When she hesitated, she was struck blind for
three days and mute for
three more; she saw this as a sign to take action.
Colette tried to follow her mission by explaining it,
but had no success. Realizing she needed more authority behind her words, she
walked to Nice, France,
barefoot and clothed in a habit of
patches, to meet Peter de Luna,
acknowledged by the French as
the schismatic Pope Benedict XIII.
He professed her a Poor Clare,
and was so impressed that he made her superioress of all convents of
Minoresses that she might reform or found, and a missioner to Franciscan friars
and tertiaries.
She travelled from convent to convent, meeting
opposition, abuse, slander,
and was even accused of sorcery. Eventually she made some progress, especially
in Savoy, where her reform gained sympathizers and recruits. This reform passed
to Burgundy in France, Flanders in Belgium and Spain.
Colette helped Saint Vincent
Ferrer heal the papal schism. She founded
seventeen convents;
one branch of the Poor Clares is
still known as the Colettines.
She was known for a deep devotion to Christ’s Passion
with an appreciation and care for animals.
Colette fasted every Friday, meditating on the Passion. After receiving Holy Communion,
she would fall into ecstasies for
hours. She foretold the date of her own death.
Born
13 January 1381 at Corbie,
Picardy, France as Nicolette
Boilet, named in honor of Saint Nicholas
of Myra
6 March 1447 at Ghent, Belgium of
natural causes
relics at the
Monastère Sainte-Claire, Poligny, France
1604 by Pope Clement VIII (grant
of liturgical office)
woman being
carried to heaven by
an angel
woman delivering
a soul from purgatory
Poor Clare nun holding
a crucifix and
a hook
Poor Clare nun visited
by Saint Anne, Saint Francis
of Assisi, and/or Saint Clare of
Assisi in a vision
Poor Clare nun walking
on a stream
Additional Information
Book of
Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Catholic
Encyclopedia, by Michael Bihl
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
The
Book of Saints and Heroes, by Leonora Blanche Lang
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other sites in english
Miniature Stories of the Saints, by Father Daniel
A Lord, SJ
images
video
sitios en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites en français
Abbé Christian-Philippe Chanut
fonti in italiano
Calendario Francescano Secolare
nettsteder i norsk
spletne strani v slovenšcini
Readings
We must faithfully keep what we have promised. If
through human weakness we fail, we must always without delay arise again by
means of holy penance, and give our attention to leading a good life and to
dying a holy death. May the Father of all mercy, the Son by his holy passion,
and the Holy
Spirit, source of peace, sweetness and love, fill us with their
consolation. Amen. – Saint Colette,
in her spiritual testament to her sisters
If there be a true way that leads to the Everlasting
Kingdom, it is most certainly that of suffering, patiently
endured. – Saint Colette
MLA Citation
“Saint Colette“. CatholicSaints.Info. 23 May
2020. Web. 6 March 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-colette/>
Jean de Francqueville (1860-1939). Sainte Colette ressuscite un enfant,
She had visions in which Saint Francis of Assisi ordered her to restore the Rule of Saint Clare to its original severity. When she hesitated, she was struck blind for three days and mute for three more; she saw this as a sign to take action.
Colette tried to follow her mission by explaining it, but had no success. Realizing she needed more authority behind her words, she walked to Nice, France, barefoot and clothed in a habit of patches, to meet Peter de Luna, acknowledged by the French as the schismatic Pope Benedict XIII. He professed her a Poor Clare, and was so impressed that he made her superioress of all convents of Minoresses that she might reform or found, and a missioner to Franciscan friars and tertiaries.
She travelled from convent to convent, meeting opposition, abuse, slander, and was even accused of sorcery. Eventually she made some progress, especially in Savoy, where her reform gained sympathizers and recruits. This reform passed to Burgundy in France, Flanders in Belgium and Spain.
Colette helped Saint Vincent Ferrer heal the papal schism. She founded seventeen convents; one branch of the Poor Clares is still known as the Colettines.
She was known for a deep devotion to Christ’s Passion with an appreciation and care for animals. Colette fasted every Friday, meditating on the Passion. After receiving Holy Communion, she would fall into ecstasies for hours. She foretold the date of her own death.
For the convents reformed by her she prescribed extreme poverty, to go barefooted, and the observance of perpetual fast and abstinence. The Colettine Sisters are found today, outside of France, in Belgium, Germany, Spain, England, and the United States. St. Colette was beatified 23 January, 1740, and canonized 24 May, 1807.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-colette/
St. Colette
(Diminutive of NICOLETTA, COLETTA).
. Founder of Colettine Poor Clares (Clarisses), born 13 January 1381, at Corbie in Picardy, France; died at Ghent, 6 March, 1447. Her father, Robert Boellet, was the carpenter of the famous Benedictine Abbey of Corbie; her mother's name was Marguerite Moyon. Colette joined successively the Bequines, the Benedictines, and the Urbanist Poor Clares. Later she lived for a while as a recluse. Having resolved to reform the Poor Clares, she turned to the antipope, Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna), then recognized by France as the rightful pope. Benedict allowed her to enter to the order of Poor Clares and empowered her by several Bulls, dated 1406, 1407, 1408, and 1412 to found new convents and complete the reform of the order. With the approval of the Countess of Geneva and the Franciscan Henri de la Beaume, her confessor and spiritual guide, Colette began her work at Beaume, in the Diocese of Geneva. She remained there but a short time and soon opened at Besançon her first convent in an almost abandoned house of Urbanist Poor Clares. Thence her reform spread to Auxonne (1410), to Poligny, to Ghent (1412), to Heidelberg (1444), to Amiens, etc. To the seventeen convents founded during her lifetime must be added another begun by her at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine. She also inaugurated a reform among the Franciscan friars (the Coletani), not to be confounded with the Observants. These Coletani remained obedient to the authority of the provincial of the Franciscan convents, and never attained much importance even in France. In 1448 they had only thirteen convents, and together with other small branches of the Franciscan Order were suppressed in 1417 by Leo X. In addition to the strict rules of the Poor Clares, the Colettines follow their special constitutions sanctioned in 1434 by the General of the Franciscans, William of Casale, approved in 1448 by Nicholas V, in 1458 by Pius II, and in 1482 by Sixtus IV.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
_schrijn_van_Coleta_5-9-2017_11-02-17.JPG)
Sint-Claraklooster te Poligny, (Jura), Frankrijk - het schrijn van Nicolette Boëllet, gekend als de heilige Coleta (Frans: Colette)
Colette (Coleta, Nicolette), Poor Clare V (RM)
Born at Calcye, Picardy, France, on January 13, 1381; died in Ghent, Flanders, 1447; canonized in 1807.
Born to De Boilet (or Boylet), a carpenter at Corbie Abbey in Picardy, her parents named her Nicolette in honor of Saint Nicholas of Myra. They died when she was 17, leaving her in the care of the abbot.
Colette was said to be petite and very beautiful. She tried her religious vocation with the Beguines and Benedictines but failed. She distributed her possessions to the poor and entered the third order of Saint Francis.
When she was 21, the abbot gave Colette a small hermitage beside the church of Corbie, where she lived a life of such austerity that her fame spread and people came seeking her advice. Colette had dreams and visions in which Saint Francis appeared and charged her to restore the first rule of Saint Clare in its original severity. She hesitated to act upon this but was struck blind for three days and dumb for three more, which she saw as a sign.
Encouraged by her spiritual director, Father Henry de Baume, she left her hermitage in 1406. After trying to explain her mission to two convents, she realized that she must have better authority to accomplish her mission. She set out for Nice, barefoot and clothed in a habit of patches, to meet with Peter de Luna, acknowledged by the French during the great schism as pope under the name Benedict XIII.
He welcomed her and professed her as a Poor Clare. He was so impressed with her that he made her superioress of all the convents of Minoresses that she might reform or found and a missioner to the friars and tertiaries of Saint Francis.
She travelled from convent to convent through Picardy and Savoy. At first she was met with rude opposition and treated as a fanatic, and even accused of sorcery. She met rebuffs and curses patiently, however, and eventually began to make inroads, especially in Savoy, where her reform gained sympathizers and recruits. This reform passed to Burgundy, France, Flanders, and Spain.
With the support of Henry de Baume, the first house of Poor Clares to receive the reformed rule did so in 1410. She aided Saint Vincent Ferrer in the work of healing the papal schism. Colette also founded 17 new convents, in addition to reforming many, including several houses of Franciscan friars. Her most famous convent is Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire), which has sustained an unbroken continuity, even through the French Revolution.
Saint Colette was untrained and unprepared for the work for which she had been commissioned; she achieved it by the power of faith and holiness, and a determination that no opposition could discourage. Impressed by her simple goodness, many people of high rank were greatly influenced by her, including James of Bourbon and Philip the Good of Burgundy.
Like Saint Francis, Colette had a deep devotion to Christ's Passion with an appreciation and care for animals. She fasted on Fridays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., meditating on the Passion. Almost always after receiving Holy Communion she would fall into an hours-long ecstasy.
It is said that Colette met Saint Joan of Arc on her way with an army to besiege La Charite-sur-Loire in 1429, but there is no evidence.
In Flanders, where she had established several houses, Colette was seized with a last illness. She foretold her own death, received the last rites, and died in her convent in Ghent at age 67. Her body was removed by Poor Clares when Emperor Joseph II was suppressing religious houses in Flanders; it was taken to her convent at Poligny, 32 miles from Besancon. A branch of Poor Clares is still known as the Colettines (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Gill, Perrin, White).
Monastère des Clarisses, Poligny, Jura
COLETTE BOILET, a carpenter’s daughter, was born at Corbie, in Picardy, in 1380. Her parents, out of devotion to St. Nicholas, gave her the name of Colette, the diminutive of Nicholas. She was brought up in the love of humiliations and austerities. Her desire to preserve her purity without the least blemish made her avoid as much as possible all company, even of persons of her own sex, unless it was sometimes to draw them from the love of the world by her moving discourses, which were attended with a singular blessing from almighty God. Humility was her darling virtue; and her greatest delight seemed to be in seeing herself contemned. She was so full of confusion at her own miseries and baseness, and was so contemptible in her own eyes, that she was ashamed to appear before any one, placed herself far below the greatest sinners, and studied by all sorts of humiliations to prevent the least motion of secret pride or self-conceit in her heart. She served the poor and the sick with an affection that charmed and comforted them. She lived in strict solitude in a small, poor, abandoned apartment in her father’s house, and spent her time there in manual labour and prayer. Being very beautiful, she begged of God to change her complexion, and her face became so pale and thin that she should scarcely be known for the same person. Yet a certain majesty of virtue, shining in her countenance, gave her charms conducive to the edification of others by the sweetness, modesty, and air of piety and divine love discernible in her looks. Her parents, who, though poor, were virtuous, and exceedingly charitable, according to their abilities, and great peace-makers among their neighbours, seeing her directed by the Spirit of God, allowed her full liberty in her devotions. After their death she distributed the little they left her among the poor, and retired among the Beguines, devout societies of women, established in several parts of Flanders, Picardy, and Lorrain, who maintain themselves by the work of their hands, leading a middle kind of life between the secular and religious; but make no solemn vows. Not finding this way of life austere enough, she, by her confessor’s advice, took the habit of the third order of St. Francis, called the Penitents; and, three years after, that of the mitigated Clares, or Urbanists, with the view of reforming that order, and reducing it to its primitive austerity. Having obtained of the abbot of Corbie a small hermitage, she spent in it three years in extraordinary austerity, near that abbey. After this, in order to execute the project she had long formed of re-establishing the primitive spirit and practice of her order, she went to the convent at Amiens, and from thence to several others. To succeed in her undertaking, it was necessary that she should be vested with proper authority: to procure which she made a journey to Nice in Provence, to wait on Peter de Luna, who, in the great schism, was acknowledged pope by the French, under the name of Benedict XIII., and happened then to be in that city. He constituted her superioress-general of the whole order of St. Clare, with full power to establish in it whatever regulations she thought conducive to God’s honour and the salvation of others. She attempted to revive the primitive rule and spirit of St. Francis in the convents of the diocesses of Paris, Beauvais, Noyon, and Amiens; but met with the most violent opposition and was treated as a fanatic. She received all injuries with joy, and was not discouraged by human difficulties. Some time after she met with a more favourable reception in Savoy, and her reformation began to take root there, and passed thence into Burgundy, France, Flanders, and Spain. Many ancient houses received it, that of Besanzon being the first, and she lived to erect seventeen new ones. Several houses of Franciscan friars received the same. But Leo X., in 1517, by a special bull, united all the different reformations of the Franciscans under the name of Observantines: and thus the distinction of Colettines is extinct. So great was her love of poverty, in imitation of that of Christ, that she never put on so much as sandals, going always barefoot, and would have no churches or convents but what were small and mean. Her habit was not only of most coarse stuff, but made of above a hundred patches sewed together. She continually inculcated to her nuns the denial of their own wills in all things, as Christ, from his first to his last breath, did the will of his heavenly Father: saying, that all self-will was the broad way to hell. The sacred passion of Christ was the subject of her constant meditation. On Fridays, from six in the morning till six at night, she continued in this meditation, without eating or doing any other thing, but referring all her thoughts and affections to it with a flood of tears; also during the Holy-Week, and whenever she assisted at mass; she often fell into ecstasies when she considered it. She showed a particular respect to the holy cross; but, above all, to Christ present in the blessed eucharist, when she appeared in raptures of adoration and love. She often purified her conscience by sacramental confession before she heard mass, to assist thereat with the greater purity of soul. Her zeal made her daily to pour fourth many fervent prayers for the conversion of sinners, and also for the souls in purgatory, often with many tears. Being seized with her last sickness in her convent at Ghent, she received the sacraments of the church, foretold her death, and happily expired in her sixty-seventh year, on the 6th of March, in 1447. Her body is exposed to veneration in the church of that convent called Bethleem, in Ghent. She was never canonized, nor is she named in the Roman Martyrology: but Clement VIII., Paul V., Gregory XIII., and Urban VIII. have approved of an office in her honour for the whole Franciscan order, and certain cities. Her body was taken up at Ghent, in 1747, and several miracles wrought on the occasion were examined by the ordinary of the place, who sent the process and relation of them to Rome.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume III: March. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/3/062.html
_5-9-2017_10-57-42.JPG)
Sint-Claraklooster te Poligny, (Jura), Frankrijk -
kapel met het reliekschrijn van de heilige Coleta
Pictorial Lives of the Saints –
Saint Colette, Virgin
After a Holy childhood,
Colette joined a society of devout women called the Beguines; but not finding-
their state sufficiently austere, she entered the Third Order of Saint Francis,
and lived in a hut near her parish church of Corbie in Picardy. Here
she had passed four years of extraordinary penance, when Saint Francis, in a
vision, bade her undertake the reform of her Order, then much relaxed. Armed
with due authority, she established her reform throughout a large part of
Europe, and, in spite of the most violent opposition, founded seventeen
convents of the strict observance. By the same wonderful prudence she assisted
in healing the great schism which then afflicted the Church. The fathers in
council at Constance were in doubt how to deal with the three claimants to the
tiara — John XXIII, Benedict XIII, and Gregory XII. At this crisis Colette,
together with Saint Vincent Ferrer, wrote to the fathers to depose Benedict
XIII. who alone refused his consent to a new election. This was done, and
Martin V was elected, to the great good of the Church. Colette equally assisted
the Council of Basle by her advice and prayers; and when, later, God revealed
to her the spirit of revolt that was rising, she warned the bishops and legates
to retire from the Council. Saint Colette never ceased to pray for the Church,
while the devils, in turn, never ceased to assault her. They swarmed round her
as hideous insects, buzzing and stinging her tender skin. They brought into her
cell the decaying corpses of public criminals, and assuming, themselves
monstrous forms struck her savage blows; or they would appear in the most
seductive guise, and tempt her by many deceits to sin. Saint Colette once
complained to Our Lord that the demons prevented her from praying. “Cease,
then,” said the devil to her, “your prayers to the great Master of the Church,
and we will cease to torment you; for you torment us more by your prayers than
we do you.” Yet the virgin of Christ triumphed alike over their threats and
allurements, and said she would count that day the unhappiest of her life in
which she suffered nothing for her God. She died March 6th, 1447, in a
transport of intercession for sinners and the Church.
Reflection – One of the greatest tests of being a good
Catholic is zeal for the Church and devotion to Christ’s Vicar.
MLA Citation
John Dawson Gilmary Shea. “Saint Colette,
Virgin”. Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1889. CatholicSaints.Info.
1 February 2014. Web. 6 March 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-colette-virgin/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-colette-virgin/
Gedenkplaat aan het pand in de Goudstraat te Gent (België) (vroeger Minnestraat) waar het klooster was gevestigd, gesticht door de heilige Coleta en waar ze overleed in 1447
Colette, by Leonora
Blanche Lang
In the year 1381,
when Richard II was King of England, though always boasting that he was a
Frenchman born, a carpenter, called Robert Boellet, dwelt with his wife in the
little town of Corbie, in Picardy. Ever since they had been
married the Boellets had longed for a baby, and now to their great joy a plump
little girl lay in the little wooden cradle.
There is only one name we can give her, of course,
said the proud mother, and the father answered:
Yes, she must have the name of Saint Nicholas, the
patron saint of all children, so the baby was christened Nicolette.
Though Nicolette’s father was only a carpenter he made
plenty of money by his trade. He bought several houses in Corbie, and gave one
of them to be a home for friendless people who had got into bad ways, where
they stayed till they had learned to do better and their neighbours would
employ them again. Boellet was held in great respect by the townsmen; many was
the quarrel which was brought to him to decide, and seldom was his decision
disputed. The abbot, too, of the big Benedictine monastery which towered above
the town, set much store by him, and not a stroke of work was done in the abbey
without the knowledge and superintendence of Master Boellet. As for his wife,
she kept the house clean and cooked the food, and did not even think of having a
servant to help her. But she never missed going to church early every morning,
and very soon she took Colette with her.
From the first the child was a solitary little
creature; she never cared to play with other children, but would sit for hours
at a time by her mother’s spinning wheel listening to stories from the Gospels,
or kneeling by her side in church. As she grew older, her parents sent her to
some kind of a school where she was, perhaps, taught to read and write as well
as to spin; but books were very scarce in those days, before printing was in
vented, and had all to be copied by hand. Everyone liked her, she was so kind
and had such a pleasant voice, and she was always ready to do anything harmless
that her schoolfellows wanted, even if it was to play games which she hated.
After a while she used to slip away and hide from them, often under her own bed
at home, but probably they soon guessed how unwilling she was and let her
alone, for nothing is so dull as to play a game with a person who does not care
for it.
Now, it was the custom in the monastery of Corbie to
sing the office of matins in the middle of the night, and very often some of
the townspeople were present. When Colette was about eleven she was seized with
a longing to go with them, and night after night she left her room to join the
company on their way to the monastery. We do not know whether she told her
parents where she was going, but, as they had always allowed her to attend what
services she pleased, she would probably never have thought she was doing any
wrong, nor, it seems, would they have thought of it either, if some busybodies
had not begun to find fault.
How strange of Monsieur and Madame Boellet, whispered
they, to let a child of that age be going to church at an hour when she ought
to be asleep. No good would come of it, of that they might be quite sure.
But, after all, it was well known that since Colette
was born, neither father nor mother had ever said her nay, so what could you
expect? And the gossip grew louder and louder, till, at length, it reached the
ears of Colette s parents. Madame Boellet, who thought that her little girl was
as much under the direct guidance of God as was the infant Samuel, wished to
take no notice, and to let her daughter attend matins as before, but the
carpenter held a different view of the matter.
There was a great deal of truth in what the neighbours
said, he told his wife, and if Colette wanted to go to church, she could do so
by day. As to matins in the monastery, he would have no more of it, and he
ordered Colette to sleep in a little room, almost a closet, which could only be
reached by passing through the chamber in which her parents slept.
Thus the matter would have ended had it not been for
the interference of a friend of the family, one Adam Monnier, who openly
disagreed with Boellet, and told him that Colette was not to be treated like
other children; and that he would himself take her every night to the
monastery. But Boellet naturally thought that it was he, and not Monnier, who
was responsible for the safety of his own child, and answered that he had made
up his mind as to what was best, and expected to be obeyed. So far, Colette
seems to have made no resistance, but one night when her father and mother were
asleep, the little girl was awakened by a voice calling softly to her from the
window:
Colette! Colette! It is I, Adam Monnier, I have a
ladder here, and have come to take you to matins. It will be all right. I will
arrange it with your father.
Of course, Adam Monnier must have known perfectly well
that it was extremely wrong of him to tempt Colette to disobey her father’s
express orders, or he would not have come in this secret way. And Colette, who
was always thought to be so much better and holier than other children, and who
spent half her life in church and on her knees, was equally wrong to listen.
However, she did not stop to consider what was right or wrong, but at once got
up, and after dressing herself quickly, scrambled out of the window and was
carried by Monnier down to the ground. And off the two culprits went to the
monastery.
We do not know what Boellet said the next day to the
friend who had interfered in what did not concern him, or to his disobedient
daughter, but he took the best measures he could to keep her at home, by
fitting up an oratory for her, where she could pray when she was not in church.
This delighted Colette; she felt as if she owed it to Adam Monnier, and
preferred consulting him to anyone else. He was always ready to encourage her,
and by his advice she not only persuaded her mother to give her nothing but
common or ugly garments, but wore rough cords round her body, and secretly left
the bed, on which she now slept in a corner of her parents room, to lie on some
knotted twigs on the floor. Still, in spite of her care for her own soul,
Colette had thought left for others, and used to save part of her food, and
whatever clothes she was allowed to give away, for the sick and poor about her.
So the years went on, and Colette was nearly grown up,
but at sixteen she was no taller than she had been at ten or eleven.
You are so small that you will never be able to keep
the house clean when your mother dies, remarked her father one day, seeing
Colette in vain trying to lift some thing from a shelf that was out of her
reach, and though the words hurt her the girl knew that they were true. What
would become of them when her mother died? and she was nearly sixty now. Night
and day the thought troubled her, and at length she resolved to go on a
pilgrimage to the shrine of a saint not very far from Corbie to ask for help,
as many of her friends had done before her.
Let me become tall and strong, she prayed, and tall
and strong she became, to her great joy, so that when her mother died she was
able to take her place and do all that was required of her.
What a good daughter old Robert Boellet has, said the
neighbours, when their own girls wished to leave their work and dance in the
meadows by the river; and the children, instead of disliking her because she
was held up to them as an example, would go and talk to her and ask her
questions about her faith, till the numbers who flocked to her teaching were so
large that no room in her father’s house was big enough to hold them.
For the most part the people saw nothing but good come
of these talks, and were grateful to Colette for the difference it made to
their children’s lives. But some persons were discontented, and complained to
the Bishop of Amiens that it was not fitting that a young girl should take on
herself the office of a preacher. The bishop listened to all they had to say,
and sent a priest to hear her secretly; and the priest was so touched and
interested in her words that at the end he stood up and thanked her, and
returning to the bishop told him he was quite content.
But if the bishop and the priest were satisfied, the
others were not. Once more complaints were made, and this time Colette was
summoned to Amiens.
Keep silence for a little while, my daughter, said the
bishop, and let men’s minds grow calm again. Then, when peace has been
restored, you may continue your work.
So Colette went back to her home and kept the house
clean, and tended her father, now in his last illness. Very soon he died,
leaving his property to his daughter, and herself to the care of Raoul, abbot
of the monastery.
Left alone, Colette thought that at last she might
indulge in what she had always longed for a life of entire solitude, devoted
wholly to prayer. Great as was her love and respect for her guardian, Raoul the
abbot, she had fears that he might think it his duty to find her a husband, and
in this she was perfectly right. Therefore, without giving him or anyone else
notice of her intention, she set out for Amiens to consult a famous priest,
Father Bassadan, on what she ought to do.
The priest bade her do nothing hurriedly. He that
believeth shall not make haste. She must think over it all calmly and quietly
and come to him again. Colette obeyed, and, when he perceived that she was in a
fit state to decide, he bade her make her own choice as to what convent or
order she would enter. It was not very easy to satisfy her, and she tried
several different communities, both at Corbie and elsewhere, but they all of
them fell short of the strictness she desired. Finally, her life was determined
by a meeting with a great Franciscan monk travelling through Picardy. To him
she told the tale of her disappointments in the past and her doubts for the
future.
Be a recluse, my daughter, and thus will you find the
peace you seek, he said; and by the joy that filled her, Colette knew that that
was what she wanted.
A recluse! Can you guess what that means? Not a hermit
dwelling apart in a cell, where at any time a traveller riding by may seek
shelter, and the solitary can hear again news of the world he has left, or, at
any rate, listen to human speech. Not a monk or a nun in a convent, where,
though the gates are shut, there is left human companionship, and common duties
and interests which every life, however simple, that is lived with others must
hold. But to Colette a recluse meant to be alone always, and in one place, with
one small window in her cell looking into the church; and that she might speak
only through a grating to the two girls who brought her daily the vegetables
and bread for her one meal. And this to last, perhaps, for fifty years, for at
this time she was only twenty-two! No wonder Raoul the abbot tried his hardest
to dissuade her. It was quite useless, so he could but obey her wishes, and,
selling the houses her father had given her, she placed the money in the hands
of the parish priest, to be divided amongst the poor.
The angles between the walls of the Church of Saint
Etienne and the Benedictine cloister were built up, and a short staircase
ending in a grating led up to the two tiny cells in which the recluse was to
live. When all was ready a solemn service was held, and amidst the grief and
tears of her old friends, Colette, with Father Pinet beside her, walked behind
the procession of the clergy to the chamber on the walls. Steadily, and without
lifting her eyes, she entered, and the door, which she hoped never to pass
again, was shut on her by the abbot.
It is a comfort to think that even Colette understood
that it was not possible to fill her life entirely with prayers and holy thoughts,
however much she might wish to do so; or rather, that her hands must be
employed for part of the day, whatever her mind might be fixed on. She kept in
order the beautiful linen of the church, and not a day passed that the girls
who brought her food did not also bring some garments belonging to the poor
people, to be patched or darned.
Soon, there arose a longing in the breasts of those
who had watched her from a child, or even in strangers who had heard of the
Saint of Corbie, to take counsel with her as to their troubles and
difficulties. Day by day they pressed up the narrow staircase as far as the
grille or grating, pouring out their trials to Colette who sat on the other
side. Hour by hour they came, and in such numbers that at last her friend, Father
Pinet, interfered, and fixed certain hours at which only she could be seen. For
awhile she listened with sympathy, and gave carefully-considered answers to all
who asked her advice; and whatever she said they implicitly believed and
faithfully acted on. But at length she grew weary of her task. She wanted, it
would seem, to serve God in her own way, not in His. She wished to be free to
pray all day, not to help her neighbours in the only way in which she could now
help them. These people, she said, rob me of my time, and interfere with my
devotions; and at last she obtained leave to shut out everything that reminded
her of the world. Only her two friends might bring her food as before, and they
were to be silent.
A great cry of disappointment arose in Corbie, in
which the clergy joined. But, though Colette may have guessed at their
feelings, no echo of their murmurs reached her ears. Perhaps she would not have
cared, even had she known how much unhappiness and disturbance she was causing.
There was very little left of the human in Colette/ says one of her biographers
and fondest admirers; forgetting that there was so vast a humanity left up to
the end, in the Lord whom she wished to serve.
Little though she knew it, only one more year remained
of her present mode of existence, but the four years she passed hi the cell of
a recluse were laden, according to her own account, with strange experiences.
Not very long after she had entered, whispers began to be heard among the
townspeople of temptations by the Evil One himself; of visions of spectres,
meant to terrify her into calling for man’s aid to dispel them; of awful
shrieks and screams, coming, none could tell from where; of loathsome animals,
of shapes known and unknown, playing round her cell. Any tale of horror that
had ever been told, was now told of Colette, and, weakened as she was with
fasting and want of air, all seemed real to her, and no doubt she suffered as
much as if she had indeed seen outward things of the kind she described. But
the end of each trial was always the same: Satan was overcome; and exhausted by
the struggle Colette was left for awhile in peace.
It was in the last year of her life as a recluse that,
when praying in her oratory, she had a vision of Saint Francis and learned that
she was set aside for the reformation of the great orders he had founded, into
which abuses had already crept. Not desiring to leave her cell she put the
vision from her, or rather, tried to do so, for it would not go. In despair she
sent for Father Pinet, but he could only bid her pray. The struggle with her
own will and the path she had chosen lasted many days. At length she gave in
and agreed to return to the world, which she hoped she had quitted for ever.
It was through a Franciscan friar, Henri de Baume by
name, that Colette obtained from the pope the necessary dispensation from the
vows she had taken of perpetual seclusion. At that time there were two popes
supported by different nations, and the papal palace at Avignon, where one of
them lived through most of the fourteenth century, was, and still is, one of
the glories of France. Party hate between their followers was as fierce as it
had been in Italy a century before, in the strife of emperor and pope, of Guelf
and Ghibelline. The pope had left, and loud was the clamour that the people
should leave, Avignon and return to Rome. But there were still two or three
popes instead of one, and it was this scandal that Colette and Father Henri de
Baume meant to fight.
Under his protection, and that of a noble lady, the
Baroness de Brissay, Colette left Corbie so early one morning that scarcely
anyone was up to bid her farewell. It almost broke her heart to quit her cell,
which she called paradise, and she could hardly tear herself away from it.
Passing through Paris, the little company travelled to Dijon, the capital of
the great Duchy of Burgundy, and then turned sharp to the south where the Count
of Savoy awaited her, and down to Nice where the anti-pope, Benedict XIII was,
at that time, living. To him she presented a petition, beseeching him to allow
her to enter the Order of the Poor Clares an order for women closely associated
with the Order of Saint Francis and to follow strictly the rule laid down by
the foundress. The pope not only granted this, but made Colette, who was not
yet even a nun, abbess- general over the whole three orders, with power to open
fresh houses if they were needed; while Father Henri was created
superior-general over all the houses that should submit to being reformed. Then
she was con secrated a nun, and allowed to enter on her duties as abbess
without going through the months of training known as the period of noviciate.
At first she shrunk from the responsibility; she longed to be simply Sister
Colette, but Father Henri pointed out that she could not take her hand from the
plough, and must pray for courage to do her work.
And here we must leave her. Henceforth, her path was
clear, and, in spite of opposition where she often expected help, and abuse
where she thought to have found love, her work prospered. As, nearly three
hundred years later in the case of Mere Angelique, whole families of well-born
novices with everything to hold them to the world, enlisted under her banner.
Far and near she went, attracting all by her preaching and holy life. At Baume,
the house placed at her disposal soon grew too small for the numbers that
flocked into it, and they moved to a large convent at Besangon, empty of all
its community except two nuns. The archbishop and a vast multitude received
her, and daily the people thronged for advice to the gate, of the convent as
they had once done to the cell at Corbie.
Other houses were shortly needed, and Colette was
forced to take many journeys to found them. They were mostly situated in the
east of France, for the Duchess of Burgundy was her friend and helper. Again,
like Mere Angelique in after years, she kept herself informed of the state of
every convent, and dealt with every difficulty herself. She was still believed
to perform miracles, and certainly she had complete faith in her own power to
accomplish them, but the visions of wild beasts which had so terrified her in
her cell never came back. Instead, birds flew about her, and a lark drank from
her cup, while a lamb trotted after her and stood quiet in her oratory while
she prayed. In her last years a convent was opened at Amiens and the
inhabitants of Corbie offered land for a religious house, but the Benedictine
monks would not allow her to build it. This was a bitter sorrow to the abbess,
and it is very likely that it preyed on her mind on a cold winter journey to
Ghent. At any rate, a change was noticed in her soon after her arrival there,
and she laid herself down for the last time, covering her head with a black
veil. In three days she died, at the time that Nicholas V was elected pope, and
received the submission of the Duke of Savoy. Truly she might be accounted
happy in her death. The scandal of the anti-pope, which had so grieved her, was
ended, and but a few years before France had been delivered from the English by
the sword of a girl.
– text and illustrations from The
Book of Saints and Heroes, by Leonora Blanche Lang, 1912
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/colette-by-leonora-blanche-lang/
Già da bambina, Coletta fu particolarmente seria e si impegnava in opere di carità e mortificazione. La ragazza, dopo varie esperienze religiose, entrò, dopo la morte dei genitori, nel terzo ordine di S. Francesco, conducendo, in seguito, una vita di ancora maggiore abnegazione e penitenza. Dalla divina provvidenza le venne assegnato il compito di riformare l’ordine delle clarisse, la cui disciplina lasciava in alcune parti a desiderare. Per questo scopo passò all’ordine delle clarisse e fece nel 1406 a Nizza, davanti a Papa Benedetto XIII (Petrus de Luma), la professione dei voti. Da egli ottenne tutti i permessi per le necessarie riforme dell’ordine. Noncurante di tutti gli ostacoli, riuscì a realizzarle, riportando molti monasteri alla originale severità delle regole dell’ordine. Fondò inoltre 17 nuovi monasteri, le cui religiose si chiamano da allora ‘le colette’.
Il francescano Pietro de Vaux, che la conosceva personalmente molto bene e che fu presente al momento della sua morte, il 6 marzo del 1447 a Gent (Belgio) racconta anche, oltre a tanti altri miracolosi eventi della vita di S. Coletta, di diverse apparizioni angeliche: diversi benefattori di S. Coletta, attaccati nel peggior dei modi da persone di animo cattivo, furono, in seguito alle preghiere di S. Coletta, protetti e tutelati dagli angeli.
Anche lei stessa ricevette più di una volta l’aiuto e la protezione, tangibili e vistosi, degli angeli durante difficili prove ed afflizioni, soprattutto in momenti un cui fu perseguitata da spiriti maligni.
Durante la morte di S. Coletta si sentì nei monasteri riformati e da lei particolarmente amati un canto meraviglioso degli angeli, durante il quale uno di loro diffuse il messaggio: ”la venerabile suora Coletta è tornata dal Signore.” Una suora, avente anch’essa particolari virtù e carismi, vide, al momento della morte della S. Coletta, una grande schiera celeste, nel cui centro l’anima della defunta venne portata con meravigliose melodie alla beatitudine di Dio.
Papa Pio VII santificò Coletta, che giustamente viene chiamata la seconda madre delle clarisse, il 24 maggio del 1807. Il suo corpo riposa a Poligny.
Sint-Coleta: beeld van een retabel in de Sint-Coletakerk te Gent.
Siamo ai tempi dello scisma d’Occidente, con papi e antipapi eletti da gruppi diversi di cardinali e ciascuno riconosciuto da una parte degli Stati europei. Dopo la morte di Gregorio XI (1378), a Roma si sono succeduti Urbano VI (Bartolomeo Prignano), Bonifacio IX (Pietro Tomacelli), Innocenzo VII (Cosimo Migliorati) e infine Gregorio XII (Angelo Correr). E a lui si oppone da Avignone lo spagnolo Pedro de Luna (Benedetto XIII), successore dell’altro antipapa avignonese, Roberto di Ginevra, chiamato Clemente VI. (In qualche momento saranno addirittura in tre a chiamarsi papa, finché al Concilio di Costanza, grazie alla rinuncia di Gregorio XII, verrà eletto unico pontefice Martino V, Oddone Colonna). E ci sono futuri santi da una parte e dall’altra: Caterina da Siena e Caterina di Svezia stanno col papa di Roma, mentre ai due avignonesi aderiscono Vincenzo Ferreri e appunto Colette. Per alcuni anni, lei vede fallire gli sforzi di riforma, e solo nel 1410 ha il suo primo monastero rinnovato a Besançon, seguìto poi da altri 16.
Accolgono la sua riforma anche alcuni conventi maschili, sempre sotto i loro superiori. Povertà senza attenuazioni, tenore di vita restituito all’originaria austerità, vita di preghiera personale e comunitaria, molta penitenza per l’unità della Chiesa. La riforma è tutta qui, animata però dal suo esempio, che entusiasma nei monasteri e fuori. Acquista fama di scrutatrice delle coscienze, capace di profezie e di clamorosi miracoli: addirittura risurrezioni, si afferma. La validità di questa riforma (approvata nel 1434 dal Ministro generale francescano e nel 1458 da Pio II) è testimoniata dalla sua tenuta nel tempo.
Colette muore a Gand nel 1447 e sarà canonizzata nel 1807 da Pio VII. Ma i monasteri “collettini” continueranno a vivere sulla linea tracciata da lei. Il XX secolo ne vedrà sempre attivi circa 140, per la maggior parte in Europa, ma anche in America, in Asia e in Africa.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
Image de la page 191 de la "Vie des Saints" en langue bretonne. Écrit par Yann-Vari Perrot et publié en 1912.
Den hellige Colette Boylet (1381-1447)
Minnedag: 6.
mars
Den hellige Colette Boylet [De Boilet, Boellet,
Boillet] (lat: Coleta) ble født den 13. januar 1381 i Corbie i det nåværende
departementet Somme i regionen Picardie i Nord-Frankrike. Foreldrene Robert
Boylet og Marguerite Moyon var beskjedne og fromme mennesker som ikke fikk noen
barn. Tradisjonen forteller at Marguerite da i desperasjon ba til den
hellige Nikolas av Myra,
en skytshelgen for barn, om å gå i forbønn for henne om at hun kunne bli i
stand til å føde et barn. Til tross for at hun var høyt oppe i årene (noen
beretninger sier at hun var seksti år gammel), fikk hun faktisk et eneste barn
sent i livet. De kalte datteren Nicolette (Colette er en kortform) til ære for
Nikolas, ettersom de tilskrev hennes fødsel hans forbønn.
Colettes far var snekker og arbeidet ved det berømte
benediktinerklosteret i Corbie. Colette vokste opp med en stor sans for bønn og
ensomhet og skal ha vært kortvokst og meget vakker. Begge hennes foreldre døde
i 1398, da hun var sytten år gammel. Deretter var det abbeden av Corbie som tok
seg av henne i en tid. Colette var nå fri til å gjøre hva hun ville, forutsatt
at abbeden godkjente det, men hun visste ikke helt hva hun ønsket, bortsett fra
å elske og tjene Gud med hele sitt hjerte og all sin styrke. Hun konsulterte en
hellig celestinermunk i Amiens, og han rådet henne til å avlegge kyskhetsløfte
og ga henne noen få instruksjoner i bønn. Han bedømte det slik at hennes vilje
til å tjene Gud så totalt, var et tegn på et religiøst kall.
Hun prøvde sitt klosterkall først i et béguinage (begine-kloster)
som betjente det lokale sykehuset. Beginene var kommuniteter av legkvinner som
avla tidsbegrensede løfter. Deretter prøvde hun seg hos en kommunitet av
urbanistiske klarisser (Urbanistinner), det vil si klarisser
(fransiskanersøstre) som levde etter den hellige Klaras regel revidert av
pave Urban IV (1261-64). Til slutt prøvde hun seg hos benediktinerne, men ingen
steder fant hun den askese og det strenge livet hun søkte. Hun vendte tilbake
til Corbie og til en ny periode med usikkerhet om sin fremtid.
Ikke lenge etter dro fransiskanerpateren Pinet gjennom
Corbie, og Colette søkte hans råd. Etter bønn og omhyggelig overveielse foreslo
han at hun sluttet seg til fransiskanernes tredjeorden (Tertius Ordo
Franciscanus – TOF) og å begynne et liv som inkluser (lat inclusio =
innesperring), det vil si frivillig innemurt nonne. Colette nølte ikke. Hun
solgte det lille hun hadde arvet og ga pengene til de fattige. Abbeden i Corbie
presiderte over seremonien hvor hun i en alder av 21 år forpliktet seg til å
leve som eremitt. Han fulgte henne selv til en eremitasje (eneboerhytte) like
ved klosterkirken i Corbie som han ga henne, og deretter forseglet han den. Der
var hun innemurt fra 1402 til 1406. Et vindu i hennes oratorium vendte ut mot
kirken, og en del av hytten fungerte som et samtalerom hvor hun kunne motta
besøkende bak et gitter. Hun fikk et ry for askese og hellighet, og det førte
til at utallige besøkende oppsøkte henne og ba om råd. Men de besøkende ble så
mange og de ble så aggressive når de fikk høre at deres tid var ute, at alle
besøk ble avlyst i tre år.
To trofaste venner sørget for alle Colettes behov. Hun
for sin del tok seg av kirkens lintøy, reparerte de fattiges klær og brukte
resten av tiden til bønn og botsøvelser. Som så mange andre inklusere skiftet
hennes dager mellom rikelig nåde og det hun betraktet som diabolske angrep.
Colettes kompliserte vei hadde til slutt ført henne til eneboercellen, som hun
var bundet til med et løfte. Derfor kunne ingenting være mer ubeleilig enn et
kall til å forlate den. Enhver antydning om et nytt kall kunne bare komme fra
djevelen, som fristet henne til å forlate sitt sanne kall. De siste månedene
hun tilbrakte i cellen, var fulle av smerte mens hun kjempet mot krav som ble
stilt til henne, usikkerheten om deres virkelige kilde og vissheten om sin egen
inkompetanse.
Denne åndelige kampen skyldtes en visjon hun fikk av
den hellige Frans
av Assisi, utstrakt foran Kristi føtter mens han tryglet om å få Colette
til å utføre en oppgave for ham, nemlig å føre den kvinnelige grenen av hans
orden, andreordenen eller klarissene, tilbake sin opprinnelige strenge regel
som var skrevet av Frans og Klara av Assisi. For kontroversene om
fattigdomsspørsmålet hadde i likhet med blant fransiskanerne, også fortsatt
blant søstrene, og det var et splittende element i ordenen. Colette nølte naturlig
nok overfor denne oppgaven, men hun ble slått med blindhet i tre dager og med
stumhet i ytterligere tre dager, og dette tok hun som et guddommelig tegn, så
da aksepterte hun oppgaven betingelsesløst. Hun fikk da beskjed om at hun ville
få tilsendt en ledsager og veileder for arbeidet hun skulle gjøre.
Henrik de Baume var en fransiskanerpater av streng
observans og tilhørte et kloster i Savoia. Han led dyp smerte på grunn av
tilstanden i ordenen og i Kirken. En rekke ekstraordinære hendelser ledet ham
til å besøke eneboersken i Corbie, og han avtalte med henne å samarbeide for å
fremme arbeidet med reformen. Etter råd fra Henrik de Baume forlot Colette sin
celle i 1406. Straks gjorde hun et forsøk på å forklare sitt oppdrag i ett
eller to klarisseklostre, men hun ble ikke godt mottatt der. Hun innså da at
skulle hun lykkes, måtte hun utstyres med en fullmakt fra en høyere kirkelig
myndighet.
Barføtt og kledd i en drakt laget av filler reiste
Colette i oktober 1406 til Nice for å snakke med Peter de Luna, som var motpave
i Avignon under navnet Benedikt (XIII) (1394-1423). Dette var under Det store
skisma (1378-1417), og Frankrike og noen få andre land sto ennå på motpavens
side og anerkjente ham som den rettmessige paven. Hun la frem sine planer om å reformere
klarisseordenen, og han ble så imponert over henne at han tok henne opp i
ordenen ved at hun avla løftene i henhold til Klaras første regel. Han ga henne
full myndighet til å gjenopplive den fransiskanske ånd ved å reformere klostre
og å opprette nye i bispedømmene Paris, Beauvais, Noyon og Amiens. Han gjorde
henne også til superior for de alle klostrene hun reformerte eller grunnla. Hun
fikk også i oppdrag å reformere fransiskanere og fransiskanertertiarer, og
samtidig utnevnte paven p. Henrik de Baume til hennes assistent. Gjennom flere
pavelige buller mellom 1406 og 1412 ga han henne fullmakt til å grunnlegge nye
klostre og å fullføre reformen av ordenen.
På reisen til Nice for å møte motpaven bodde Colette i
hjemmet til en venn. Hans hustru var akkurat da i ferd med å føde deres tredje
barn, men hadde store vanskeligheter i fødselen og svevde i livsfare. Colette
dro straks til den lokale kirken for å be for henne. Til slutt fødte moren en
velskapt datter, og begge overlevde prøvelsen. Hun ga Colettes bønner æren for
dette. Barnet, som fikk navnet Pierinne, gikk senere inn i et kloster som var
grunnlagt av Colette. Hun skulle bli Colettes sekretær og biograf.
Med godkjennelse fra grevinnen av Genève og med hjelp
fra p. Henrik begynte Colette sitt arbeid i Beaune i bispedømmet Genève. Men
der var hun bare en kort periode. Deretter reiste hun rundt og besøkte alle
klarissehusene i Frankrike, Savoia og Flandern. Noen støttet hennes forslag til
endringer, mens andre møtte henne med forakt, behandlet henne som en fanatiker
og beskyldte henne til og med for trolldom. Hun møtte sterk motstand fra
søstrene i Savoia og Picardie, men med støtte fra Henrik de Baume hadde hun
større suksess fra 1410. Da lyktes hun i å vinne det første klarisseklosteret
for den reformerte regelen, nemlig det urbanistiske klosteret i Besançon.
Riktignok bodde det bare to nonner der og den ene valgte å gå til Bernardinene,
en annen kongregasjon, mens den andre aksepterte reformen.
Lokalbefolkningen i Besançon var først mistenksomme overfor
hennes reform, som ville føre til at klosteret ville bli totalt avhengig av dem
for å overleve, ettersom søstrene bare skulle leve av almisser. Det skal ha
vært en bestemt hendelse som fikk stemningen til å snu. En lokal bondekvinne
fikk et dødfødt barn. I desperasjon av frykt for barnets sjel tok faren det
døde spedbarnet til den lokale sognepresten for å få det døpt. Da presten så at
barnet allerede var dødt, nektet han å døpe liket. Da mannen fortsatte å
insistere, ba den frustrerte presten ham om å gå til nonnene, noe han straks
gjorde. Da han kom til klosteret, ga portnersken beskjed til moder Colette.
Hennes svar var å ta av seg det sløret hun hadde fått av paven da han ga henne
drakten til fransiskanernes andreorden, og hun ba portnersken om å be faren om
å pakke barnet inn i det og å vende tilbake til presten. Da han kom til
sognekirken, hadde barnet våknet og skrek, og presten tildelte det straks
dåpens sakrament.
Fra Besançon spredte Colettes reform seg til Auxonne
(1412), til Poligny (1415), til Gent (1412), til Heidelberg (1444), til Amiens,
til Pont-à-Mousson i Lorraine og til andre klarissekommuniteter. Det mest
berømte klosteret hun reformerte, var det i Le Puy-en-Vélay i Haute-Loire, som
har eksistert kontinuerlig siden og til og med klarte seg gjennom Den franske
revolusjon. I løpet av sitt liv ble det grunnlagt atten nye klostre av hennes
reform i Frankrike og Flandern. For de klostrene som fulgte hennes reform,
foreskrev hun ekstrem fattigdom, avkall på bruk av sko og observans av evigvarende
faste og abstinens.
Sammen med p. Henrik startet Colette en reform av
mannsklostre i fransiskanerordenen, og tolv av fransiskanernes hus aksepterte
hennes reformerer fra 1412. De dannet en egen gren i fransiskanerordenen under
p. Henriks autoritet og kalte seg Colettanere, men de forble underlagt
provinsialen i fransiskanernes observantgren i Frankrike, men de fikk aldri
særlig betydning, ikke engang der. I 1448 var de bare tretten hus, alle
tilknyttet klostre med colettinske nonner. Sammen med andre små grener av
fransiskanerordenen ble de slått sammen med observantene i 1517 av pave Leo X
(1513-21).
Colette var utrenet og uforberedt på et slikt arbeid,
og hun oppnådde sine resultater ved kraften i tro og hellighet, samt en
besluttsomhet som ingen motstand kunne avskrekke. Ved hennes død hadde atten
klostre antatt Klaras opprinnelige regel og Colettes konstitusjoner. Disse
«colettinner-klarissene» eller colettinerne (Ordo Sanctae Clarae
reformationis a Sancta Coleta – OSCCol) fortsatte i forbund med
fransiskanerne og var underlagt konventualene (OFMConv). Etter Colettes død
spredte hennes arbeid seg ut over sitt opprinnelige territorium, og i dag
finnes det klarisser av den colettinske reform i mange deler av verden.
Under konsilet i Konstanz (1414-18), som klarte å få
slutt på skismaet med opptil tre samtidige paver, skrev Colette til konsilet
for å ta avstand fra motpave Benedikt (XIII), som nektet å gå av og fortsatte i
skisma til sin død. Til konsilet i Basel, Ferrara og Firenze (1431-45), som satte
spørsmålstegn ved pavens autoritet fremfor et konsil, skrev hun for å be
biskopene om å besinne seg.
I likhet med Frans
kombinerte Colette en dyp hengivenhet til Kristi lidelse med verdsetting av og
omsorg for dyrene. Under fredagens faste mediterte hun over
Herrens lidelse. Det fortelles at hun etter å ha mottatt kommunionen alltid
falt i timelange religiøse ekstaser, og det samme skjedde i Den stille uke når
hun mediterte over Kristi lidelse. Hun levde selv et liv i konstant bønn. Hun
fikk av og til anfall av depresjoner, men kjente også store gleder. På festen
for de hellige Peter og Paulus i 1446
fikk hun vite noe om ødeleggelsene som reformasjonen ville bringe med seg,
spesielt for ordenshus, mens hun på Kristi legemsfest ble forsikret at hennes
reform ville overleve stormene. I dette året opplevde hun nåden av et åndelig
ekteskap. Gyldigheten av hennes reform demonstreres av dens holdbarhet.
I tillegg til klarissenes strenge regler følger
colettinerne sine spesielle konstitusjoner, som ble stadfestet i 1434 av den
fransiskanske generalministeren Vilhelm av Casale og av den pavelige
utsendingen, selv om den hellige visitatoren Johannes av
Capestrano (1386-1456) hadde betenkeligheter. Konstitusjonene ble
godkjent i 1448 av pave Nikolas V (1447-55), igjen i 1458 av pave Pius II
(1458-64) og i 1482 av pave Sixtus IV (1471-84).
Ved sin enkelhet og godhet fikk Colette betydelig
innflytelse over mange personer av høy rang, som for eksempel Blanche av
Genève, hertuginnen av Nevers, Amadeus II av Savoia, prinsessen av Orange,
Jakob av Bourbon og hertug Filip den gode av Burgund. Colette hjalp også den
hellige Vincent
Ferrer, som selv hadde stått på motpavenes side, i hans arbeid med å lege
sårene etter den store kirkesplittelsen. Det fortelles at Colette møtte den
hellige Jeanne
d'Arc som var på vei med sin hær for å beleire La Charite-sur-Loire i
1429, men det finnes ikke noen beviser for dette.
Mens Colette var i Flandern, hvor hun hadde grunnlagt
flere hus, ble hun mot slutten av 1446 rammet av sin siste sykdom. Hun trakk
seg tilbake fra aktivt liv i de siste seks månedene. Hun forutsa sin egen død,
mottok de siste sakramentene og døde i sitt kloster i Gent i dagens Belgia den
6. mars 1447, 66 år gammel. Hun ble gravlagt på kirkegården i Monasterium
Bethlehem i Gent.
Da klosteret ble ødelagt i 1577 av den ekstremistiske
gruppen av nederlandske kalvinister som ble kalt Watergeuzen,
«sjøtiggere», eller Gueux, «lasaroner», flyktet søstrene til Arras,
Cambrai og Hesdin og tok skrinet med Colettes relikvier med seg. I 1584 vendte
de tilbake til Gent, hvor Colette fikk et nytt hvilested. Da den østerrikske
keiseren Josef II (1765-90) oppløste mange ordenshus i Flandern i 1783, ble
Colettes jordiske rester brakt til kollegiatskirken Saint-Hippolyte i den
franske byen Poligny i Jura, fem mil fra Besançon, hvor de fortsatt hviler.
Mange konger og fyrster ba Den hellige Stol om at
Colette måtte helligkåres, blant dem Karl den dristige i 1478 og Henrik VIII av
England i 1513. Helligkåringskongregasjonens Index ac status causarum sier
at hun ble saligkåret i 1604 av pave Klemens VIII (1592-1605), men Catholic
Encyclopedia og andre kilder sier at det skjedde den 23. januar 1740 av
pave Klemens XII (1730-40). På grunn av splittelsen i fransiskanerordenen, den
såkalte reformasjonen og Den franske revolusjon ble hun ikke helligkåret før
den 24. mai 1807 av pave Pius VII (1800-23). Hennes minnedag i Martyrologium
Romanum er dødsdagen 6. mars, mens kapusinerne og fransiskanerne minnes henne
den 7. februar.
Legenden forteller at Colette stadig ble fulgt av en
lerke og et lam, og hun skal i likhet med Frans ha forstått fuglenes språk.
Lerken er et symbol på forbindelsen mellom himmel og jord, mens lammet er symbol
på uskyld og renhet. Colette avbildes som klarisse med bok og kors, med en
lerke eller et lam. Ofte avbildes hun sammen med Klara, ordenens grunnlegger.
Hennes breviar er bevart i Besançon, men Gent er det viktigste senteret for
hennes kult. Hennes klostre fortsetter å leve etter de retningslinjene som ble
trukket opp av henne. Idag (2011) finnes colettinerne i tillegg til i Frankrike
også i Belgia, Tyskland, Irland, Japan, Norge, Filippinene, Spania og over hele
Storbritannia og USA. I det tyvende århundre var det rundt 140 aktive nonner.
Kilder:
Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Butler, Butler (III), Benedictines,
Delaney, Bunson, Cruz (2), Schauber/Schindler, Gorys, Dammer/Adam, Index99,
KIR, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN, Infocatho, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon,
santiebeati.it, en.wikipedia.org, nl.wikipedia.org, zeno.org, EWTN -
Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden
Opprettet: 14. mai 2000
