Robert
d'Arbrissel, prêcheur et ermite breton du XIIe siècle.
Détail de la fresque à la cire intitulée "La procession des saints du
diocèse de Rennes dans la cathédrale de Rennes", d'Alphonse Le Hénaff,
peinte dans la cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Rennes entre 1871 et 1876.
Sous la fresque est indiqué S. ROBTUS ARBRISSELLENSIS
Saint Robert d'Arbrissel
Né à Arbrissel, en Bretagne, dans le diocèse de Rennes, vers la moitié du XIè siècle, Robert étudie à Paris puis, de retour dans son diocèse, choisit la radicalité de l’évangile, vivant en ermite et prédicateur itinérant (il parcourt la Bretagne, le Maine et l'Anjou). Son éloquence et l’austérité de son mode de vie attirèrent autour de lui une foule bigarrée de disciples qu'il regroupa d'abord dans la forêt de Craon. Il essaya de mettre en ordre ce mouvement incontrôlé et incontrôlable aux yeux de beaucoup avec la fondation de l'abbaye de Fontevrault dans le Val de Loire, répartissant la nouvelle communauté en quatre groupes : les femmes, les moines, les pénitents et les lépreux. L’ordre mixte qui en résulta fut à prédominance féminin : les hommes avaient charge de veiller à la protection des femmes, mais c’est à ces dernières qu’était confiée la direction des communautés. Il plaça son Ordre monastique sous le vocable de Notre-Dame du Calvaire. A sa mort, en 1116, l'Ordre comptait une cinquantaine de maisons.
Bienheureux Robert
d'Arbrissel
Moine, fondateur de
Fontevraud (+ 1116)
Confesseur.
Parcourant la Bretagne, le Maine et l'Anjou, ce prêtre cultivé et austère entraîna à sa suite une foule de disciples qu'il regroupa d'abord dans la forêt de Craon, puis il fonda l'abbaye de Fontevrault dans le Val de Loire. Il plaça son Ordre monastique sous le vocable de Notre-Dame du Calvaire. A sa mort, l'Ordre comptait une cinquantaine de maisons.
"Un ermite, Robert d'Arbrissel, fonde l'abbaye de La Roë en 1096" (Les abbayes médiévales: essor et déclin de la vie monastique - diocèse de Laval)
Au prieuré d'Orsan dans le Berry, en 1116, le trépas du bienheureux Robert
d'Arbrissel, prêtre, qui prêcha dans les rues la conversion des mœurs et
rassembla hommes et femmes dans le monastère double de Fontevrault, sous la
direction d'une abbesse.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/699/Bienheureux-Robert-d-Arbrissel.html
Bx Robert d'Arbrisselle
Fondateur d'Ordre
(1045-1117)
Robert d'Arbrisselle, né
à Arbrisselle, aujourd'hui Arbressec, près de Rennes, est une des figures les
plus remarquables de la fin du XIe siècle et du commencement du XIIe siècle. La
puissance merveilleuse de sa parole, les innombrables conversions qu'il opéra
dans toutes les classes de la société, le nouvel institut monastique dont il
fut le père, son influence étonnante et les persécutions qu'il eut à subir, en
font un des Saints dont l'action s'est fait le plus sentir dans l'Église.
Dès sa jeunesse, Robert
parut un enfant prédestiné, car jamais on ne vit en lui rien de léger ni de
puéril, mais la prudence et la maturité d'un autre âge. Ses fortes études, la
réputation de ses vertus, l'élevèrent aux dignités ecclésiastiques; mais il lui
fallait le désert, la vie cachée, les austérités; les hommes de sa trempe ne
font rien à demi. Jean dans le désert, Paul, Antoine, Hilarion et tant d'autres
anachorètes peuvent nous donner une idée de ses effrayantes mortifications.
L'esprit de Dieu entraîne
tout à Sa suite: Robert vit sa solitude envahie par de nombreux disciples, et
on a pu dire de son vivant que sa maison était à la fois "la plus pauvre
et la plus sainte de tout le royaume de France". Fontevrault lui doit son
origine. Mais là s'arrête la vocation du moine.
Ayant consolidé son
oeuvre, il devint, revêtu de pouvoirs spéciaux par le Pape Urbain II,
missionnaire apostolique pour toutes les parties du monde, et désormais, le
bâton à la main, n'ayant pour richesse que la pauvreté, il parcourt
spécialement la France, et renouvelle les merveilles des plus grands apôtres
chrétiens dans la plupart de nos provinces.
On cite le trait suivant,
qui montre à la fois quelle était sa réputation et quelle charité animait son
grand coeur. Dans un de ses voyages, son petit bagage fut pillé par des voleurs
qui le maltraitèrent lui-même indignement: "Malheureux, dit le compagnon
du Saint, c'est ainsi que vous traitez Robert d'Arbrisselle!" A ce nom
célèbre, les voleurs épouvantés se jettent aux pieds de l'Apôtre et lui promettent
de se convertir. Robert leur pardonne, les embrasse et leur promet
participation aux prières et aux bonnes oeuvres de ses religieux.
Il mourut à l'âge de
soixante-douze ans.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/bx_robert_d_arbrisselle.html
Bx Robert d'Arbrissel
Fondateur de l'ordre de
Fontevrault
(v. 1047-1117)
Robert d'Arbrissel naquit
en Bretagne vers 1047. Docteur de l'université de Paris, il remplit les
fonctions d'archidiacre du diocèse de Rennes, son pays d'origine
Son zèle pour la réforme
du clergé souleva contre lui des haines implacables, qui le contraignirent à se
retirer. Il séjourna quelques temps auprès des écoles d'Angers ; puis il
s'enfonça dans la forêt de Craon. Des compagnons le suivirent, ce qui lui
permit de fonder l'abbaye de Roë. Ils y menèrent la vie des Chanoines réguliers.
Le Bx Urbain II (Ottone
di Lagery, 1088-1099), lors de son séjour à Angers (1096), le fit prêcher en sa
présence et lui donna plein pouvoirs d'annoncer en tous lieux la parole divine.
Deux de ses compagnons de solitude, Bernard de Ponthieu et Vital de Martain, le
suivirent dans ses courses apostoliques avant d'aller fonder, l'un le monastère
de Tiron au diocèse de Chartre, l'autre, celui de Savigny au diocèse
d'Avranches, destinés à devenir des chefs de congrégation.
Robert parcourut d'abord
l'Anjou, la Touraine et le Poitou. Sa prédication soulevait l'enthousiasme des
foules ; parmi ceux qui l'avait entendu, beaucoup abandonnaient leurs familles
et s'attachaient à ses pas. Ce cortège se composait d'homme et de femmes ; on y
voyait un grand nombre de pénitents et de pénitentes. Cette foule menait une
sorte de vie religieuse, dont les conditions étaient prescrites au jour le jour
par Robert. Cette communauté nomade finit bientôt par éprouver le besoin de se
fixer. Aussi, vers 1099, Bernard et Vital emmenèrent les hommes avec eux.
Robert établit les femmes à Fontevrault. Elles étaient fort nombreuses.
Quelques frères se fixèrent auprès d'elles et se chargèrent de leur service
temporel et religieux.
Robert interrompait de
temps en temps ses prédications pour revenir à Fontevrault et pour fonder de
nouveaux monastères, qu'il peuplait de ses religieuses. Ces fondations
recevaient le titre de prieurés et restaient sous l'entière dépendance de
Fontevrault, ne formant avec lui qu'une seule congrégation, dont l'abbesse
était le chef unique. Partout une communauté d'hommes s'attachait au service
des moniales. Il y en eut dans les diocèses de Poitiers, de Bourges, d'Orléans,
de Limoges et de Chartres.
Robert d'Arbrissel
mourut, le 24 ou le 25 février 1116 ou 1117.
Comme Fontevraud, Relay,
fut fondé par Robert d'Arbrissel, un réformateur religieux et prédicateur
itinérant, né vers 1047 à Arbrissel, petit village de Bretagne.
Particulièrement doué pour les sermons, il s'est très vite retrouvé à la tête
d'une communauté d'une centaine de personnes, principalement constituée de
femmes. Il sillonna l'Anjou, le Maine et la Normandie, où il a même convaincu,
à Rouen, des prostituées de venir le rejoindre. Très vite, il a obtenu le
soutien du Pape Urbain II.
Voyant augmenter la foule
de ceux qui le suivait, Robert d'Arbrissel, avec l'aide de Pierre II, évêque de
Poitiers, décida de trouver un lieu pouvant accueillir sa communauté, afin
d’éviter de nouveaux scandales. En effet, Suite à quelques scandales tels que
commerce libertin, accouchements clandestins, etc., l’évêque de Rennes,
Marbode, adressa à Robert , vers 1100, une longue et sévère lettre de reproches
remettant en doute la justesse de ses pratiques. Un concile réuni à Poitiers en
1100 somma Robert de soumettre son « troupeau » à une règle et de se fixer.
Son désir premier était
de mettre en place un ordre où hommes et femmes pouvaient vivre en communauté.
En 1101, Robert d'Arbrissel installa sa communauté à Fontevraud, un lieu
désertique, idéal pour y établir ce nouvel ordre. La présence de femmes parmi
les hommes a rapidement fait scandale. Robert d’Arbrissel fonda alors une
abbaye double (lieu monacal où hommes et femmes sont strictement séparés par la
clôture). Il dut commencer à organiser la vie communautaire et la fondation du
monastère débuta aussitôt. Quand la communauté se trouva suffisamment
installée, Robert d'Arbrissel refusa le titre de prieur et repris sa route et
ses prédications après avoir nommé une femme à la tête de l'abbaye : Hersende
de Montsoreau.
Peu de temps avant sa
mort et ayant consulté d'éminents religieux, Robert d’Arbrissel décida, en
1115, de sa succession. Convaincu que « les hommes trouveront le salut de leur
âme dans la soumission aux femmes », il confia les rênes de Fontevraud à Pétronille
de Chemillé le 28 octobre 1115 et fit d’elle la première abbesse de Fontevraud.
Il laissa ainsi les moines très secoués par une décision hors du commun et
Fontevraud devint alors une abbaye dirigée par des femmes. C’est ainsi que
naquit l’Ordre de Fontevraud, plus ascétique que les bénédictins, qui devint
rapidement l'un des ordres monastiques doubles les plus puissants de France.
Sous la seule obédience du pape et nantie de nombreuses faveurs, l'abbesse de
Fontevraud détient tout pouvoir spirituel et temporel sur les moniales et les
moines.
SOURCE : http://prieure-de-relay.wifeo.com/la-fondation-du-prieure.php
_%C3%89glise_Sainte-Nonne_Vo%C3%BBtes_03.JPG)
Also
known as
Roberto d’Arbrissel
Profile
Son of a village priest,
he became a priest himself. Archpriest at Rennes, France where
he was known both as a reformer (which often stirs up trouble), and as a
peace-maker. Teacher at Angers, France. Hermit in
the forest of Craon, France where
he founded a community of canons,
including Blessed Reinaldo
of Melinais. He was a noted preacher,
and when Pope Urban
II heard him speak in 1095,
the pope ordered
Robert to devote himself to preaching.
He travelled the
region, preaching missions,
attracting would-be students, and being accused by his detractors of sleeping
with the local women who
listened to him. He founded a double monastery that
became the modern Fontevraud-l’Abbaye in
Pays-de-la-Loire, France.
He wrote a Rule for the community and handed over its administration to
an abbess;
it soon became the mother-house of the Order
of Fontevraud, and the Rule received papal approval
in Calixtus
II in 1119.
Born
Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany
(modern Arbrissel, France)
1116 of
natural causes
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Citation
“Blessed Robert of
Arbrissel“. CatholicSaints.Info. 15 May 2022. Web. 25 February 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-robert-of-arbrissel/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-robert-of-arbrissel/
Robert of Arbrissel
Itinerant preacher,
founder of Fontevrault, b. c. 1047
at Arbrissel (now Arbressec) near Rhétiers, Brittany; d.
at Orsan, probably 1117. Robert studied in Paris during
the pontificate of Gregory
VII, perhaps under Anselm
of Laon and later displayed considerable theological knowledge.
The date and
place of his ordination are
unknown. In 1089 he was recalled to his native Diocese
of Rennes by Bishop Sylvester de la Guerche, who desired to
reform his flock. As archpriest,
Robert devoted himself to the suppression of simony, lay investiture, clerical concubinage, irregular marriages,
and to the healing of feuds. This reforming zeal aroused
such enmity that upon Sylvester's death in 1093, Robert was compelled
to leave the diocese. He went to Angers and there
commenced ascetic practices which he continued throughout his life.
In 1095 he became a hermit in
the forest of Craon (s.w. of Laval), living a life of
severest penance in the company of Bernard, afterwards founder
of the Congregation of Tiron, Vitalis, founder of Savigny,
and others of considerable note. His piety,
eloquence, and strong personality attracted
many followers, for whom in 1096 he founded the monastery of Canons
Regular of La Roé, becoming himself the first abbot.
In the same year Urban
II summoned him to Angers and appointed him a "preacher
(seminiverbus, cf. Acts
17, 18)
second only to himself with orders to travel everywhere in the
performance of this duty"
(Vita Baldrici).
There is no evidence that
Robert assisted Urban to
preach the Crusade,
for his theme was the abandonment of the world and
especially poverty. Living in the utmost destitution, he
addressed himself to the poor and would have his
followers known only as the "poor of Christ", while
the ideal he put forward was "In nakedness to
follow Christ naked upon the Cross". His eloquence,
heightened by his strikingly ascetic appearance, drew crowds
everywhere. Those who desired to embrace the monastic state
under his leadership he sent to La Roé, but the Canons objected to
the number and diversity of the postulants,
and between 1097 and 1100 Robert formally resigned his abbacy, and
founded Fontevrault. His disciples were of every age
and condition, including even lepers and converted prostitutes.
Robert continued his missionary journeys over the whole of Western France till
the end of his life, but little is known of this period. At
the Council of Poitiers,
Nov., 1100, he supported the papal
legates in excommunicating Philip of France on
account of his lawless union with Bertrade de Montfort; in 1110
he attended the Council of Nantes. Knowledge of
his approaching death caused him
to take steps to ensure the permanence of his foundation at Fontevrault.
He imposed a vow of
stability on his monks and
summoned a Chapter (September, 1116) to settle the form of
government. From Hautebruyère a priory founded
by the penitent Bertrade, he went to Orsan, another priory of Fontevrault,
where he died. The "Vita Andreæ" gives a detailed account of his last
year of life.
Robert was never canonized.
The accusation made against him by Geoffrey
of Vendôme of extreme indiscretion in his choice of exceptional ascetic practices
(see P.L., CLVII, 182) was the source of much controversy during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Other evidence of
eccentric actions on Robert's part and scandals among
his mixed followers may have helped to give rise to these rumors. The
Fontevrists did everything in their power to discredit the attacks on their
founder. The accusatory letters of Marbodius
of Rennes and Geoffrey
of Vendôme were without sufficient cause declared to
be forgeries and the manuscript Letter
of Peter of Saumur was made away with, probably at the instigation
of Jeanne Baptiste de Bourbon, Abbess of Fontevrault.
This natural daughter of Henry
IV applied to Innocent
X for the beatification of
Robert, her request being supported by Louis
XIV and Henrietta of England.
Both this attempt and one made about the middle of the nineteenth century
failed, but Robert is usually given the title of "Blessed". The
original recension of the Rule of Fontevrault no longer
exists; the only surviving writing of Robert is his letter of exhortation
to Ermengarde of Brittany (ed. Petigny in "Bib.
de l'école des Chartes", 1854, V, iii
Sources
Acta SS., Feb., III, 593
sqq., contains two ancient lives by BALDRIC of Dol and the monk ANDREW;
PETIGNY, Robert d'Arbissel et Geoffroi de Vendôme in Bib. de l' école des
Chartes; WALTER, Ersten Wanderprediger Frankreichs, I (Leipzig, 1903), a
modern scientific book; IDEM, Excurs, II (1906); BOEHMER in Theologische
Literaturzeitung, XXIX, col. 330, 396, a hostile review.
Webster, Douglas
Raymund. "Robert of Arbrissel." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 24 Feb.
2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13096a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Catharine Lamb. Dedicated to the
memory of Robert Lee Hansen.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13096a.htm
Blessed Robert of Arbrissel, OSB Abbot (PC)
(also known as Robert of Arbressec)
Born in Arbrissel (Arbressec), Brittany, France, c. 1047; died at Orsan on
February 25, 1117. Robert studied at Paris, became chancellor of the University
of Paris, was ordained, and then became archpriest (vicar general) at Rennes c.
1089 at the invitation of Bishop Sylvester of Gerche, who invited him to assist
him in reforming that see.
Robert was forced to flee
the enemies he made with his reforms when the bishop died, and he became a
hermit in the Craon Forest in 1095. The following year he founded the monastery
of La Roe for the many disciples he had attracted by his holiness. He was
appointed 'preacher' by Pope Urban II the same year, attracted huge crowds, and
in 1099 founded the double Benedictine monastery of Fontevrault under the
direction of an abbess for the many postulants La Roe could not accommodate.
He attended the Council
of Poitiers in 1100, where he favored the excommunication of King Philip I of
France, and the Council of Nantes in 1110. Robert called a chapter to establish
a permanent organization of his monks in 1116, and died the following year at
Orsan. He has never been formally beatified (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
Roeder).
Blessed Robert is generally painted as a Benedictine abbot enjoying a vision of the crucified Christ, Virgin Mary, and Saint John. At times he may be shown wearing a coat of mail next to his skin (Roeder). He is venerated in Fontevrault, Paris, and Rennes (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0224.shtml
B.
Robert of Arbrissel, Priest
[So
called from the place of his birth.] HE was archpriest and
grand vicar of the diocess of Rennes, and chancellor to the duke of Brittany;
but divested himself of these employments, and led a most austere eremitical
life in the forest of Craon, in Anjou. He soon filled that desert with
anchorets, and built in it a monastery of regular canons. This is the abbey
called De la Roe, in Latin De Rotâ, which was founded, according to Duchesne,
in 1093, and confirmed by Pope Urban II., in 1096. This pope having heard him
preach at Angers, gave him the powers of an apostolic missionary. The blessed
man therefore preached in many places, and formed many disciples. In 1099 he
founded the great monastery of Fantevraud, Fons Ebraldi, a league from the
Loire in Poitou. He appointed superioress Herlande of Champagne, a near
kinswoman to the duke of Brittany; and Petronilla of Craon, baroness of
Chemillé, coadjutress. He settled it under the rule of St. Benedict, with
perpetual abstinence from flesh, even in all sicknesses, and put his order
under the special patronage of the blessed Virgin. By a singular institution,
he appointed the abbess superioress over the men, who lived in a remote
monastery, whose superiors she nominates. The holy founder prescribed so strict
a silence in his order, as to forbid any one to speak even by signs, without
necessity. The law of enclosure was not less rigorous, insomuch that no priest
was allowed to enter even the infirmary of the nuns, to visit the sick, if it
could possibly be avoided, and the sick, even in their agonies, were carried
into the church, that they might there receive the sacraments. Among the great
conversions of which St. Robert was the instrument, none was more famous than
that of queen Bertrade, the daughter of Simon Montfort, and sister of Amauri
Montfort, count of Evreux. She was married to Fulk, count of Anjou, in 1089,
but quitted him in 1092, to marry Phillip I., king of France, who was enamoured
of her. Pope Urban II. excommunicated that prince on this account in 1094, and
again in 1100, because the king, after having put her away, had taken her
again. These censures were taken off when she and the king had sworn upon the
gospels in the council of Poitiers never to live together again.
Bertrade,
when she had retired to an estate which was her dower, in the diocess of
Chartres, was so powerfully moved by the exhortations of St. Robert, that,
renouncing the world, of which she had been long the idol, she took the
religious veil at Fontevraud, and led there an exemplary life till her death.
Many other princesses embraced the same state under the direction of the holy
founder: among others Hersande of Champagne, widow of William of Monsoreau;
Agnes of Montroëil, of the same family; Ermengarde, wife of Alin Fergan, duke
of Brittany; Philippa, countess of Thoulouse, wife of William IX., duke of
Aquitain, &c. After the death of St. Robert, several queens and princesses
had taken sanctuary in this monastery, flying from the corruption of the world.
Among its abbesses are counted fourteen princesses, of which five were of the
royal house of Bourbon. The abbot Suger, writing to Pope Eugenius III., about
fifty years after the death of the founder, says there were at that time in
this order between five and six thousand religious persons. The order of
Fontevraud, in France, is divided into four provinces. B. Robert lived to see
above three thousand nuns in this one house. He died in 1116, on the 25th of
February, St. Matthias’s day, it being leap-year, in the seventieth of his age,
at the monastery of Orsan, near Linieres, in Berry. His body was conveyed to
Fontevraud, and there interred. The bishop of Poitiers, in 1644, took a
juridical information of many miracles wrought by his intercession. 1 From
the time of his death he has been honoured with the title of blessed, and is
invoked in the litany of his order, which keeps his festival only with a mass
of the Trinity on St. Matthias’s day. See his life by Baldric, bishop of Dole,
his contemporary; Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Relig. t. 6. p. 83. Dom. Lobineau,
Hist. de Bretagne, fol. 1707. p. 113. and, in the first place, Chatelain, Notes
on the Martyrol. p. 736 to 758. who clearly confutes those who place his death
in 1117.
Note
1. Some have raked up most groundless
slanders to asperse the character of this holy man, as, that he admitted all to
the religious habit that asked it, and was guilty of too familiar conversation
with women. These slanders were spread in a letter of Roscelin, whose errors
against faith were condemned in the council of Soissons in 1095. Such
scandalous reports excited the zeal of some good men, and they are mentioned in
a letter ascribed to Marbodius, bishop of Rennes, and in another of Godfrey,
abbot of Vendome, addressed to the holy man himself. This last letter seems
genuine, though some have denied it. But the charge was only gathered from
hearsay, and notoriously false, as the very authors of these letters were soon
convinced. It is not surprising that a man who bade open defiance to all
sinners, and whose reputation ran so high in the world, should excite the
murmurs of some, and envy of others, which zeal and merit never escape. But his
boldness to declaim against the vices of great men, and the most hardened
sinners; the high encomiums and favourable testimonies which all who knew him
gave to his extraordinary sanctity, which forced even envy itself to respect
him; and his most holy comportment and happy death, furnish most invincible
proofs of his innocence and purity; which he preserved only by humility, and
the most scrupulous flight of all dangerous occasions. Godfrey of Vendome was
afterwards perfectly satisfied of the sanctity of this great servant of God,
and became his warmest friend and patron; as is evident from several of his
letters. See l. 1. ep. 24. and 26. l. 3. ep. 2. l. 4. ep. 32. He entered into
an association of prayers with the monastery of Fontevraud in 1114; and so much
did he esteem his virtue that he made a considerable foundation at Fontevraud,
often visited the church, and built himself a house near it, called Hotel de
Vendome, that he might more frequently enjoy the converse of St. Robert, and
promote his holy endeavours. The letter of Marbodius is denied to be genuine by
Mainferme and Natalis Alexander, and suspected by D. Beaugendre, who published
the works of Marbodius at Paris, in 1708. But the continuator of the Hist.
Liter. t. 10. p. 359. clearly shows this letter to have been written by
Marbodius, who, in it, speaks of these rumours without giving credit to them,
and with tenderness and charity exhorts Robert to reform his conduct if the
reports were true; to dissipate them by justifying himself, if they were false.
Marbodius was soon satisfied as to these calumnies, and was the saint’s great
protector, in 1101, in his missions in Brittany, particularly in his diocess of
Rennes; whither he seems to have invited him. Ermengarde, countess of Brittany,
was so moved by St. Robert’s sermons, that she earnestly desired to renounce the
world, and retire to Fontevraud. The saint exhorted her to continue in the
world, and to sanctify her soul by her duties in her public station, especially
by patience and prayer: yet, some years after, she took the veil at Fontevraud.
See F. de la Mainferme, in his three apologetic volumes in vindication of this
patriarch of his order, Natalis Alexander, sæc. xii. diss. 6. and especially
Sorin’s Apologetique du Saint, in 1702, a polite and spirited work. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
II: February. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : https://www.bartleby.com/210/2/244.html
Saint
Robert d’Arbrissel, Image de la de la "Vie des Saints" en langue
bretonne. Écrit par Yann-Vari Perrot et publié en 1912, page 153
Beato Roberto
d'Arbrissel Sacerdote e fondatore
Arbrissel, Francia, 1047
(?) – Orsan, Francia, 25 febbraio 1117
Martirologio
Romano: Nel priorato di Orsan nel territorio di Bourges in Aquitania, in
Francia, transito del beato Roberto di Arbrissel, sacerdote, che, predicando
per le strade la conversione dei costumi, radunò uomini e donne in due
monasteri a Fontevrault sotto il governo di una badessa
Il beato Roberto nacque ad Arbrissel, intorno all’anno 1047.
Figlio di un sacerdote, andò a studiare teologia a Parigi, e dopo una breve esperienza matrimoniale decise di farsi sacerdote.
Quarant’enne, nel 1089 fu chiamato nella diocesi di Rennes dal vescovo Silvestro, per introdurre delle riforme. Egli fu in prima linea nella lotta alla simonia, al concubinaggio degli ecclesiastici e ai matrimoni irregolari.
Era tanta la sua foga nell’introdurre queste riforme, che gli procurò moltissimi nemici in diocesi, tanto che, alla morte del vescovo Silvestro, nel 1093 fu costretto a fuggire.
Arrivato a Angers continuò i suoi studi con Marbodo, futuro vescovo di Rennes. Ma nel tempo ebbe la censura di quest’ultimo perché Roberto d’Arbrissel si rifiutava di assistere alle messe a cui, partecipavano dei sacerdoti indegni.
Nel 1095 decise di cambiare vita. Attratto dall’ascetismo, si fece eremita nella foresta di Craon con Bernardo di Tiron, Vitale di Savigny ed altri.
In molti lo seguirono, tanto che nel 1096 fondò un monastero di canonici regolari, a la Roë, presso Anjou.
Roberto d’Arbrissel fu eletto primo abate di quella comunità.
In quello stesso anno papa Urbano II lo convocò ad Anger e lo nominò "predicatore secondo solo a se stesso con l'ordine di predicare in conformità del suo servizio".
Roberto d’Arbrissel e i suoi seguaci erano conosciuti come i “poveri di Cristo” e il loro motto era “nella nudità seguire Cristi nudo sulla croce”.
Roberto d’Arbrissel era trasandato, andava scalzo e vestiva poveramente. Ma il suo aspetto ascetico, la sua eloquenza e la pratica delle virtù gli facevano radunare attorno a sé molte persone specie tra i poveri. Molti uomini e donne accorrevano a lui per abbracciare la vita monastica ma i canonici di Roë li respingevano. Inoltre questi canonici non intendevano accogliere le donne nella loro comunità.
Per questi motivi Roberto d’Arbrissel tra gli anni 1097 – 100 decise di lasciare la sua abbazia per fondare una nuova comunità che accogliesse le persone di ogni condizione e di entrambi i sessi.
In un terreno che gli fu donato dal signore di Fontevrault, nell’attuale dipartimento del Maine e Loira, fondò la nuova abbazia.
Nacque così l'Ordine di Fontevrault.
I nuovi adepti furono suddivisi in uomini, che fossero chierici o laici; donne co fossero vergini, separate, vedove o ex prostitute e malati cronici.
Roberto d’Arbrissel, a capo dell’intera comunità egli volle una badessa che fosse già stata sposata. E, la prima prescelta fu Petronilla de Chemillé, a cui successe Matilde del Maine, zia di Enrico II d’Inghilterra. Nei primi anni i Plantageneti furono grandi benefattori dell'abbazia e mentre la zia di Enrico II ne era badessa la moglie dello re, Eleonora d’Aquitania divenne anche lei monaca.
Man mano che la sua comunità cresceva, Roberto d’Arbrissel continuò con la sua predicazione itinerante.
Egli fu presente ai concili di Nantes e Poitiers del 1100 e appoggiò i legati papali che scomunicarono Filippo I di Francia per la sua unione illegittima.
Nel mese di settembre 1116 indisse un capitolo della sua comunità, affinché con le regole si desse stabilità al monastero.
Roberto d’Arbrissel morì ad Orsan, il 25 febbraio 1117, dove era stata fondata un’analoga comunità.
Con il tempo l’ordine di Roberdo d’Arbrissel si consolidò, e si fece la richiesta della canonizzazione per Roberto d’Arbrissel.
Ma, a causa delle accuse di Magnobodo e di altri che giudicavano il suo comportamento scandaloso non si arrivò mai alla sua canonizzazione.
Anche la successiva richiesta di canonizzazione per Roberto d’Arbrissel, presentata da Giovanna Battista di Borbone, badessa di Fontevrault, a Papa Innocenzo X, rimase senza esito
L’ordine, durante la rivoluzione francese fu sciolto, e l'ultima badessa morì a Parigi in povertà. L'abbazia fu usata come prigione dal 1804 al 1963, anno in cui fu assegnata al Ministero della Cultura francese.
Anche se Roberto d’Arbrissel, non venne mai dichiarato santo, gli venne
assegnato il titolo di beato e la sua festa venne fissata nel giorno 25
febbraio.
Autore: Mauro Bonato
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/42670
Jules De Pétigny. « Lettre inédite de Robert d'Arbrissel à la comtesse Ermengarde. »Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes Année 1854 15 pp. 209-235 : https://www.persee.fr/doc/bec_0373-6237_1854_num_15_1_445198
