Saint Hugues d’Avalon, Retable de la Chartreuse Saint-Honoré de Thuison-lès-Abbeville, circa 1490, 117 x 50.7, Art Institute of Chicago
Saint Hugues d'Avalon
Hugues de Lincoln, évêque de Lincoln (+ 1200)
Saint Hugues d'Avalon est né en 1140 à Avalon près de Pontcharra dans l'Isère. Fils de Guillaume d'Avalon et de Anna de Theys (Isère) son épouse. Il fut admis à la Grande Chartreuse en 1163 et y resta 17 ans jusqu'en 1180 date à laquelle il partit pour l'Angleterre à la demande du Roi Henri II et sur ordre de l'évêque de Grenoble. Il reçut une maison dans le comté de Somerset. Elu évêque de Lincoln, il joignit à son service pastoral une vie contemplative étonnante. Vivant pauvrement, il faisait distribuer toutes ses ressources aux pauvres.
À Lincoln en Angleterre, l'an 1200, saint Hugues, évêque. Moine chartreux, il
fut appelé à gouverner l'Église de cette cité, et il accomplit une œuvre
excellente, tant pour la défense des libertés de l'Église que pour arracher les
Juifs aux mains de leurs ennemis.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/160/Saint-Hugues-d-Avalon.html
Daniele Crespi, Sant'Ugo
di Lincoln (1629),
affresco; Milano, Certosa di Garegnano
HUGUES DE LINCOLN
Évêque, Saint
† 1200
Nulle part on ne jette avec plus de sûreté les
fondements de la vie intérieure que dans la solitude ; nulle part on ne se
prépare mieux aux fonctions de la vie active et à conserver l'esprit de piété
au milieu des distractions qu'entraîné le commerce des hommes. Ce fut dans le
désert de la grande Chartreuse que saint Hugues apprit à maîtriser ses
penchants, et qu'il amassa ce trésor de vertu qui fit de lui un digne ministre
de Jésus-Christ.
II était d'une des meilleures familles de Bourgogne,
et vint au monde en 1140. Il n'avait point encore huit ans lorsqu'il perdit sa
mère. On le mit alors dans une maison de chanoines réguliers, voisine du
château de son père, qui avait servi avec distinction, et qui depuis se retira
dans le même monastère, où ri mourut dans le saint exercice de la pénitence.
Hugues avait les plus heureuses dispositions, et il fit de grands progrès dans
toutes les sc1ences auxquelles il s'appliqua. L'abbé du monastère le mit
spécialement sous la conduite d'un prêtre vénérable qui le dirigeait dans ses
études et dans les voies de la vertu. Les leçons qu'il recevait firent sur son
âme une impression profonde.
L'abbé était dans l'usage de visiter tous les ans la
grande Chartreuse. Hugues, à l'âge de dix-neuf ans, fut nommé pour
l'accompagner. La retraite et le silence de ce saint désert, la vie tout
angélique des moines qui l'habitaient, lui inspirèrent un désir ardent
d'embrasser leur institut. Les chanoines réguliers voulurent inutilement à son
retour le dissuader d'exécuter la résolution qu'il avait prise ; persuadé
que Dieu l'appelait à un genre de vie plus parfait, il partit secrètement pour
la grande Chartreuse, et y prit l'habit. Les combats intérieurs qu'il éprouva
d'abord, ne servirent qu'à purifier son âme, qu'à augmenter sa ferveur et sa
vigilance. Mais au milieu de ces épreuves, il recevait quelquefois des
consolations qui en adoucissaient l'amertume. Enfin, la pratique de la
mortification, jointe à une prière continuelle, éteignit les traits enflammés
de l'ennemi du salut.
Le temps où il devait être élevé au sacerdoce
approchant, un ancien père qu'il servait, suivant l'usage des Chartreux, lui
demanda s'il voulait être prêtre. Il répondit avec simplicité que c'était la
chose du monde qu'il désirait le plus. Le vieillard, qui craignait que cette
réponse ne vînt de présomption, et que Hugues n'estimât point assez la grandeur
des fonctions sacerdotales, lui dit d'un air sévère : « Comment osez-vous
aspirer à un degré où les plus saints ne se laissent élever qu'en tremblant et
par contrainte ? » Hugues, saisi de frayeur, se prosterne par terre, et demande
pardon avec beaucoup de larmes. Le vieillard, touché de son humilité, le
console, en lui disant qu'il connaît la pureté de son désir, et il lui annonce
que non-seulement il sera prêtre, mais même évêque.
Il y avait dix ans que Hugues vivait retiré dans sa
cellule, lorsqu'il fut élu procureur de son monastère. Il s'acquit une grande
réputation de prudence et de sainteté, qui le firent connaître par toute la
France.
Henri II, Roi d'Angleterre, avait fondé à Witham, dans
la province de Sommerset, la première Chartreuse qu'il y ait eu dans la
Grande-Bretagne. Mais cet établissement avait souffert de grandes difficultés,
et il n'avait pas été possible d'y mettre la dernière main sous les deux
premiers prieurs. Henri envoya Renaud, évêque de Bath, et d'autres personnes
considérables à la grande Chartreuse, pour demander le moine Hugues, qui
paraissait le plus propre à gouverner le monastère de Witham. Il y eut de
grands débats par rapport à cette demande ; on refusa d'abord d'y acquiescer ;
mais d'après les réflexions qu'on fit sur l'étendue de la charité chrétienne,
qui ne doit pas se confiner dans une seule famille, lorsque le bien général
J'exige, il fut arrêté en chapitre, qu'on déférerait aux désirs du Roi
d'Angleterre, et Hugues eut ordre de partir, quoiqu'il protestât que de tous
ses frères, il était le moins capable de répondre à la confiance du monarque
anglais.
A peine eut-il débarqué en Angleterre, qu'il prit la
route de Witham, sans se présenter à la cour. Son arrivée releva le courage du
petit nombre de religieux qu'il y trouva. Le Roi, l'ayant fait venir, lui
donna mille marques de bonté; il lui fit divers présents, et lui fournit tout
ce qui était nécessaire pour achever le monastère. Hugues ne tarda pas à mettre
la dernière main aux bâtiments ; et on le vit y travailler lui-même avec les
ouvriers. Son humilité, sa douceur, et la sainteté de sa vie, lui gagnèrent le
cœur de ceux qui avaient le plus traversé ce saint établissement. La conduite
édif1ante du prieur et de ses religieux réconcilia les esprits avec leur
institut ; plusieurs même, touchés du désir de servir Dieu dans leur solitude,
renoncèrent au inonde pour les imiter, en sorte que la communauté devint
nombreuse et florissante en fort peu de temps.
Les historiens rapportent que le Roi, revenant avec
son armée de Normandie en Angleterre, fut assailli d'une violente tempête. Le
danger était si pressant, qu'on n'attendait plus rien de l'art des pilotes.
Tous s'étant adressés au Ciel, Henri fit cette prière : « Grand Dieu, que le
prieur » de Witham sert avec vérité, daignez, par les mérites et »
l'intercession de votre serviteur, jeter un regard de pitié » sur notre triste
situation. » Cette prière faite, le calme succéda à l’orage, et le reste du
trajet fut heureux. Cet événement augmenta beaucoup la confiance que le Roi et
la plupart de ses sujets avaient en la vertu du saint prieur de Witham.
Il y avait quelque temps que le siége épiscopal de
Lincoln était vaquant : Henri n'avait point voulu permettre qu'on le remplît;
mais enfin il rendit au doyen et au chapitre de la cathédrale la liberté
d'élire un évêque. Le choix tomba sur le prieur des Chartreux. Hugues allégua
bien des raisons pour ne pas accepter ; mais on n'y eut aucun égard, et Baudouin,
archevêque de Cantorbéry, l'obligea de se laisser sacrer le 21 Septembre 1186.
Le nouvel évêque commença l'exercice de son autorité
par former un conseil, où il fit entrer ce qu'il y avait dans son
clergé de plus pieux et de plus éclairé. Il rétablit la discipline
ecclésiastique, et réforma les abus qui avaient pu se glisser parmi les clercs.
Ses discours et ses exhortations ranimèrent partout l'esprit de foi. Il savait,
dans les conversations ordinaires, profiter des circonstances pour porter les autres
à la vertu. Il était gai et affable ; mais il conservait toujours un fond de
gravité qui lui conciliait le respect. Lorsqu'il s'agissait de faire quelque
fonction importante, il s'y préparait par de longues prières et par un jeûne
austère. Il faisait une exacte recherche des pauvres, afin de pouvoir les
assister; il allait fréquemment les visiter, et il les consolait avec bonté. Il
affectionnait surtout les lépreux, et on le vit plus d'une fois baiser leurs
ulcères. Quelqu'un lui ayant dit un jour en plaisantant qu'il ne guérissait pas
la chair des lépreux qu'il baisait, il fit cette réponse : « Le baiser de saint
Martin guérissait la chair des lépreux, et moi je les baise pour guérir mon
âme. » Lorsqu'il voyageait, il était si recueilli, qu'il ne jetait jamais les
yeux sur ce qui se trouvait autour de lui. La ferveur avec laquelle il récitait
les psaumes, paraissait plus qu'humaine; aussi les sentiments qu'il y puisait,
donnaient-ils sans cesse à son âme une nouvelle force et une nouvelle vigueur.
Sa ponctualité à réciter l'office divin était extraordinaire, et il lui arriva
une fois de rester dans une auberge pour satisfaire à ce devoir, quoiqu'on
l'avertît de partir promptement pour éviter la rencontre de voleurs qui
infestaient le chemin par lequel il devait passer. Tous les ans il faisait au
moins une retraite dans la Chartreuse de Witham. Il y suivait alors les
observances de la règle, et n'était distingué des autres religieux que par les
marques de la dignité épiscopale. Dans cette solitude, comme d'une tour élevée,
il considérait la vanité des choses humaines, la brièveté de la vie, et les
profondeurs de l'éternité. Tournant ensuite les yeux sur lui-même, il examinait
avec impartialité toutes ses actions et tous les mouvements de son cœur. Il se
pénétrait de toute l'étendue de ses obligations, et prenait de sages mesures
pour ne pas tomber dans le précipice, sur le bord duquel il était forcé de
marcher. Le goût qu'il se sentait pour la solitude, lui faisait regretter sans
cesse son premier état ; il lâcha même d'obtenir du Saint-Siège la permission
de quitter le gouvernement de son diocèse ; mais elle lui fut constamment
refusée.
Le mépris qu'il avait pour les choses de la terre,
l'élevait au-dessus de toutes les considérations du respect humain. Il ne
craignait point de donner des avis au Roi, quoiqu'il n'aimât point à être
contredit. Henri les recevait avec une sorte de respect ; et s'il n'en profita
pas toujours, ils le disposèrent au moins à faire un bon usage des afflictions
que Dieu lui envoya depuis, et à renoncer à ses passions sur la fin de sa vie.
Quelque grande que fût la douceur de l'Évêque de
Lincoln, il savait être ferme dans l'occasion. Les forestiers ou officiers
chargés de l'inspection des forêts du Roi, exerçaient une tyrannie barbare à la
campagne. Ils mutilaient et mettaient même à mort quiconque avait tué ou blessé
une bête fauve. Les paysans avaient la douleur de voir périr leurs moissons,
sans pouvoir prendre des mesures pour les conserver. Sur le plus léger soupçon,
on leur faisait subir l'épreuve de l'eau, si fortement proscrite par l'Eglise,
et malheur à tous ceux auxquels le prétendu jugement de Dieu n'était point
favorable. Les officiers du Roi faisaient valoir des coutumes ou plutôt des
abus qui se trouvaient fortifiés par des lois injustes et tyranniques.
Quelques-uns d'entre eux se saisirent d'un clerc, et le condamnèrent à une
amende considérable. Hugues s'en plaignit, et après une triple citation, il
excommunia le chef de ces officiers. Cette action déplut beaucoup au Roi. Il
dissimula cependant son ressentiment. Quelque temps après, il demanda au saint
évêque une prébende en faveur d'un de ses courtisans. Hugues répondit que ces
places étaient pour les clercs, et non pour les courtisans, et que le Roi ne
manquait pas de moyens pour récompenser ceux qui étaient attachés à son
service. Henri le pressa aussi de lever l'excommunication prononcée contre
l'officier ; mais il déclara qu'il ne réconcilierait le coupable, que quand il
reconnaîtrait sa faute, et qu'il donnerait des marques d'un repentir sincère.
Henri envoya chercher l'évêque pour se plaindre de son ingratitude, et de la
manière dont il en agissait à son égard. Hugues lui représenta avec douceur
qu'il n'avait cherché dans toute cette affaire que la gloire de Dieu et le salut
de Sa Majesté, et que le Roi s'exposait à perdre son âme, s'il protégeait les
oppresseurs de l'Eglise, ou s'il exigeait que les bénéfices fussent donnés à
des personnes qui n'en étaient pas dignes. Henri, touché de ses
représentations, parut satisfait. L'officier excommunié se montra pénitent, et
fut absous dans la forme usitée en pareil cas. Il devint depuis fort zélé pour
l'accomplissement des devoirs de la religion, et l'un des plus fidèles amis de
l'évêque de Lincoln.
Il était alors d'usage que le clergé fît présent au
Roi tous les ans d'un manteau précieux. On l'achetait avec les sommes qu'on
levait sur le peuple, et les clercs partageaient entre eux l'argent qui
restait. Hugues abolit cet usage, après avoir obtenu du Roi qu'il renoncerait
au présent. Il changea aussi les peines qu'infligeait sa cour ecclésiastique,
et qui consistaient principalement en amendes pécuniaires. Il en substitua
d'autres qui devaient produire plus d'effet pour l'avantage de la religion. Il
donnait également ses soins à la décence du culte extérieur ; il acheva sa
cathédrale.
Henri II mourut en 1198, après un règne de
trente-quatre ans, et Richard I lui succéda. Hugues l'exhorta, comme son
prédécesseur, à réprimer ses passions, et à ne point opprimer ses sujets. Il
défendit aussi avec une généreuse liberté les immunités de l'Église. Il tint la
même conduite sous le Roi Jean, qui monta sur le trône en 1199. Ce dernier
prince l'envoya, en qualité d'ambassadeur, à la cour de Philippe-Auguste, Roi
de France, pour conclure la paix entre les deux couronnes ; et la réputation de
sainteté dont jouissait l'évêque de Lincoln, ne contribua pas peu au succès de
la négociation. Hugues, avant de quitter la France, voulut visiter la grande
Chartreuse. Ayant logé durant la route dans une Chartreuse
appelée Arneria, quelques moines lui demandèrent des nouvelles. Étonné de
cette question , il leur répondit qu'un évêque , obligé par état de vivre dans
le monde, pouvait quelquefois savoir des nouvelles et en parler, mais que cela
était défendu à des religieux qui étaient morts au monde , et qui devaient
ignorer ce qui s'y passait.
II arriva à Londres lorsqu'on était sur le point de
faire à Lincoln l'ouverture d'un concile. Il se proposait d'y assister, mais il
en fut empêché par une fièvre qui le saisit, et qui, suivant l'auteur de sa
vie, était la suite de son excessive abstinence. Il prédit sa mort, et s'y
prépara par les exercices de la plus fervente piété. On lui administra le saint
Viatique et l'Extrême-onction le jour de saint Matthieu, mais il vécut encore
jusqu'au dix-sept du mois de Novembre suivant. Ce jour il fit réciter l'office
divin dans sa chambre par ses chapelains, auxquels s'étaient joints plusieurs
moines et plusieurs prêtres. Voyant qu'ils pleuraient, il les consola, et les
pria chacun en particulier de le recommander à la bonté divine. Enfin, il se
fit étendre sur une croix de cendres bénites, qu'on avait formée sur le
plancher de sa chambre ; et il expira en récitant le cantique, Nùnc
dimittis, l'an 1200 de Jésus-Christ, le soixantième de son âge, et le
quinzième de son épiscopat. On embauma son corps, et on le porta solennellement
de Londres à Lincoln. Un grand nombre d'évêques, d'abbés et de personnes
qualifiées, assistèrent à ses funérailles. Jean, Roi d’Angleterre, et Guillaume,
Roi d'Ecosse, mirent le cercueil sur leurs épaules, lorsqu'on le portait à
l'église. Le second de ces princes, qui avait aimé le Saint tendrement, fondait
en larmes. Trois paralytiques et quelques autres malades furent guéris à son
tombeau. Il fut canonisé par Honorius troisième et quatrième du nom. Il est
nommé en ce jour dans le martyrologe romain.
SOURCE : Alban Butler : Vie des Pères,
Martyrs et autres principaux Saints… – Traduction :
Jean-François Godescard
SOURCE : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/hugues_de_lincoln.htm
Saint Hugh of Lincoln and his swan depicted in a
stained glass window in St.Germain's church
Prière de Saint Hugues d'Avalon
Voici la Prière « Je suis bien coupable » de Saint Hugues d'Avalon (1140-1200) dit aussi Hugues de Lincoln, Clerc à 15 ans, Diacre à 19 ans, Prieur de la Chartreuse de Witham en Angleterre puis Évêque de Lincoln à 46 ans.
SOURCE : http://site-catholique.fr/index.php?post/Priere-de-Saint-Hugues-d-Avalon-de-Lincoln-a-Dieu
Giovanni della Robbia, Sant' Ugo di Lincoln, tondi santi di chiostro grande, Certosa di Firenze
Saint Hugues D'AVALON
En 1148, à la mort de sa mère, il est confié à l’école
des chanoines de Villard-Benoît et montre de grandes dispositions pour les
études.
A quinze ans, Hugues prononce ses premiers voeux
religieux.
Diacre à 19 ans et chargé de la paroisse de Saint
Maximin, il l’administre pendant un ou deux ans. En 1163, alors âgé de 23 ans
Hugues entre à la Grande Chartreuse.
Ordonné prêtre dix ans après, il occupe la fonction de
procureur pendant 7 ans.
Le roi d’Angleterre Henry II Plantagenêt, voulant se
faire pardonner le meurtre de Thomas Becket, archevêque de Cantorbery, fonde en
1170 une Chartreuse à Witham dans le Somerset.
En 1180, le comte de Savoie, Humbert III, conseille au
roi d’Angleterre de choisir Hugues d’Avalon comme prieur.
Le 21 septembre 1186, Hugues est sacré évêque de
Lincoln. Il se montre infatigable malgré une santé fragile.
Il s’attache à reconstruire la cathédrale endommagée
par un tremblement de terre en 1185.
Saint Hugues tient tête à Henry II dans plusieurs
conflits.
En 1189, Richard Coeur-de-Lion succède à son père. Il
trouve lui aussi un évêque intraitable. Hugues refuse de donner au roi des
biens d’église ainsi que des hommes pour soutenir l’effort de guerre. Le roi
est très irrité par l’attitude de l’évêque, qui est bien près de subir le même
sort que Thomas Becket.
A Lincoln, Hugues est acclamé comme l’invincible
défenseur de l’église.
Il assiste à la conclusion du traité du Goulet le 22
mai 1200, entre l’Angleterre et la France et meurt à Londres le 16 novembre
1200.
Suite aux nombreux miracles qui lui sont attribués, Hugues d’Avalon est déclaré saint de l’église catholique par le pape Honorius III, le 17 février
1220.SOURCE : http://www.samuelhuet.com/graisivaudan/avalon/avalon.html
Also known as
Hugh of Avalon
Hugh of Burgundy
Profile
Born to the nobility, the son of William, Lord of
Avalon. His mother Anna died when
he was eight, and he was raised and educated at
a convent at
Villard-Benoit in France. Monk at
15. Deacon at
19. Prior of
a monastery at
Saint-Maxim. Joined the Carthusians in 1160. Ordained in 1165.
In 1175 he
became abbot of
the first English Carthusian monastery,
which was built by King Henry
II as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas
Becket.
His reputation for holiness spread through England,
and attracted many to the monastery.
He admonished Henry for keeping dioceses vacant
in order to keep their income for the throne.
He resisted the appointment, but was made bishop of Lincoln on 21
September 1181.
Restored clerical discipline
in his see.
Rebuilt the Lincoln cathedral,
destroyed by earthquake in 1185.
Hugh denounced the mass persecution of
Jews in England in 1190-91,
repeatedly facing down armed mobs, making them release their victims. Diplomat to France for King John
in 1199,
a trip that ruined his
health. While attending a national council in London a
few months later, he was stricken with an unnamed ailment,
and died two
months later.
Born
1135 at
Avalon Castle, Burgundy, France
16 November 1200 at London, England of
natural causes
buried in
the Lincoln Cathedral
18 February 1220 by Pope Honorius
III
first canonized Carthusian
angel protecting
him from lightning
bearded bishop giving
a blessing
Carthusian surrounded
by seven stars
Carthusian with
a swan
swan; there
is a story of him being befriended by a swan which
would guard Hugh when he slept
helping to build the Lincoln Cathedral
man with a swan at
his death bed
Additional Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Legends
of Saints and Birds, by Agnes Aubrey Hilton
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Francis
Xavier Weninger
Our
Island Saints, by Amy Steedman
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Emblems of the Saints, by F C Husenbeth and Augustus
Jessopp
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other sites in english
Christian Biographies, by James E Keifer
Christian
Biographies, by James E Keifer
Christian
Biographies, by James E Keifer
images
videos
e-books
Life
of Saint Hugh of Lincoln, by Herbert Thurston, SJ
sitios en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti in italiano
MLA Citation
“Saint Hugh of Lincoln“. CatholicSaints.Info. 15
November 2020. Web. 17 November 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-hugh-of-lincoln/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-hugh-of-lincoln/
Gherardo Sternina (Recorded in 1387 - Before 1413), Saint Hugh of Lincoln Exorcises a Man Possessed by the Devil, circa 1404-1407, 28.4 x 50.4, Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Statue of St Hugh in a niche on the frontage with swan at his feet. St Hugh's Church, Wavertree
St. Hugh of Lincoln
Born about the year 1135 at the castle of Avalon,
near Pontcharra, in Burgundy;
died at London,
16 Nov., 1200. His father, William, Lord of Avalon, was sprung
from one of the noblest of Burgundian houses;
of his mother, Anna, very little is known.
After his wife's death, William retired from the world to
the Augustinian monastery of Villard-Benoît,
near Grenoble,
and took his son Hugh, with him. Hugh became
a religious and was ordained deacon at
the age of nineteen. In about the year 1159 he was sent as a prior to the cell,
or dependent priory,
of St-Maximin, not far from his ancestral home of Avalon, where his elder
brother, William had succeeded his father.
At St-Maximin, Hugh laboured assiduously in preaching and
whatever parochial duties might
be discharged by a deacon.
Becoming more and more desirous to give himself to the
complete contemplative life, he visited in company with the prior of Villard-Benoît the
solitude of the Grande Chartreuse. Dom Basil was then head of
the Chartreuse, and to him Hugh confided his desire of
submitting to the Carthusian rule.
To test his vocation the prior refused him any
encouragement, and his own superior, alarmed at the idea of
losing the flower of his community, took him back quickly
to Villard-Benoît, and made him vow to
give up his intention of joining the Carthusians.
He submitted and made the promise, acting, as his historian assures us,
"in good
faith and purity of intention, placing his confidence in God,
and trusting that God would
bring about his deliverance"; his call to a higher life was
yet doubtful,
his obedience to one who was still his superior was a certain duty,
and not a "sinful act", as thinks his modern Protestant biographer.
Realizing that his vow,
made without proper deliberation and under strongest emotion, was not binding,
he returned to the Grande Chartreuse as a novice in
1153. Soon after his profession the prior entrusted him with the care
of a very old and infirm monk from
whom he received the instruction necessary to
prepare him for the priesthood.
He was probably ordained at
thirty, the age then required by canon law. When he had been ten years
a Carthusian he
was entrusted with the important and difficult office of procurator,
which he retained till the year 1180, leaving the
Grande Chartreuse then to become prior of
Witham in England,
the first Carthusian house
in that country. It was situated in Somerset and had been founded
by Henry II in compensation for his having failed to go on
the crusade imposed
as a penance for the murder of St.
Thomas of Canterbury. The first two priors had
succumbed to the terrible hardships encountered at the new foundation,
where the monks had
not even a roof to cover them, and it was by the special request of
the English king that St.
Hugh, whose fame had reached him through one of the nobles
of Maurienne, was made prior. His first attention was given to the
building of the Charterhouse. He prepared his plans and submitted them for
royal approbation,
exacting full compensation from the king for any tenants on the royal
estate who would have to be evicted to make room for the building. Long delay
was occasioned by the king's parsimony, but the Charterhouse, an exact
copy of the Grande Chartreuse, was at last
finished. Henry placed the greatest confidence in St.
Hugh, frequently visiting Witham, which was on the borders
of Selwood forest, one of the monarch's
favourite hunting-places. The saint was fearless in
reproving Henry's faults, especially his violation of the rights of
the Church.
His keeping of sees vacant in order to appropriate
their revenues, and the royal interference in elections to ecclesiastical posts
evoked the sternest reproach from St.
Hugh.
In May, 1180, Henry summoned
a council of bishops and
barons at Eynsham Abbey to deliberate on the affairs of the
state in general. The filling of vacant bishoprics was
determined on, and, among others, the canons of Lincoln, who had
been without a bishop for
about sixteen years, were ordered to hold an election. After some
discussion, their choice fell on the king's nominee, Hugh, prior of
Witham. He refused the bishopric because
the election had not been free. A second election was held
with due observance of canon law —
this time at Lincoln, and not in the king's private chapel —
and Hugh, though chosen unanimously, still refused the bishopric till
the prior of
the Grande Chartreuse, his superior, had given his consent. This
being obtained by a special embassy in England,
he was consecrated in St.
Catherine's chapel, Westminster
Abbey, on 21 September, 1186, by Archbishop
Baldwin of Canterbury. He was enthroned in Lincoln cathedral on
29 Sept. The new bishop at
once set to the work of reform. He attacked
the iniquitous forest laws and excommunicated the
king's chief forester. In addition to this, and almost at the same time, he
refused to install a courtier whom Henry had recommended as a prebendary of Lincoln.
The king summoned him to appear at Woodstock, where the saint softened
the enraged monarch by his ready wit, making him approve of his
forester's excommunication and
the refusal of his prebend's stall.
He soon became conspicuous for his unbounded charity to the poor,
and it was long remembered how he used to tend with his own hands
people afflicted with leprosy then
so common in England.
He was a model episcopate. He rarely left the diocese,
became personally acquainted with the priests,
held regular canonical visitations, and was most careful to chose
worthy men for the care of souls;
his canons were to reside in the diocese,
and if not present at Lincoln were to appoint vicars to
take their place at the Divine
Office. Once a year he retired to Witham to give himself to prayer,
far from the work and turmoil of his great diocese.
In July, 1188, he went on an embassy to
the French king, and was in France at
the time of Henry's death. He returned the following year and was
present at Richard
I's coronation;
in 1191 he was in conflict with Longchamp, Bishop of Ely and
justiciar, whose unjust commands
he refused to obey, and in 1194-5 was a prominent defender
of Archbishop Geoffrey of York, in the dispute between
that prelate and
his chapter. Hugh was also prominent in trying to protect
the Jews,
great numbers of whom lived in Lincoln, in the persecution they
suffered at the beginning of Richard's reign, and he put down
popular violence against
them in several places. In Richard
I Hugh found a more formidable person to
deal with than his predecessor had been. His unjust demands,
however, he was resolute in opposing. In a council held at Oxford,
in 1198, the justiciar, Archbishop Hubert, asked from the bishops and
barons a large grant of money and a number of knights for
the king's foreign wars. Hugh refused
on the ground that he was not bound to furnish money or soldiers for wars undertaken
outside of England.
His example was followed by Herbert of Salisbury,
and the archbishop had
to yield. Richard flew into one of his fits of rage, and ordered the
confiscation of Hugh's property,
but no one dared to lay hands on it. The saint journeyed to Normandy,
met Richard at Chateau-Gaillard and, having won the monarch's forgiveness and
admiration by his extraordinary courage,
proceeded to rebuke him fearlessly for his faults — his infidelity to his wife,
and encroachments on the Church's rights.
"Truly", said Richard to his courtiers, "if all the prelates of
the Church were
like him, there is not a king in Christendom who
would dare to raise his head in the presence of a bishop."
Once more St.
Hugh had to oppose Richard in his demands. This time it was
claim for money from the chapter of Lincoln. Crossing again
to Normandy he arrived just before the king's death, and was present
at his obsequies at Fontevrault.
He attended John's coronation at Westminster in
May, 1199, but was soon back in France aiding
the king in the affairs of state. He visited the Grande Chartreuse in
the summer of 1200 and was received everywhere on the journey with tokens of
extraordinary respect and love.
While returning to England he
was attacked by a fever, and died a few months afterwards at the Old Temple,
the London residence
of the bishops of Lincoln.
The primate performed
his obsequies in Lincoln cathedral,
and King John assisted in carrying the coffin to its resting-place in
the north-east transept.
In 1220 he was canonized by Honorius
III, and his remains were solemnly translated in 1280 to a
conspicuous place in the great south transept.
A magnificent golden shrine contained his relics,
and Lincoln became the most celebrated centre of pilgrimage in
the north of England.
It is not known what became of St.
Hugh's relics at
the Reformation;
the shrine and its wealth were a tempting bait to Henry
VIII, who confiscated all its gold, silver and precious stones, "with
which all the simple people be moch deceaved and broughte
into greate supersticion and idolatrye". St.
Hugh's feast is kept on 17 November. In the Carthusian
Order he is second only to St.
Bruno, and the great modern Charterhouse at Parkminster, in
Sussex, is dedicated to him.
Like most of the great prelates who
came to England from
abroad, St.
Hugh was a mighty builder. He rebuilt Lincoln cathedral,
ruined by the great earthquake of 1185 and, though much of
the minister which towers over Lincoln is of
later date, St.
Hugh is responsible for the for the four bays of the choir, one
of the finest examples of the Early English pointed style. He also
began the great hall of the bishop's palace. St.
Hugh's emblem is a white swan, in reference to the beautiful story of
the swan of Stowe which contracted a deep and lasting friendship for the saint,
even guarding him while he slept.
Sources
Magna Vita S. Hugonis Epis Linconiensis, ed. Dimock
(London, 1864); Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, VII, ed. Dimock (London,
1877); Chronicles of Henry II, Richard I and John, ed. Howlett (London,
1885); Roger of Hoveden, Historia, ed. Stubbs (London, 1870); Thurston, The
Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln (London, 1898); Perry, Life of St. Hugh
of Lincoln (London, 1879); Adams, Political History of England
1066-1216 (London, 1905); Stephens, History of the English Church
from 1066-1272 (London, 1904).
Butler, Richard Urban. "St. Hugh of
Lincoln." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1910.17 Nov.
2017 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07519c.htm>.
Transcription. In memory of Shirley O'Brien
Blizzard.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June
1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal
Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07519c.htm
Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), The
Apparition of Mary before Saints Bruno and Hugo, 1704, 218 x 111.4, Certosa di
Vedana, Vedana, Belluno
St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln,
Confessor
THE FOUNDATIONS of an interior
life are most safely laid in holy solitude which is the best preparation for
the functions of the active life, and the support of a spirit of piety amidst
its distractions. In the desert of Chartreuse St. Hugh learned first to govern
himself, and treasured up in his heart the most lively sentiments of pure and
perfect virtue, the most essential qualification of a minister of Christ. He
was born of a good family in Burgundy in 1140: lost his mother before he was
eight years old, and was educated from that age in a convent of regular canons,
situate near his father’s seat, who, after having served as an officer in the
army, with great reputation for honour and piety, retired himself to the same
place, and there ended his days in the exercises of a devout and penitential
religious life. Hugh, being blessed with a happy genius and good natural parts,
made great progress in every branch of learning to which he applied himself. A
venerable ancient priest was appointed by the abbot to instruct him in his
studies and in religious discipline, whose serious admonitions made a deep
impression on his soul. When he was nineteen years old the abbot took the saint
with him to the Chartreuse near Grenoble, on an annual visit which he was
accustomed to make to that holy company. The retirement and silence of the
desert, and the assiduous contemplation and saintly deportment of the monks who
inhabited it, kindled in Hugh’s breast a strong desire of embracing that
institute. Nor were the canons, his brethren, able to dissuade him from this
resolution after his return; so that being persuaded that God called him to
this state, he secretly went back to the Chartreuse, and was admitted to the
habit. The interior conflicts which he sustained, served to purify his soul, and
make him more fervent and watchful. Under these trials he was often refreshed
with consolations and great heavenly sweetness; and, by mortification and
humble continual prayer, the fiery darts of the enemy were at length
extinguished. The time approaching when he was to be promoted to priest’s
orders, an old father whom he served according to the custom of the Order,
asked him if he was willing to be ordained priest. Hugh answered him with
simplicity, out of the vehement desire he had of offering daily to God the holy
victim of the altar, that there was nothing in the world he more earnestly
desired. The old man fearing the danger of presumption, and a want of the great
apprehension which every one is bound to have of that tremendous function, said
to him with a severe countenance: “How dare you aspire to a degree, to which no
one, how holy soever, is advanced, but with trembling, and by constraint?” At
this rebuke, St. Hugh, struck with holy fear, fell on the ground, and begged
pardon with many tears. The other moved at his humility, told him he knew the
purity of his desires; and said he would be advanced not only to the
priesthood, but also to the episcopal dignity. The saint had passed ten years
in his private cell when the general procuratorship of the monastery was
committed to him: in which weighty charge the reputation of his prudence and
sanctity was spread over all France.
King Henry II. of England founded the
first house of Carthusian monks in England, at Witham in Somersetshire; but so
great difficulties occurred in the undertaking, under the two first priors,
that the monastery could not be settled. The king, therefore, sent Reginald,
bishop of Bath, with other honorable persons, to the great Chartreuse, to
desire that the holy monk, Hugh, might be sent over to take upon him the
government of this monastery. After much debating in the house it was
determined that it became not Christian charity so to confine their views to
one family as to refuse what was required for the benefit of many others; and
though the saint protested that of all others he was most unfit for the charge,
he was ordered by the chapter to accompany the deputies to England. As soon as
he landed, without going to court, he went directly to Witham, and wonderfully
comforted and encouraged the few monks he found there. Being sent for by the
king, he received from his royal bounty many presents, and a large provision of
all things necessary for his monastery, and set himself to finish the
buildings; at which he worked with his own hands, and carried stones and mortar
on his shoulders. By the humility and meekness of his deportment, and the
sanctity of his manners, he gained the hearts of the most savage and inveterate
enemies of that holy foundation, and several persons, charmed with the piety of
the good prior and his little colony, began to relish their close solitude, and
abandoning the cares of the world, consecrated themselves to God under the
discipline of the saint, who became in a short time the father of a numerous
and flourishing family. The king, as he returned with his army from Normandy to
England, was in great danger at sea, in a furious storm which defeated all the
art of the sailors. All fell to their prayers: but their safety seemed
despaired of when the king made aloud the following address to heaven: “O
blessed God, whom the prior of Wilham truly serves, vouchsafe through the
merits and intercession of thy faithful servant, with an eye of pity to regard
our distress and affliction.” This invocation was scarcely finished when a calm
ensued, and the whole company who never ceased to give thanks to the divine
clemency, continued their voyage safe to England.
The confidence which King Henry
reposed in St. Hugh, above all other persons in his dominions, was from that
time much increased. The see of Lincoln having been kept by his majesty some
years vacant, he was pleased to give leave to the dean and chapter to choose a
pastor, and the election fell upon St. Hugh. His excuses were not admitted, and
he was obliged by the authority of Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, to drop
the strong opposition which he had made, and to receive the episcopal
consecration in 1186, on the 21st day of September. As soon as he was raised to
the episcopal chair, he engaged several clergymen of the greatest learning and
piety to be his assistants: and he employed all the authority which his station
gave him, in restoring ecclesiastical discipline, especially amongst his
clergy. By sermons and private exhortations he laboured to quicken in all men
the spirit of faith, and in ordinary conversation incited others to divine love
by instructions adapted to their particular condition and circumstances; but
was always cheerful and affable, with decent gravity. In administering the
sacraments, or consecrating churches he sometimes spent whole days, beginning
before break of day, and persevering some hours in the night, without allowing
himself any corporal refection. Good part of his time he always bestowed in
inquiring into, and relieving the necessities of the poor, whom he frequently
visited, and affectionately comforted. The hospitals of lepers he attended above
others, and with singular tenderness kissed the most loathsome ulcers of the
infected. To one who jeeringly said to him, that St. Martin did so to heal
their ulcers, which he did not do, the good bishop answered: “St. Martin’s kiss
healed the leper’s flesh: but their kiss heals my soul.” In travelling he was
so recollected that he usually never cast his eyes about him, or saw anything
but the mane of the horse on which he rode. Devotion seemed always to give him
vigour and strength, and the sentiments with which he nourished his soul in
reciting the psalms, seemed more than human. He was so punctual in observing
the canonical hours of the divine office, that once he would not stir out of
the inn till he had said his morning office, though his attendants brought him
word trembling, that if he did not get away as fast as he could his life would
be in danger from a troop of madmen who were coming into the road where he was
to pass, and who spared nothing that came in their way. It was the holy
bishop’s custom to retire at least once a year to his beloved cloister at
Witham, and there pass some time observing the common rule, without any
difference but that of wearing the episcopal ring on his finger. In this
retirement, as from a high tower, he surveyed the vanity of human things, the
shortness of life, and the immense greatness of eternity. Also turning his eyes
inward upon himself, he took an impartial review of the affections of his own
heart, and of all his actions; he also considered the obligations and infinite
difficulties of spiritual government, and the dreadful precipice upon which all
prelacies stand. By letters and agents which he sent to the holy see, he
besought with importunity to be disburdened of the episcopal administration,
and restored to his cell. But his supplications were never heard, and he was
sometimes commanded silence with rebukes. Though mild and obliging to all the
world he seemed by his sovereign contempt of earthly things, to be above the
reach of temptations of human respect.
Henry II., a prince most impatient of
advice, and uncontrollable in his resolutions, stood in awe of this holy
prelate, and received his admonitions with seeming deference, though it was
only by afflictions in the decline of life that he learned effectually to
reform his passions. The king’s foresters, or overseers of the royal forests
and chases, exercised an inhuman tyranny in the country, putting to death, or
maiming upon the spot, any one who had killed or maimed a wild beast, or any
game, whatever loss the farmers sustained by the deer in their harvest or
gardens; and these foresters, upon the slightest suspicion, put whomsoever they
pleased to the water-ordeal trial, which, notwithstanding the prohibitions of
the church, remained still in frequent use among these officers of the crown, 1 who
immediately put to death whoever was cast by that trial. And by customs usurped
a good while, or by unjust and tyrannical forest laws, as the learned and pious
Peter of Blois (who lived some time at the court of Henry II.) scruples not to
call them, it was in the power of these foresters to require limb for limb, or
life for life of that of a beast. A company of these rangers had, upon a slight
occasion, laid hands on a clerk, and condemned him in a considerable sum of
money. St. Hugh, after due summons, and a triple citation, excommunicated the
head of them. This action King Henry took very ill. However, he dissembled his
resentment, and soon after, by a messenger and letters, requested of him a
prebend, then vacant in the diocess of Lincoln, in favour of one of his
courtiers. St. Hugh, having read the petition, returned this answer by the
messenger: “These places are to be conferred upon clerks, not upon courtiers:
nor does the king want means to reward his servants.” Neither could the bishop
be prevailed upon, at the king’s request, to absolve the ranger till he
acknowledged his crime, with signs of repentance. Hereupon his majesty sent for
the bishop, and summing up the favours he had done him, upbraided him with
ingratitude, and complained bitterly of the treatment he had received. The
bishop, no ways troubled or daunted, with a grave and sweet countenance,
demonstrated to him how, in the whole affair, he had had a regard purely to the
service of God, and to the salvation of his majesty’s soul, which incurred
manifest danger if oppressors of the church were protected, or ecclesiastical
benefices rashly conferred on unworthy persons. The king was so moved by his
discourse as to remain perfectly satisfied. The ranger showed himself penitent,
and was absolved by the bishop in the usual form, in a public manner, and by
his exhortation appeared truly reformed, and from that time became the saint’s
most steady friend. It was a custom for the clergy to present yearly a precious
mantle to the king at the charge of the people, for which they made a large
collection, and retained the overplus for their own use. This St. Hugh
abolished, and obtained of the king a renunciation of the present. Punishments
in the ecclesiastical court, consisting chiefly in pecuniary mulcts which the
rich little regarded, St. Hugh changed them into other chastisements which
carried with them marks of infamy. St. Hugh finished the building of his
cathedral. 2 Henry
II. died in 1189, after a reign of thirty-four years.
Hugh, with the same liberty, exhorted
King Richard I. to shun incontinence and all oppression of his subjects, and
defended the immunities of the church in his reign, and in that of King John,
who came to the crown in 1199. St. Hugh was sent ambassador by this latter into
France, to King Philip Augustus, to conclude a peace between the two crowns; in
which negotiation the reputation of his sanctity contributed greatly to the
success. 3 This
important affair being finished he paid a visit to his brethren at the grand
Chartreuse. In his return, whilst he lodged at a Chartreuse called Arneria,
some of the monks asked him what news? At which question he was startled, and
answered; that a bishop who is engaged in the commerce of the world, may
sometimes hear and tell news; but that such inquiries in religious men are an
idle curiosity, and a dissipation repugnant to their state. The saint arrived
at London just as a national council was ready to be opened at Lincoln: it was
his intention to assist at it, but he was seized with a fever which followed a
loss of appetite he had been afflicted with some time, and which the author of
his life attributes to his excessive abstemiousness. He distinctly foretold his
death; spent almost his whole time in fervent addresses to God, or to the Blessed
Virgin, or in devout colloquies with his angel-guardian, or the saints. He
received the viaticum and extreme-unction on St. Matthew’s day, but survived
till the 17th of November. On that day he caused many monks and priests,
besides his chaplains, to recite the divine office in his chamber. Seeing them
weep he said many tender things to comfort them, and laying his hands upon them
one by one, recommended them to the divine custody. His voice beginning to fail
he ordered the floor to be swept, and a cross of blessed ashes to be strewed
upon it; and whilst the ninetieth psalm at Compline was said, would be lifted
out of bed, and laid upon that cross; in which posture, as he was repeating the
canticle, Nunc dimittis, &c. he calmly expired in the year of our
Lord 1200, of his age sixty, of his episcopal charge fifteen. His body was
embalmed and with great pomp conveyed from London to Lincoln, where two kings,
John of England and William of Scotland, (the latter, who had dearly loved the
saint, bathed in tears,) three archbishops, fourteen bishops, above a hundred
abbots, and a great number of earls and barons came out to meet the corpse, and
the two kings put their shoulders under the bier as it was carried into the
church. Three paralytic persons, and some others, recovered their health at his
tomb. St. Hugh was canonized by Honorius III. or IV, and is named in the Roman
Martyrology. See his life written by Adam, D.D. a Carthusian at London, in
1340. 4
Note 1. See the manuscript relation of the
miracles of St. Thomas of Cant. in Bibl. D. Constable de Burton. [back]
Note
2. The cathedral of Lincoln was begun in
1086, by Remigius, who transferred the see from Dorchester hither in 1072. It
was burnt thirty-eight years after, and begun to be rebuilt by Bishop Alexander
with an arched roof of stone. The beautiful part from the upper transept to the
east end was added by St. Hugh the Burgundian, who also built the
chapter-house. The length of this church from east to west, within the walls,
is four hundred and eighty-three feet. The great transept from north to south
two hundred and twenty-three feet. This seems the best old Gothic church in
England, except York-Minster, which is in length five hundred and twenty-four
feet and a half, and in breadth in the cross, from north to south, two hundred
and twenty-two feet. Lincoln in former times abounded with religious houses;
the ruins of which are still seen in many barns, stables, out-houses, and even
some hog-sties. [back]
Note 3. See the articles of this treaty in
Rymer’s Fœdera, t. 1, p. 118. [back]
Note
4. This learned theologian, conversing little
with men, devoted himself entirely to contemplation to a decrepit old age, and
left several very spiritual tracts, as, On Twelve Profits of Tribulation: and,
a conference Of Six Masters, showing that tribulation is that by which we may
best please God, and which is most profitable: both printed at London in 1530.
Likewise A Ladder to Clymber to Hevyn: and the same in Latin, Scala cœli
attingendi: also in Latin, De Sumptione Eucharistiæ, l. 1, and Speculum
Spiritualium, l. 7, in manuscripts. See Tanner, p. 7. v. Adam. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
XI: November. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : https://www.bartleby.com/210/11/174.html
Öl-Leinwandgemälde von Johann Friedrich Sichelbein,
gemalt im Jahre 1711/14 an der Nordwand des Priesterchores von St. Maria im
oberschwäbischen Buxheim bei Memmingen.
Hugh of Lincoln, O.Cart. B (RM)
(also known as Hugh of Avalon)
Born in Avalon Castle, Burgundy, France, c. 1140; died in London, England, on
November 17, 1200; canonized 1220, the first Carthusian to be so honored. Saint
Hugh had the advantage of faithful parents. His father William, lord of Avalon,
was known for his works of charity. Mother Anna, who cared for lepers and the
sick, died when Hugh was eight. Thereafter he was raised and educated at a
convent at Villard-Benoit. He was professed at 15, ordained a deacon at 19, and
was made prior of a monastery at Saint-Maxim.
While visiting Grand Chartreuse with his prior in
1160, Hugh decided to join the Carthusian Order and was ordained a priest. In
1173 he was appointed procurator (in charge of monastery business and care of
guests). He became known for his love of the poor and animals, who would feed
from his hands.
In 1175, King Henry II invited him to establish a
monastery at Witham in Somerset, England, between Bruton and Frome (penance for
murdering Saint Thomas Becket. When Hugh arrived in Witham, he found that the
monastery still needed to be built.
He immediately clashed with the king over matters of
justice. Hugh refused to undertake the office of prior until the king had given
alternative accommodation and compensation 'to the last penny' to the peasants
whose land was seized for the monastery. After interviewing his earthly
sovereign, Hugh would hurry back to his prayers and his pets, including his pet
swan. Hugh's reputation for holiness spread all over England and attracted many
to the monastery.
He also chided Henry for keeping sees vacant to enrich
the royal coffers (since income from vacant sees went to the royal treasury).
Soon thereafter (1186) he was reluctantly consecrated bishop of Lincoln, the
largest see in England, which had been kept vacant for more than a decade. He
relented and accepted the post only when ordered to do so by the prior of Grand
Chartreuse.
Hugh arrived at his consecration dressed as a shabby
monk riding on a mule, which caused embarrassment to the knights. He walked
barefoot into the cathedral and threw a great feast afterwards for all the poor
of Lincoln, rather than for the nobility.
Saint Hugh quickly restored clerical discipline, labored
to restore religion to the diocese, and became known for his wisdom and
justice. He had differences with Henry over the appointment of seculars to
ecclesiastical positions. He rebuilt the fire-damaged Norman cathedral and
founded a famous school of theology.
He had the gift of healing and visited the sick. He
brought lepers into his own rooms to minister to them. His acts of charity
included feeding the poor, protecting the outcast, caring for the sick, and
burying the dead. Hugh set aside one-third of his revenues for the poor.
During the pogroms (1190-91) against the 2,000 English
Jews following Henry's death (during the crusades of King Richard), Hugh acted
as protector to the Jews of Lincoln, repeatedly facing down armed mobs and
making them release their victims. It is said that after such a showdown he
would go to play with children, tend the neglected sick, or visit outlying
parts of his diocese--I guess to him seeking justice was just part of another
day's work for the Kingdom.
In Northampton, Hugh dealt with a cult that arose
around the death of a local boy, John, who had allegedly been killed by Jews.
There was evidence that John was a thief murdered by his partner. Hugh, with
his own hands, tore down the shrine to John. (A similar situation arose around
'Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln' 60 years after the bishop's death--see Saints
who never were.)
With all his burdens and spiritual earnestness, he was
full of liveliness and gaiety, but he was easily aroused to anger by injustices
of any sort. He vigorously supported the common people against the king's
foresters and fought the Forest Laws, which hunted down the poor. He
excommunicated one forester. (He used excommunication rather than fines in the
ecclesiastical court.)
In 1197 King Richard demanded monies from bishops and
barons to subsidize his war against King Philip Augustus in France. Hugh challenged
that churches and religious houses are the property of God, not the crown. Hugh
won the long legal battle.
Then Richard demanded 300 men. Hugh flatly refused,
saying he had an obligation only to provide men for home defense. Supported by
the bishop of Salisbury. Richard tried to seize property of both, but officers
were afraid of excommunication. They begged Hugh to work it out with the king.
King Richard said of Hugh, "if all the prelates
of the Church were like him, there is not a king in Christendom who would dare
raise his head in the presence of a bishop." Though he had clashed with
Henry and Richard, his leadership was such that he remained on good terms with
both monarchs. Dealing with able and overbearing men is never easy but Hugh's
sense of humor, even temper, and steady firmness compensated.
Hugh said of himself that he was 'peppery'; his
admirers said 'he was a good man, fearless as a lion in any danger,' and his
bravery was without bluster. He calmed the rage of the fierce Henry II with a
joke--a daring joke at the king's expense; he calmed the rage of the fierce
Richard I with a kiss--and still refused to pay taxes to finance the king's war
with France: an early case of the refusal of a money-grant demanded directly by
the Crown.
In 1199, Hugh went on a diplomatic mission to France
for King John, and returned from the trip in poor health after visiting the
Grande Chartreuse, Cluny, and Cîteaux. A few months later while attending a
national council in London, he was stricken and died at the Old Temple in
London.
His will gave 'everything which I appear to possess to
our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of His poor.' He was so venerated during
his lifetime that at his magnificent funeral the kings of England and Scotland
helped carry his bier. (John Ruskin found him "The most beautiful
sacerdotal figure known to me in history.") Many of the sick were healed
as his funeral procession passed from London to Lincoln Cathedral (Attwater,
Benedictines, Delaney, Douie, Markus, Thurston, Woolley).
His emblem in art is a 'swan,' because he had a pet wild swan that would follow him and keep watch over his bed. He sometimes holds a chalice in which the Christ Child sits, which relates to a miracle witnessed as he was celebrating Mass at Buckden when a vision of Christ was manifested as Hugh consecrated the bread and wine. At other times he may be shown (1) with the swan by his deathbed; (2) as a bearded bishop giving a blessing; (3) helping to build Lincoln Cathedral; or (4) raising a dead child to life (Markus, Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1117.shtml
_-_The_Miracles_of_Saint_Hugh_of_Lincoln.jpg)
Erasmus Quellinus II (1607–1678),
The Miracles of Saint Hugh of Lincoln, circa 1645, 247.4 x 196,5, Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Antwerp
Weninger’s
Lives of the Saints – Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop
Article
We now add the life of a holy bishop, who not only had
a valiant warrior for his father, but who himself also fought as a brave
Christian hero, for the honor of God and the liberties of the Church of Christ.
This is Saint Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, born in Burgundy, and descended from a
noble family. When in his eighth year, he lost his mother; but, that nothing
might be neglected in his education, his father gave him in charge of the
regular Canons in a monastery not far distant, which he himself not long
afterwards entered, in order to pass the remainder of his life’ in the service
of God. Hugh remained in this monastery until he had reached his nineteenth
year, and was instructed as well in virtue as in the arts and sciences. The
Abbot of the monastery, having about that time occasion to visit the Carthusian
monks near Grenoble, took Hugh along as his companion. The peace and happiness
which reigned in that solitude so charmed the heart of the youth, that he
conceived an intense desire to spend his life with those holy men, and, after
much solicitation, he received from his Abbot the permission to do so. The evil
spirit tormented the young novice for some time most violently with horrible
temptations. Hugh took refuge in prayer, fasting, and other penances, to obtain
divine aid. The thought of the presence of God, and confidence in the intercession
of the divine Mother, made him at length victorious over the devil; for as
often as he remembered the presence of the Almighty, and called on the Blessed
Virgin, he felt such strength, that he was able to withstand the temptations,
and at last entirely overcame them.
Eighteen years he had passed in the Chartreuse, when
the fame of his virtues induced the King of England to choose him as prior for
the cloister at Witham. He administered his new functions with so much talent
and modesty, that the clergy, after the death of the bishop of Lincoln, elected
him to that See. The humble servant of God would not consent to occupy so high
a place, and represented his incapacity in strong language, begging them with
tears to choose another. When, however, on the second election, every voice was
for him, his objections were no more regarded, and he was obliged to accept the
dignity. As bishop, his virtues shone still more brightly, and he endeavored,
with truly apostolic zeal, to labor for the honor of God and the salvation of
souls. Soon after he had entered upon his administration, he surrounded himself
with holy and learned men, in order to make use of their counsel. He gave no
one a parish of whose virtue and knowledge he possessed not sufficient proofs.
No recommendation, no protection of the nobility, not even of the king himself,
could move him to admit, among the number of his clergy, any one whose conduct
had not been exemplary. His own life was so blameless, that he was considered
not only the model of prelates, but a living mirror of holiness. The lives of
the holy bishops, which he read daily, assisted him greatly in his striving
after perfection, as he was desirous to imitate them.
He was extremely compassionate to all who were needy,
sick or forsaken. He often knelt down before lepers and kissed their ulcers. He
used frequently to wash the feet of thirteen beggars, after which he dismissed
them with rich alms. The dead he accompanied to the grave, so as not to omit
any work of Christian charity. A scoffer, one day, saw the Saint kiss the feet
of a leper, and said: “Saint Martin kissed the feet of a leper only once, and
cured him immediately; while this bishop continually kisses them, and yet no
one is cured!” Saint Hugh answered: “Saint Martin healed with his kisses the
body of the leper; but these lepers cure my soul by my kisses.” In abolishing
abuses and protecting the rights of the Church, he manifested great strength of
mind, and opposed even the royal commands when they were against the divine
laws or the rights of the Church or Clergy. This procured him at one time the
displeasure of King Henry II, to such a degree, that orders were issued for his
banishment from the country and for the confiscation of all his possessions.
But when the unjust sentence was to be executed, the Almighty showed how
greatly He is displeased when His anointed are wronged. One of the king’s
officers became immediately possessed by the Evil One; and after being
tormented for some time, was strangled. Others were overtaken by terrible
diseases, and so tormented, that they expired miserably. This deterred others
from executing the royal command; and the king durst not proceed further
against the Saint whom God defended. What merited for Saint Hugh this wonderful
protection of heaven, was his fervor in prayer, and his zeal in all other
devout exercises. He had his appointed hours for prayer as well as for work;
and at his hours of devotion would not attend to anything else, nor put off his
prayers to another time. For this fidelity he was one day visibly rewarded;
for, having made an appointment to set out for a certain place, on that day, he
was waited upon by the priests, who were to accompany him, earlier than had
been agreed upon. As he had not finished his usual devotions, he delayed his
departure. The priests who would not wait, went their way and fell into the
hands of robbers, who plundered them and dragged them miserably away. The holy
man set out after he had said his prayers, and arrived safely at the place of
his destination. The sacrifice of Holy Mass he performed with such devotion,
that h£ had several times the grace to see the Lord, in the form of a lovely
child, in the Host. His faith in the presence of Christ in the Most Holy
Sacrament was so strong, that when, one day, blood was seen miraculously
streaming from a sacred Host on the altar, the Saint having been called to see
the miracle, said: “To confirm my faith, I need not see this miracle; for I
have never doubted that Christ was substantially present in the Holy Eucharist.”
It is also related that he retired at least once every year, into his beloved
monastery at Witham, and remained there a few days, in order to renew his
spiritual life. During this time he conformed in everything to the regulations
of the cloister.
At last, in the year 1200, on the 17th of November,
God called His faithful servant, by a happy death, to receive the reward
prepared for him in heaven. A severe sickness informed the holy man of his
approaching end, and he joyfully hailed the message. After receiving the Holy
Sacrament, he foretold the many calamities which would befall the country. The
priests who were present recited aloud the office of Compline, and when they
came to the words of Saint Simeon: “O Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace,”
the holy bishop, who was lying upon sackcloth strewn with ashes, gave his soul
to the Almighty, in the 60th year of his age.
.jpg)
St Patrick (with snake) and St Hugh of Lincoln (with swan).Glass by Lawrence Lee, 1959. In memory of Isabella Bland, d.1956. St John the Baptist, Colsterworth, Lincs. Pic by Jenny.
Practical Considerations
• The thought of the presence of God was one of the
most efficacious means which Saint Hugh employed to conquer the temptations of
Satan. Use the same and you will experience its strength. “Thinking of God, we
forget vice,” says Saint Chrysostom. “He who thinks of God, is far from all
sin,” writes Saint Jerome. It is an article of faith, that God is omniscient,
that He sees, hears and knows everything. The Evil Spirit seeks to rob us of
this important truth to entice us to sin. If he has once brought us so far that
we believe that God sees us not, or knows nothing of us, he has gained
everything. Saint Augustine says: “Man falls easily into the most abominable
vices, when he imagines that God does not see him or does not care for what is
done on earth.” God Himself tells the cause of many crimes of the Israelites in
the following words: “The Lord sees us not: the Lord hath forsaken the earth.”
(Ezechiel 8) In the book of the Wise Man it is written that the wicked says to
himself: “Who sees me? Darkness compasses me about, and no man sees me: whom do
I fear? The Most High will not remember my sin.” (Eccl. 23) If then
forgetfulness of the presence of God leads to vice, the thought of the ever
watchful eyes of the Almighty must have great power in restraining us from sin.
Hence I recommend to you, especially when you are tempted, or are in danger of
sin, to think: “God sees me, though no man sees me. How dare I sin in His
presence? God hears what I say; God sees what I do; God knows what I think; how
dare I therefore speak, think, or do anything displeasing to Him?” Think of the
words of the Wise Man: “The eyes of the Lord are far brighter then the sun,
beholding roundabout all the ways of men, and the bottom of the deep, and
looking into the hearts of men, into the most secret parts. (Eccl. 23)
MLA Citation
Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Hugh of
Lincoln, Bishop”. Lives of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info.
23 May 2018. Web. 17 November 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-hugh-of-lincoln-bishop/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-hugh-of-lincoln-bishop/
.jpg)
Museo de Cádiz. Pintura, óleo sobre tabla
(1637-1639), concertada con la Cartuja de Jerez para el
pasillo del Sagrario. San
Hugo en su episodio milagroso: el Niño Jesús se le aparece en el cáliz
y le bendice. Su fiel cisne le acompaña.
Amy Steedman –
Saint Hugh of Lincoln
Evil days had fallen upon the little grey island of
the north. Those who were strong used their strength to hurt the weak. Little
heed was paid to law and order, and King Stephen’s hands were too weak and
helpless to govern a land that needed a strong stern ruler. Men said in their
hearts, “God has forsaken England,” for it seemed indeed as if the Evil One
alone held sway.
But through the darkness there were faint signs of the
coming dawn, and God’s army was silently gathering strength to fight His
battles and unfurl His banner.
Far away in the sunny land of France a little child
was growing up at that time, knowing nothing and caring not at all about the
woes of the little grey island of the north. Yet He who trains His saints to
fight His battles was training the child to fight in many a hard struggle upon
the battle-ground of England.
Little Hugh was born at the castle of Avalon near
Grenoble, and was the son of a great noble to whom all Avalon belonged. Softly
he was cradled and waited upon: the world was a place of sunshine and happiness
to the son of the seigneur, and he had all that a child’s heart could desire.
But very soon a change came over his pleasant world and the sunshine seemed to
fade. There was no mother to run to, no one to tell him where he might find
her, only the strange sad words which he could not understand when they told
him she was dead.
It was sad for little Hugh, but it was sadder still
for his father, and the lord of Avalon felt he could no longer live in the
castle that was now so dark and cheerless. So his thoughts turned towards a
house close by where men lived together who wished to serve God, and he
determined to spend the rest of his life with them. Hugh was only eight years
old, too young to be left behind, so together the father and little son entered
the priory,
and left the castle and lands of Avalon to the elder sons.
It seemed strange for such a child to share the solemn
strict life of these servants of God, but his father was glad it should be so.
“I will have him taught to carry on warfare for God before he learns to live
for the world,” he said, as he looked at the well-knit straight little figure
with the fearless eyes, every inch a soldier’s son. Then little Hugh squared
his shoulders and gazed proudly into his father’s face. He scarcely understood
what it all meant, but he loved the sound of those warlike words, “the warfare
of God.”
Among all those grave and learned men the child might
perhaps have been spoilt, for he had a wonderfully winning way and a keen love
of fun, while he was so quick to learn, and had such a marvellous memory, that
it was a pleasure to teach him. But the brothers were too kind to spoil the
child, and the old chronicle tells us “his infant body was made familiar with
the scourge of the pedagogue.”
There was a school at Grenoble, close by, to which
Hugh was sent, and there he soon became a great favourite. He was eager at
games as well as at lessons, and excelled in both. But his father, watching
him, would sometimes disapprove of too many games, and would remind him of that
“warfare of God.”
“Little Hugh, little Hugh,” he said, “I am bringing
thee up for Christ. Sports are not thy business.” Then he would tell him the
story of other boys who had been brought up to serve God; about Samuel, who had
heard God’s voice because he listened so eagerly; of David, who learned to do
things thoroughly, and to aim so straight at a mark that afterwards he could
not fail to slay the giant and win a victory for the Lord.
So the boy grew into a youth, eager to begin the
warfare for which his father had trained him. But there was other service
awaiting him first close at home. His father was now growing old and infirm,
and needed daily care and patient tending. With skilful gentle hands Hugh
served him. Even the commonest duty was a pleasure to the son who so loved his
father. He washed and dressed the old man, carried him in his strong young
arms, prepared his food, counting each service an honour, as the service to a
king. When his father’s eyes grew dim, when his hands were frail and trembling,
when his feet could no longer bear him, and the pleasant sounds of the busy
world woke no echo in his dull ears, Hugh was eyes and hands, feet and ears,
giving above all a willing service. Many a lesson had the father taught his
child in the days of his strength, but the best of all lessons he taught in the
days of his weakness—the lesson of loving patient service. So the old man lived
to bless the son whom he had trained for God, and that blessing was like a spring
of living water in Hugh’s heart. Long after, when many troubles came, and the
saint had travelled far along the hot and dusty road of life, he told a friend
how the remembrance of his father’s blessing was like a cup of cool water which
he loved to “draw up thirstily from his eager heart.”
That service ended, Hugh’s thoughts began to turn to
the warfare of which he had always dreamed. He had already been ordained, and
his preaching stirred the people, but he longed for some harder duties and a
sterner life.
Far away among the heights of the snow-capped
mountains, there was a house of holy men just gathered together by Saint Brune.
It was called the Great Chartreuse, and there the monks lived almost like
hermits. They had little cells cut out of the bare rock, and their dress was a
white sheep-skin with a hair-shirt beneath. On Sundays they each received a
loaf of bread, which was to last all the week for their food, and although they
had their meals together, they ate in strict silence, for no one was allowed to
talk.
This was surely a place where one might endure
hardness, and Hugh desired eagerly to join the brotherhood. Perhaps, too, he
felt that he would be living nearer heaven up there amongst the snowy peaks.
But the prior looked somewhat scornfully at the young
eager face.
“The men who inhabit these rocks,” he said, “are hard
as the rocks themselves, severe to themselves and others.”
That was exactly what Hugh was longing for, and made
him desire more than ever to enter the service, and although there were many
difficulties in the way, he persevered steadfastly, and at last was received as
a Carthusian monk.
Like all the other brothers, he lived, of course, a
silent solitary life, but for him there were friends and companions which were
not recognised in the monastery. He had always loved birds and beasts, and in
this quiet life he found they were quick to make friends with him. Little by
little he learned their secrets and their ways, and taught them to love and
trust him. When he sat down to supper, his friends the birds would come hopping
and fluttering in, ready to share his meal, perching on his finger and pecking
the food from his spoon.
Then from the woods the shy squirrels came flitting
in, looking at him boldly with their bright inquiring eyes, while they made
themselves quite at home, and whisked the food from his very plate with saucy
boldness. Life could never be very lonely for Hugh with such a crowd of companions.
Meanwhile, in the little grey island of the north,
better days were dawning, and with the death of King Stephen, law and order
began once more to be restored. Henry II. ruled with a firmer hand, and the
fear of God, and the desire to serve Him, awoke again in men’s hearts.
Throughout the land many churches were built, and many a battle was fought for
the right. Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, so foully murdered in his own cathedral,
gave up his life willingly “in the name of Christ, and for the defence of the
Church,” and his example roused the people to insist that God’s house and God’s
servants should be properly respected.
The King himself, sorrowfully repentant of his share
in the murder of the Archbishop, made a vow to found three abbeys, and invited
monks from the monasteries abroad to come and settle in them.
Now one of the places chosen by the King for founding
an abbey was Witham in Gloucester, but instead of building a proper home for
the monks, Henry merely seized the land from the poor peasants without paying
for it, and without finding them other homes. Of course the abbey did not
flourish. The first abbot would not stay and the second died, and it seemed as
if it was to be quite a failure, until the King thought of sending to the
monastery of the Great Chartreuse to ask for an abbot who would rule with a
strong arm and help to found a brotherhood.
“We must send our best,” said the prior; and when he
said that, all the monks knew that Hugh of Avalon would be chosen. Strong and
steadfast as the rocks amongst which he dwelt, he was as fearless and brave as
a lion, and yet with a heart so gentle and tender that all weak and helpless
creatures loved and trusted him.
So it was that Hugh of Avalon came to England, and we
may claim him as one of our own saints.
As soon as the new abbot found out how unjustly the
King had dealt with the peasants of Witham, he set about to put things right.
“My lord,” he said to the King, “until the last penny
is paid to these poor men, the place cannot be given to us.”
It was little wonder that from the beginning the poor
people loved and respected their abbot, and his justice and fearlessness won
the King’s friendship too. There was no one Henry cared to consult more than
this new friend of his, who was never afraid of telling him the truth.
When some time had passed, and the monks’ houses still
remained unbuilt, three of the brothers went to rernind the King of his broken
promises.
“You think it a great thing to give us bread which we
do not need,” said one of the brothers, who was very angry. “We will leave your
kingdom, and depart to our desert Chartreuse and our rocky Alps.”
The King turned to Hugh.
“Will you also depart?” he asked.
“My lord,” said Hugh quietly, “I do not despair of
you. Rather I pity your hindrances and occupations which weigh against the care
of your soul. You are busy, but when God will help, you will finish the good
work you have begun.”
“By my soul,” cried the King, “while I breathe thou
shalt not leave my kingdom. With thee I will share my counsels, with thee also
the necessary care of my soul.”
So the monastery was built, and the King’s friendship
for the abbot increased. It happened just at that time also that, as Henry was
crossing to Normandy, the ship in which he sailed came nigh to being wrecked by
a great gale that swept suddenly down upon her. The King in his fear prayed to
God to save him for the sake of the good deeds and holy life of his friend the
abbot. Then as the storm sank and the ship reached land, Henry felt sure he
owed his safety to that good man. The country people, too, were fond of talking
of the miracles worked by their beloved abbot, but Hugh himself would not hear
of them. In the lives of the saints it was the miracles he counted least of
all.
“The holiness of the saints,” he would say, “was the
greatest miracle and the best example for us to follow. Those who look at
outward miracles through the little doors of their eyes, often see nothing by
the inward gaze of faith.”
It was a very different life at Witham to the hermit
life among the snowy mountains, but Hugh remained just the same simple
steadfast man. He still wore the rough hair-shirt and ate the same poor fare,
and here as in his rocky cell the birds flew in to make friends with him and
eat from his plate.
But after eleven quiet years at Witham, Hugh was
called to harder work, for it was decided to make him Bishop of Lincoln. It was
sorely against his will that he accepted the honour, and it was with a heavy
heart that he bade farewell to the quiet monastery life.
There was great excitement and delight, however, among
the company that attended the abbot on his way to Lincoln. The canons wore
their richest cloaks, and the gilded trappings of their horses made a brave
show as they clattered along. But all their grandeur could not hide that one
shabby figure in their midst. Hugh, clothed in his monk’s robe, rode on his old
mule, and behind him was strapped a large bundle of bedding, sheep-skins, and
rugs.
“Dost see our abbot?” said one to another. “He will
put us all to shame. Men will laugh at the sight of the new bishop riding thus,
with his old baggage strapped behind.”
It was useless to suggest that the servants should
take charge of the bundle. Hugh plodded on, too busy with his thoughts to
notice the shame and discomfort of his companions.
At last, when twilight had fallen and night was coming
on, one of his friends thought of a plan to save their dignity. One of the
servants stole up softly from behind and cut the straps which bound the heavy
sheep-skin bundle, so that it slipped off and was carried away to be placed
among the other baggage, while Hugh went jogging on, dreaming his dreams and
thinking little of earthly matters.
There was no thought of personal grandeur in Hugh’s
heart. Rather he felt like a sailor setting out on a perilous voyage, with
storm-clouds already brooding close above the waves of this troublesome world.
He walked barefooted to the cathedral where
he was enthroned, clad only in his monk’s robe. He was a strange shabby figure
indeed among those gorgeous churchmen, but he walked with the bearing of a
soldier and the dignity of a king.
At his palace of Stow the Bishop found a new friend
ready to welcome him, one of the kind of friends he specially loved. In the
lake among the woods a wild swan had been seen to swoop down and take up its
abode. It was so large and strong that it easily drove away or killed all the
tame swans there, and then triumphantly beat the air with its great white wings
over its new dominions, and cried aloud with a harsh shrill voice.
It seemed willing to be friendly with the servants,
although it would allow no one to touch it, so with some difficulty it was
enticed into the palace to be shown to the Lord-Bishop. Hugh, with his love for
animals, soon made friends, and the swan came closer and closer, until it took
some bread from his hand, and from that moment adopted him as a friend and
master. It was frightened of nothing as long as Hugh was at hand, and it became
so fiercely loving that no one dared come near the Bishop while the swan was on
guard. Sometimes when he was asleep, and it was needful for his servants to
pass his bed to fetch something that was wanted, they dared not go near him,
for the swan would spread its great snowy white wings in defence, looking like
a very angry guardian angel, and if they came nearer, would threaten them with
its strong beak. Harsh and disdainful to every one else, the curious creature
was always gentle and loving towards Hugh, and would often nestle its head and
long neck up his wide sleeve, and lay its head upon his breast, uttering soft
little cries of pleasure. When the Bishop was away from home, the swan would
never enter the palace, but even before his return was expected by others,
there was a sound of a great beating of wings and strange cries from the lake
among the woods.
“Now hark ye,” the country people would say, “surely
our Lord-Bishop is returning home. Dost thou not hear that strange bird
preparing his welcome?”
No sooner did the luggage carts and servants begin to
arrive than the swan would leave the lake and make its way with great long
strides into the palace. The moment it heard its master’s voice it ran to him,
swelling its throat with great cries of welcome, and following at his heels wherever
he went. Only at the end, when the Bishop’s life was near its close and he came
to Stow for the last time, his favourite had no welcome for him. Hiding itself
among the reeds, it hung its head, and had all the ways of a sick creature. In
some strange way it seemed to know that it was to lose its master, and the
shadow of his coming death seemed already to have fallen upon it.
People have wondered much at this curious friendship
between Saint Hugh and the white swan, but they forget that for those of His
servants who love and serve Him, God has said, “I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the
creeping things of the ground.”
Troubles soon began for the Bishop in his new life. He
had a keen sense of justice, and could not bear to see the weak treated
unfairly by the strong, and one of his first acts was to punish the King’s own
chief forester for oppressing the poor.
That was a bold act, but worse was to follow when the
new Bishop refused to give a place in the cathedral stalls
to one of the King’s favourite courtiers.
“The stalls are for priests, and not for courtiers,”
was the message he sent to Henry. “The King has plenty of rewards for those who
fight his battles. Let him not take their offices from those who serve the King
of Kings.”
Henry was both hurt and angry, and ordered that the
Bishop should come at once to him at Woodstock.
“He is both ungrateful and troublesome,” said the
King. “I will speak with him myself.”
It was a sunny summer day when Hugh arrived at
Woodstock, and he was told that the King was awaiting his arrival in one of the
cool forest glades. There, under the trees, upon the green sward among a
company of courtiers, sat the King in a leafy bower. The sunbeams filtered
through the interwoven branches and threw patches of gold upon the green, while
the birds in the boughs overhead sang in royal concert. But the song of the
birds was the only sound that broke the stillness. The King and his courtiers
sat sternly silent, and never a figure moved nor a word of welcome was spoken
when the Bishop came through the trees.
“Good morrow, your Majesty,” said Hugh.
There was no answer. Every one sat silent, and no one
as much as glanced at the Bishop. At length the King looked up and asked one of
the attendants for a needle and thread. He had hurt one of his fingers, and the
rag around it was loose. Very solemnly he began to sew, stitch, stitch, stitch,
in unbroken silence, while the sunbeams danced and the birds sang.
A smile at last dawned on Hugh’s face, for he began to
guess what the silence meant. He was surprised, but not in the least afraid.
Going round to where the King sat, he put both hands on the shoulders of the
man who was sitting next to Henry and gently moved him to one side. Then he sat
down in the vacant place, and with a mirthful look in his eyes, watched the
King as he sewed in gloomy silence.
“How like your Highness is to your kinsfolk of
Falaise,” said the Bishop thoughtfully.
The King tried to look dignified, then stopped his
stitching, and burst out into a peal of laughter, rolling from side to side.
The rest of the company were much amazed, but as soon as the King could speak
he explained the joke.
“Know you,” he said, “what sort of an insult this
strange fellow has offered to us? I will explain it to you. Our great ancestor
Duke William, the conqueror of this land, was born of a mother of no very high
extraction, who belonged to a town in Normandy, namely Falaise. This town is
very celebrated for its skill in leather-stitching. When, then, this scoffer
saw me stitching my finger, straightway he declared me to be like the tanners
of Falaise, and one of their kinsmen.”
The Bishop’s fearlessness and the good joke put Henry
in a better temper, and he listened quietly to what Hugh had to say.
“I know well, sire,” said the Bishop earnestly, “that
you took great pains to get me made a bishop, and I would in return do my best
to prove your choice a wise one. I acted justly in these matters, and because
my actions were right I felt sure you would approve them.”
The King nodded his head, and once more the Bishop’s
faith in him met its reward. The forester was ordered to be flogged, and never
again while Hugh was bishop did any courtier apply for a stall in the cathedral.
Many a time in after days did Hugh cross the royal
will and fall under the King’s displeasure, but he never swerved from the
right, and faced the royal wrath so fearlessly, that in the end he earned for
himself the title of the “Hammer of Kings.”
All the clergy and the poor around loved their Bishop.
Every one in trouble, the poor and the sick, came to him for help, and no one
ever came in vain. But perhaps it was the children whom he specially loved. To
people who did not understand that love, it seemed almost like a miracle to see
how children were drawn towards him. Little faces brightened into smiles when
they saw him; little sun-browned hands caught at his cloak as he passed, happy
only if they might touch his robe. Even the babies, meeting his smile,
stretched out their arms to go to him. It seemed as if he possessed some secret
talisman to win their hearts. A miraculous secret the wise people called it,
but children knew it was no secret at all, but just the old miracle of love.
Perhaps the saddest of all God’s creatures in those
days were the poor lepers, who lived apart and were shunned by every one
because of their terrible sickness. And just because they were so sad and
suffering, the good Bishop loved to go to them and try to help and comfort
them. Through the sunny world of light and laughter these poor lepers passed
along like gaunt grey shadows, with the one dreadful cry upon their lips,
“Unclean, unclean.” Men and women drew back shuddering when the grey shadows
passed by, warned by the harsh clang of the lepers’ bell. Even children hid
their faces in terror, and though some kind hearts would give them food and
help, there was no kind hand that would venture to touch the leper.
But Hugh had no fear of the sickness and no horror of
these poor souls. His Master’s touch had healed many such an one in days gone
by, and he felt that in touching them he “touched the hand of Him who touched
the leper of old in Galilee.” Gently and lovingly the Bishop tended the poor
outcasts. He fed and clothed them, washed their weary painful feet, and often
stooping down, he kissed their poor scarred cheeks. Perhaps above all it was
the human touch they longed for, and looking into his kind eyes, they would
have some faint idea of the wondrous love which the lepers of old had seen in
the pitying eyes of our dear Lord Himself.
“Surely this is too much,” said his clergy, watching
their Bishop with shuddering glances. “What good can it do? We know of course
that Saint Martin, of blessed memory, healed the leper with his kiss, but the
miracle does not happen now.”
The Bishop only looked at them with a quiet smile.
“Martin by his kiss brought bodily health to the
leper,” he said, “but the leper by his kiss brings health to my soul.”
It was men’s bodies as well as their souls that Hugh
cared for, and it vexed him sorely to see how carelessly the poor bodies were
treated when the souls had gone home to God. No matter how busy he was, he
would put everything aside to pay the last honours to the dead. Once, on his
way to dine with the King, he found the body of a poor beggar lying by the
wayside, and at once stopped to bury it. Messengers came to bid him come at
once, as the King was furious at his delay, but the Bishop went on calmly with
his work and bade them tell the King he need not wait for him. “I am occupied
in the service of the King of Kings,” he said: “I cannot neglect it.”
Very soon after King Henry’s death, trouble arose
between the Bishop and the new King Richard. He of the lion heart could not
understand how one of his own subjects dare disobey his orders, and when the
Bishop of Lincoln refused to make the clergy pay to provide soldiers for
foreign service, he ordered him to come and explain his disobedience in person.
Hugh started at once for France, where the King
awaited his coming near Rouen. Richard was in the chapel, seated upon his royal
throne, and the service had begun when the Bishop arrived. But Hugh went
straight up to him and demanded the usual kiss. Richard answered never a word,
but turned coldly away.
“Give me the kiss, my lord King,” said Hugh, seizing
the royal mantle and giving it a hearty shake.
“You do not deserve the kiss,” said the King in a
surly tone.
“Nay, but I do,” answered Hugh, and he gave the robe a
stronger shake, drawing it out as far as it would reach. “Give me the kiss.”
King Richard was not at all accustomed to being shaken
and spoken to in that tone of voice, but there was something about the man that
even kings could not resist, and the kiss was given. Then Hugh went to kneel
humbly in the lowest place in the chapel, until the service was over and he
could explain why he had refused to send the money demanded of him. And not
only did he convince the King of his justice, but he went on to calmly reprove
Richard for some of his faults, and suggest many improvements in his behaviour.
The King listened meekly, and was heard to say afterwards: “If all bishops were
like my lord of Lincoln, not a prince among us could lift up his head against
them.”
Time passed on and Richard died. Then John, the false
and mean, reigned over England, and many a warning word did he hear from the
lips of the good Bishop. But Hugh was nearing the end of his journey now, and
with a thankful heart he prepared to lay down his arms after his long warfare
in the service of God.
In the house belonging to the see of Lincoln at the
old Temple, the faithful soldier and servant lay awaiting the messenger of the
King of Kings.
“Prepare some ashes,” he directed, “and spread them on
the bare ground, in the form of a cross, and lay me there to die.”
The weary body, clad in the rough hair-shirt, was laid
on the cross, and, as the grey shadows of twilight gathered in the quiet room,
the strains of the evening hymn came floating through the open window.
“Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,”
chanted the choristers of Saint Paul’s, and even as they sang, the prayer was
answered. Only the worn-out body lay upon the cross of ashes; the soul had
indeed departed in peace, and the warfare of the faithful soldier was
accomplished.
They carried the saint’s body to Lincoln, and the
whole countryside, rich and poor, high and low, came out to meet him, while
King John and William of Scotland shared the honour of bearing him to his last
resting-place.
“It may be observed,” says the old chronicle, “that he
who neglected kings to bury the dead, at his own burial was followed by kings.”
The loving memory of Saint Hugh has faded and grown
dim, perhaps, with passing years, but at Lincoln the great cathedral,
which he helped to build with his own hands, speaks still in its strength and
beauty of the bishop-saint, so strong in his steadfast courage, so beautiful in
his tender love for the weak and helpless of the earth.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/amy-steedman-saint-hugh-of-lincoln/
Hornton stone statue of St Hugh of Lincoln in a
cinquefoil niche on the west front of the Roman Catholic church of St John the
Evangelist, South Bar Street, Banbury, Oxfordshire. Installed for the centenary
of the church in 1938.
Golden Legend – Life of Saint Hugh
Here followeth the Life of Saint Hugh, Bishop and
Confessor.
Saint Hugh, of holy remembrance, was sometime bishop
of Lincoln. He was born of the utterest parts of Burgundy,
not far from the Alps, otherwise called the mountains, and was of noble
parentage and lineage, for he came of the knights. And this holy man when he
was young and tender of age he was set to school, and when he was ten years old
he was put into a monastery for to learn the rules of discipline, and there was
made and professed a canon-regular, wherein he lived so devoutly that when he
was fifteen years old he was deputed for to be prior of a certain cell and he
ruled it in such wise that all thing that was under his governance prospered as
well in spiritual things as in temporal things. After this he thought adaunt and put his flesh to more
penance, and by the disposition of our Lord he entered into the order of
Charterhouse, where he was received, and was there so virtuous in his living,
that among the strangers he was so friendly and so well beloved that after a
little while he was made procurator of the house. In that time Henry, king of
England, did do build and founded a house of Charterhouse in England, wherefore
he sent into Burgundy to
the Charterhouse for to have one of them to have the governance and rule of it,
and at the great instance and the prayer of the king unnethe could he get this said
Saint Hugh, but at the last by the commandment of his overest, and request of
the king, he was sent into the realm of England, and there made procurator of
the same house, and there lived a holy and devout life as he did tofore. that
he stood so in the king’s grace that the king named him to be bishop of
Lincoln, and was elected by the chapter of the canons of Lincoln, which
bishopric the king had holden long in his hands. And was called thereto by the
said chapter, and the bishopric to him presented, which dignity he utterly
refused and said plainly that in no wise that he would not receive any
pontifical dignity without assent and also commandment of the prior of the
Charterhouse, which was consented. And also, the whole election of the chapter
of Lincoln to him declared, he took upon him the office and was sacred bishop
of Lincoln. And the next night after, he heard a voice saying to him: Thou art
gone out into the health of thy people. And after this he withstood mightily
the power of wood people that entended to hurt the privilege of the church, and
put his body in peril, like as he had despised it, for to bring the church from
servitude, and recovered many droits and rights which had been taken away from
the church. This holy man made many good statutes and ordinances in his
diocese, and went and visited the churches and places of his cure and charge,
and lived a holy life. And he would visit the houses of lepers and lazars, and
was wont oft to enter into their houses, and by his commandment the women were
departed from the men. And all the men that were foul and deformed in their
visage, he would kiss of humility. And there was at that time in the church of
Lincoln, an honourable man, a canon named William, which was chancellor of the
church, a good man and well lettered, and he would prove and essay if there
were any elation or pride in his courage, and said to this holy man: Saint
Martin by kissing of a man that was a foul lazar healed him, and ye heal not
the lepers ne lazars that ye kiss. Who anon answered to the chancellor: Saint
Martin certainly healed a leprous man by kissing, and this kissing that I kiss
the lepers healeth my soul. This was a humble and a meek answer. This holy man
Saint Hugh in all his life was much diligent in burying of dead men, and of his
humanity would gladly do the office about their sepulture, wherefore our Lord
gave and rendered to him by retribution condign, honourable sepulture; for what
time he departed out of this world, and the same day that his body was brought
to the church of Lincoln, it happed that the king of England, the king of
Scotland, with three archbishops, barons, and great multitude of people were gathered
at Lincoln, and were present at his honourable sepulture, where God hath showed
for him divers miracles. Then let us pray unto this holy man Saint Hugh of
Lincoln to pray for us.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-life-of-saint-hugh/
St. Maria im oberschwäbischen Buxheim bei Memmingen. Nördlicher
Lettneraltar, Hugo von Lincoln
Legends
of Saints and Birds – Saint Hugh and His Swan
Hugh, Bishop of
Lincoln, who lived in the twelfth century, was not an Englishman by birth. His
father was a knight of Burgundy, and Hugh lost his mother when he was very
young. At eight years old he was sent to a Convent of Regular Canons, near to
his home, to be brought up a monk.
Every happy game was denied to the little
eight-year-old boy: he must neither run, laugh, or joke as did other children.
“Hugh, I bring you up for Christ,” said his master, the
monk who taught him. “No jokes for you.”
Now, this treatment would have broken the spirit of
many boys, but Hugh bent under the vigorous discipline, becoming obedient,
loving, and guileless.
When he was nineteen he was taken one day to the
Grande Chartreuse monastery, near Grenoble. He looked at the pine- clad Alps
with their snowy summits, and the loveliness and grandeur of the scene
impressed him. He loved the sombre pine woods and the dazzling snow, and would
fain have become a monk at Chartreuse. His companions thought the life of a
Carthusian Monk would be too hard for him.
“I have lived simply from my childhood,” said Hugh.
Yet he went back to the Convent for a while; but the
rich plains of his native Burgundy did not draw him as did the rugged mountains
round the Grande Chartreuse, so after a while he went there and asked to be
admitted as a Carthusian Monk.
Ten happy years were spent there; then the call came.
He was to leave those snow-clad summits, thundering avalanches, the blue
gentians and Alpine roses, for a Somerset valley; to leave that again for the
desolate fens of Lincolnshire, where instead of crisp air and glittering
mountains he would have the raw fogs and damp marshes of an English fen.
At Witham, in Somersetshire, Henry II, King of England,
had founded the first Carthusian Abbey on English soil. As it had not prospered
under the first two Priors, the Bishop of Bath was sent to the Grande
Chartreuse to ask for a Monk who was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the
Carthusian Order to come to Witham to build the foundations of a thriving
Community. Hugh was chosen to go. Hugh, who loved the Grande Chartreuse and its
solitude so greatly; but better than the mountains, better than the monastery
Hugh loved his Saviour, so when he was convinced that duty called him to
England on his Master’s service, he bid farewell to the life he loved so well
and set forth on his journey.
When he was established at Witham he saw that much
reform was needed to make the English Community like the Grande Chartreuse. Now
even the English folk in the twelfth century were suspicious of anything that
was new the people who lived round Witham did not like the idea of a new
Community of Religious in England.
“Let the Carthusian Monks stay in their own land,”
they thought; and Hugh’s heart may have echoed that wish as he toiled under the
dull sky, and the heavy rains of an English autumn. He saw that the actual
building needed to be bettered and enlarged, so he set to work, carrying the
stones and kneading the mortar himself. And the folk round Witham took note of
this; they also saw that the Carthusian rule which they thought too severe for
any man did not tend to make Hugh gloomy, sombre, or severe. Instead this man,
strict as was his own life, had ever a tender word and a gentle smile for
others; and when he spoke to them in his broken English, his sweet face
expressed all that his halting tongue could not utter. So prejudice wore away,
and the house at Witham became a busy hive where industry, devotion, and
harmony reigned supreme.
Now it so happened that for two years the see of
Lincoln had been vacant, and during those years Henry II had taken the money
belonging to it; but after a while he felt that it would not do to leave it
longer without a Bishop, and he therefore told the Chapter to consider whether
Hugh, Prior of Witham, might not well become Bishop of Lincoln; for Henry had a
great respect for Hugh. So the Chapter dutifully elected the Prior. Hugh,
however, did not like this. “You have chosen me at the bidding of the King,” he
said. “And I will not come to Lincoln, for perhaps in your hearts you know of
one you would rather have than I. Choose for your Bishop one whom you judge
most worthy to Shepherd the flock of Christ, and not at the bidding of an
earthly king.”
But the Chapter again elected Hugh, this time
convincing him that it was by their own wish, and not simply to gain favour
with the King, that they asked him to be their Bishop.
At Lincoln, as at Witham, Hugh found much to be done.
He saw that the Foresters who were overseers of the Royal Chases often
oppressed the poor, treating them with great cruelty. He excommunicated the
Chief Forester. Henry was angry at this; that a Bishop who owed his preferment
to the King should dare to excommunicate a Royal Forester, was unheardof
impudence, and he remonstrated with Hugh.
But Hugh was firm, explaining that though Henry had
temporal power over the Foresters to appoint or dismiss them, he had the
spiritual authority over their souls, and the King was forced to submit. Again,
later on, Henry urged the Bishop to give a Prebendal stall to one of his
Courtiers. But Hugh said: “The King has the means of rewarding his servants
without burdening the Church with them; a prebend’s stall is for a Clerk, not a
Courtier.”
Now Hugh loved animals and birds. He had a Swan which
lived in the moat, and when he walked near to the moat the swan would come to
him and put its head up the Bishop’s sleeve, so that he might caress it. It fed
from Hugh’s hand, and would swim along in the water while the Bishop walked on
the pathway by the moat.
It used to go off into the Fens, sometimes, but it
always returned to Hugh. Indeed, once or twice, the return of the Swan was at
the same time as the return of the Bishop from a Lenten Retreat, so that folks
used to say that the coming of the Swan was a sure sign of the coming of the
Bishop.
Hugh lived on at Lincoln when Richard Coeur de Lion
was King, until John reigned. King John sent him to France to conclude a treaty
of peace between that country and England; and Hugh went once more to see his
beloved mountains and pine forests round the Grande Chartreuse.
He did not reach Lincoln alive. On his way through
London he fell ill of a fever and there died, peacefully and fearlessly as he
had lived.
His body they took to Lincoln for burial.
Thus died Hugh, Monk of the Grande Chartreuse; Bishop
of Lincoln; by some called “Hammer-King,” because of his fearless dealings with
Kings.
And Richard, himself “Lion-Hearted,” is reported to
have said of him, “If all the Bishops in my realm were like that man, Kings and
Princes would be powerless against them.”
– taken from Legends
of Saints and Birds by Agnes Aubrey Hilton
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/legends-of-saints-and-birds-saint-hugh-and-his-swan/
Vincenzo Carducci (1576–1638), Aparición
de ángeles músicos a san Hugo de Lincoln (Monastery of El Paular), 337 x 298, Museo del Prado
Sant' Ugo di Lincoln Monaco e vescovo
1140 - 1200
Nacque ad Avalon vicino Grenoble in Borgogna, verso il
1140, rimasto orfano entrò in una casa degli Agostiniani dove fu professo. A 25
anni entrò come monaco nella vicina Grande Chartreuse e verso il 1175 ne
divenne procuratore. Ebbe così l'opportunità di conoscere personalmente Pietro
di Tarantasia, futuro papa Innocenzo V e il cavaliere di Maurienne, che lo fece
conoscere al re Enrico II d'Inghilterra. Quando nel 1178 re Enrico, in
riparazione della morte di san Tommaso di Canterbury, eresse vari monasteri e
riedificandone altri, tra i quali la Certosa di Witham, della quale Ugo venne
inviato a prenderne il controllo nel 1179. Nel 1186 divenne vescovo della
diocesi di Lincoln, un vasto territorio che si estendeva dall'Humber fino al
Tamigi. Nel 1200, su richiesta di re Giovanni, Ugo sottoscrisse il trattato di
Le Goulet e mentre soggiornava in Francia, visitò per l'ultima volta la Grande
Chartreuse, Cluny e Citeaux. Durante il suo rientro a Londra, si ammalò
gravemente e morì nella sua casa di Londra la sera del 16 novembre 1200. (Avvenire)
Emblema: Bastone pastorale, cigno bianco
Martirologio Romano: A Lincoln in Inghilterra,
sant’Ugo, vescovo, che, dopo essere stato monaco certosino, fu eletto vescovo
di questa sede e si adoperò egregiamente sia in difesa della libertà della
Chiesa sia per liberare gli Ebrei dalle mani dei nemici.
Dei 23 santi e beati con questo nome vi sono alcuni che sono vere stelle lucenti di santità, come s. Ugo di Grenoble e s. Ugo di Cluny. Nell’elenco troviamo anche due santi Ugo (Hugh) di Lincoln, il primo è un fanciullo, l’altro è il celebre vescovo di cui parliamo.
Francese d’origine, nacque ad Avalon vicino Grenoble in Borgogna, verso il 1140, rimasto orfano entrò in una casa degli Agostiniani dove fu professo. A 25 anni ormai già diacono, entrò come monaco nella vicina Grande Chartreuse e verso il 1175 ne divenne procuratore, con l’incarico dell’accoglienza degli ospiti e del controllo dei fratelli conversi.
Ebbe così l’opportunità di conoscere personalmente Pietro di Tarantasia, futuro papa Innocenzo V e il cavaliere di Maurienne, che lo fece conoscere al re Enrico II d'Inghilterra.
E quando nel 1178 re Enrico, in riparazione della morte di s. Tommaso di Canterbury, volle erigere vari monasteri e riedificandone altri, tra i quali la Certosa di Witham, chiamò dalla Grande Chartreuse vari monaci; ma la fondazione, per tanti aspetti negativi, sembrò fallire, allora venne inviato Ugo a prenderne il controllo nel 1179.
La comunità della Certosa riprese vigore, gli edifici furono ultimati e la reputazione di santità si sparse in tutta l’Inghilterra del Sud. Nel 1186 il re Enrico II volle Ugo come vescovo della grande diocesi di Lincoln, che si estendeva dall’Humber fino al Tamigi, il quale accettò solo per ubbidienza al suo priore di Chartreuse.
La sua opera come vescovo fu immensa, efficiente e coraggioso; ricostruì la cattedrale danneggiata dal terremoto, scelse canonici di valore a cui affidò gran parte del lavoro presso il popolo, disperso nel vasto territorio; riorganizzò le scuole di Lincoln, le quali in quell’epoca furono al secondo posto in Europa dopo quelle di Parigi.
Tenne sinodi, visite pastorali, viaggiò instancabilmente per amministrare i sacramenti ai tanti fedeli. Come giudice, carica che gli competeva, era famoso per la sua giustizia incorrotta; tre papi lo nominarono arbitro della Santa Sede in diversi casi dell’epoca, che vedevano anche vescovi inglesi in contesa fra loro.
Soccorse continuamente i lebbrosi, i bambini, gli oppressi, in particolare gli ebrei, per i quali rischiò anche la vita. Un mese all’anno si ritirava nel suo monastero di Witham e con grande sua felicità, viveva la normale vita di certosino, lavando anche i piatti, suo passatempo preferito; mantenne per tutta la vita la giurisdizione della certosa per decreto del Capitolo Generale.
Pur essendo diventato amico personale di tre re inglesi e di uno scozzese, era intransigente nel difendere la libertà della Chiesa contro il potere secolare. Nonostante alcune scomuniche a diversi ufficiali reali, Enrico II lo inviò come ambasciatore in Francia nel 1188 per concludere un trattato di pace.
Nel 1200, su richiesta di re Giovanni, Ugo sottoscrisse il trattato di Le Goulet e mentre soggiornava in Francia, visitò per l’ultima volta la Grande Chartreuse, Cluny e Citeaux.
Durante il suo rientro a Londra, si ammalò gravemente di dissenteria e cecità, morì nella sua casa di Londra la sera del 16 novembre 1200.
Il funerale fu di una solennità eccezionale nella città di Lincoln, i re di Scozia e d’Inghilterra vollero l’onore di portare la sua bara. Subito dopo la sua morte, gli fu tributato un grande culto e nel 1220 fu canonizzato, primo santo certosino ad essere formalmente dichiarato tale, onore però sollecitato dalla diocesi di Lincoln.
Il 6 ottobre 1280 il suo corpo fu traslato nel nuovo e bellissimo “coro degli Angeli” nella cattedrale di Lincoln. Ma nel 1887 la tomba in cui si credeva vi fosse il suo corpo fu trovata vuota, ad eccezione di alcune vesti episcopali.
Ugo di Lincoln, classificato “il più bel carattere sacerdotale conosciuto nella storia”, fu oggetto di raffigurazioni artistiche per tutti i secoli che hanno seguito la sua morte, in chiese, cattedrali, come pure in tutte le Certose d’Europa.
La sua celebrazione liturgica fin dal Medioevo è al 17 novembre.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90539
Window in the north wall of St Hildeburgh, Hoylake
depicting Saints Hugh and Martin.
Voir aussi : http://www.fatima.be/fr/editions/ndf/revues/messager/archives/hugues.pdf
http://www.radio-silence.org/Sons/2012/LSM/pdf/lsm20121117.pdf
http://jubilatedeo.centerblog.net/6574880-Les-saints-du-jour-mercredi-17-Novembre
