_Coll%C3%A9giale_Saint-Martin_Statue_de_Sainte-Fare.jpg)
Statue de Sainte-Fare de la Collégiale Saint-Martin
de Champeaux.
Sainte Fare
Fare ou Burgondofare dut résister des années à la volonté de son père, le comte Agnéric, de la marier. Elle obtint de haute lutte que son père lui bâtisse le monastère où elle souhaitait se consacrer tout entière au Seigneur. Ce fut la fondation de l'abbaye de Faremoutiers en 627 au diocèse de Meaux dont elle fut la première abbesse. Elle y mourut vers l'an 660. Cette abbaye subsiste encore.
Sainte Fare
abbesse (7ème s.)
ou Burgondofare.
Abbesse de Faremoutiers*, près de Meaux dans la Brie française, elle était burgonde d'origine. Elle connut d'abord bien des oppositions paternelles à ses projets de devenir moniale jusqu'au jour où Gondoald, évêque de Meaux et saint Eustase, disciple de saint Colomban, décidèrent le père à donner à sa fille la liberté de choisir la vocation de sa vie.
Sainte Fare se retira d'abord à Champeaux puis dans une nouvelle maison qui prendra son nom: Faremoutiers-77120.
*L’abbaye bénédictine Notre-Dame et Saint-Pierre de Faremoutiers a été fondée vers 625 sur la colline d’Eboriac, à deux lieues environ de Coulommiers, par Sainte Fare, sœur de Saint Faron, évêque de Meaux. Complètement ruinée à la révolution, elle a été rétablie en 1931. Elle compte actuellement 8 moniales. (diocèse de Meaux)
Au pays de Meaux, en 657, sainte Fare, abbesse. Après avoir, pendant quarante ans, dirigé le monastère d’Evoriacum, qui fut ensuite appelé de son nom Faremoutier, elle fut associée dans la troupe des vierges qui suivent l’Agneau de Dieu.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/9507/Sainte-Fare.html
SAINTE
FARE ou BURGONDOFARE (655)
fondatrice de Faremoutiers
fondatrice de Faremoutiers
Elle est la fille du comte Agnéric et de Léodegonde
; sœur des saints Cagnoald et Faron. Elle fut bénie dans son enfance par saint
Colomban qui reconnut la marque d’une vocation à ce qu’elle portait entre ses
doigts un épi de blé mûr, bien que ce ne fut pas la saison.
Plus tard son père voulut la marier à un jeune homme de son rang mais elle s’enfuit et se cacha dans une chapelle près de Meaux, suppliant le Seigneur de conserver sa virginité. Elle fut retrouvée, ramenée au château et enfermée pendant six mois. Saint Eustaise, disciple de saint Colomban réprimanda fortement Agnéric de ses agissements le menaçant des châtiments de la justice de Dieu. Agnéric, effrayé reconnut sa faute, rompit la promesse de mariage, consentit que sa fille reçut le voile (614), et résolut de bâtir un monastère (Bridge). Elle y fut nommée abbesse et établit la règle de saint Colomban.
Des vierges de France et de l’étranger vinrent se ranger sous sa conduite, attirées par ses vertus. Faron, le frère de Fare fut si touché des exemples et des discours de sa sœur qu’il se consacra à la vie religieuse ; il devint évêque de Meaux. Agée de plus de quatre-vingt ans, elle se prépara à l’heure de sa mort avec ferveur en exhortant ses filles : « Aimez Dieu en toute chose et gardez fidèlement sa loi... Ne méprisez personne que vous-même…»
Plus tard son père voulut la marier à un jeune homme de son rang mais elle s’enfuit et se cacha dans une chapelle près de Meaux, suppliant le Seigneur de conserver sa virginité. Elle fut retrouvée, ramenée au château et enfermée pendant six mois. Saint Eustaise, disciple de saint Colomban réprimanda fortement Agnéric de ses agissements le menaçant des châtiments de la justice de Dieu. Agnéric, effrayé reconnut sa faute, rompit la promesse de mariage, consentit que sa fille reçut le voile (614), et résolut de bâtir un monastère (Bridge). Elle y fut nommée abbesse et établit la règle de saint Colomban.
Des vierges de France et de l’étranger vinrent se ranger sous sa conduite, attirées par ses vertus. Faron, le frère de Fare fut si touché des exemples et des discours de sa sœur qu’il se consacra à la vie religieuse ; il devint évêque de Meaux. Agée de plus de quatre-vingt ans, elle se prépara à l’heure de sa mort avec ferveur en exhortant ses filles : « Aimez Dieu en toute chose et gardez fidèlement sa loi... Ne méprisez personne que vous-même…»
Sainte Fare rendit son âme à Dieu le 7 décembre
655. Ses reliques sont conservées dans l’église de Faremoutiers et dans celle
de Champeaux dans le diocèse de Meaux. Elle est invoquée pour les maux d’yeux.
Burgundofara, OSB Abbess
V (RM)
(also known as Fare, Fara)
Born near Meaux; died at Faremoutiers in Brie, France, on April 3, c. 655-657.
Sister of Saint Cagnoald, Saint Faro, and Agnetrudis, Fare had been blessed by
Saint Columbanus in her infancy during his stay with the family on his way into
exile from Luxeuil. Some chroniclers say say was 10 or 15 at the time
Columbanus consecrated her to God in a particular manner.
She developed a religious
vocation early in spite of the fierce opposition of her father, Count Agneric,
one of the principal courtiers of King Theodebert II. He arranged an honorable
match for his daughter, which so upset her that she became mortally ill. Still
Agneric demanded that she marry.
When Saint Eustace was
returning to the court with her brother Cagnoald from his embassy to
Columbanus, he stayed in the home of Agneric. Fare disclosed to him her
vocation. Eustace told her father that Fare was deathly ill because he opposed
her pious inclinations. The saintly man prostrated himself for a time in
prayer, rose, and made the sign of the cross upon Fare's eyes. Immediately her
health was restored.
Eustace asked her mother,
Leodegonda, to prepare Fare to receive the veil when he returned to court. As
soon as the saint left, Agneric again began to harass his daughter. She sought sanctuary
in the church when he threatened to kill her if she did not comply with this
wishes. Eustace returned and reconciled father and daughter. He then arranged
for Fare to be professed before Bishop Gondoald of Meaux in 614.
A year or two later, Fare
convinced her father to build her a double monastery, originally named Brige
(Brie, which is Celtic for "bridge") or Evoriacum, now called
Faremoutiers (Fare's monastery). The chronicler Jonas, a monk in that abbey,
wrote about many of the holy people he knew there, including Saint Cagnoald and
Saint Walbert.
Although Fare was still
very young, she was appointed its first abbess and governed the monastery under
the Rule of Saint Columbanus for 37 years. The rule was severe. The use of wine
and milk was forbidden (at least during penitential seasons). The inhabitants
confessed three times each day to encourage a habitual watchfulness for the
attainment of purity of heart. Masses were said daily in the monastery for 30
days for the soul of those religious who died.
Fare was apparently an
excellent directress of souls. Many English princess-nuns and nun-saints were
trained under her, including Saints Gibitrudis, Sethrida, Ethelburga,
Ercongotha, Hildelid, Sisetrudis, Hercantrudis, and others. Once when her younger
brother, Saint Faro, was visiting, he was so moved by her heavenly discourses
that he resigned the great offices which he held at court, persuaded his fiancé
to become a nun, and took the clerical tonsure. After he succeeded Gondoald as
bishop, Faro supported his sister against attempts to mitigate the severity of
the Rule.
A reference is made to Fare
by Bede led long afterwards to the mistaken idea that she died in England;
however, she died at Faremoutiers after a painful, lingering illness. Her will
bequeathed some of her lands to her siblings, but the rest to the monastery,
includng her lands at Champeaux on which a monastery was later erected.
Fare's relics were
enshrined in 695 and many miracles were attributed to her intercession. Among
them is the restoration of sight to Dame Charlotte le Bret, daughter to the
first president and treasurer-general of finance in the district of Paris. At
the age of seven (1602), her left eye was put out. She became a nun at
Faremoutiers in 1609 and lost the sight in her remaining eye in 1617 due to an
irreversible eye disease. Because she suffered terrible pain in her eyes and
the adjacent nerves, remedies were applied to destroy all feeling in the area.
In 1622, she kissed one of the exposed bones of Saint Fare and touched it to
both eyes. She had feeling again. Upon repeating the action, her sight was
restored--instantly and perfectly. Physicians and witnesses testified in
writing to her state before and after this miracle, which was certified as such
be Bishop John de Vieupont of Meaux on December 9, 1622.
The affidavit of the
abbess, Frances de la Chastre, and the community also mentioned two other
miraculous cures of palsy and rheumatism. Other miracles wrought at the
intercession of Saint Fare are recorded by Carcat and du Plessis (Attwater,
Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Saint Burgundofara is
depicted in art as an abbess with an ear of corn. Sometimes she may be shown in
the scene where Saint Columbanus blesses a child (Roeder). She is honored
especially in France and Sicily (Husenbeth).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0403.shtml
St. Fara, Virgin and Abbess
AGNERIC, one of the principal
officers of the court of Theodebert II. king of Austrasia, had by his wife
Leodegonda, four children: St. Cagnoald, who took the monastic habit under St.
Columban at Luxeu, about the year 594; St. Faro, who became bishop of Meaux;
St. Fara, 1 and Agnetrudis. In 610, St. Columban
being banished from Luxeu, in his flight lodged at the house of Agneric, called
Pipimisium, two leagues from Meaux, the present Aupigny, according to Mabillon,
or Champigny, according to Du Plessis. St. Cagnoald, who accompanied this abbot
in his exile into Switzerland, probably introduced him to his father, and St.
Columban gave his blessing to all the family; and when he came to Fara,
consecrated her to God in a particular manner. Jonas says she was then in her
infancy; Baillet supposes her then fifteen; Du Plessis only ten. When she had
attained the age of puberty, her father proposed to her an honourable match.
The holy virgin did every thing that lay in her power to prevent it and fell
into a lingering sickness, which brought her life in danger. St. Eustasius, St.
Columban’s successor, when that holy man went to Bobio in Italy, made a journey
thither, by order of Clotaire II. in order to persuade him to return, taking
with St. Cagnoald, who had returned to Luxeu when St. Columban left
Switzerland. St. Eustasius, after he came back, repaired to the court of
Clotaire II. to give him an account of his embassy, and in his way lodged at Agneric’s.
Fara discovered to him her earnest desire of consecrating her virginity to her
heavenly spouse. The holy man told her father, that God had visited her with a
dangerous illness which threatened certain death, only because he opposed her
pious inclinations, and after praying some time prostrate on the ground, he
arose, and made the sign of the cross upon her eyes; whereupon she was
forthwith restored to her health. The saint recommended her to her mother, that
she might be prepared to receive the veil at the time he should come back from
court. No sooner was he gone out of doors, but Agneric began again to persecute
his daughter, in order to extort her consent to marry the young nobleman to
whom he had promised her. Fara fled to the church, and when she was told that,
unless she complied with her father’s desire, she would be murdered; she
resolutely answered: “Do you think I am afraid of death? To lose my life for
the sake of virtue, and fidelity to the promise I have made to God, would be a
great happiness.” St. Eustasius speedily returned, and easily reconciled her
father to her, and engaged Gondoald, bishop of Meux, to give her the religious
veil. This happened in the year 614. The foundation of the famous monastery of
Faremoutier, is dated a year or two after this, Agneric having given his pious
daughter a competent portion of land, and raised a building proper for this
purpose. The abbey was originally called Brige, from the Celtic word which
signifies a bridge: Du Plessis supposes that there was then, as there is at
present, a bridge over the river at the confluence of the Aubetin and the Great
Morin. Hence the neighbouring forest now called the Forest of Faremoutier, took
that name. 2 The Latin name Eboriacas or
Evoriacas, which in the seventh age was given to this monastery, seems to have
been derived from the Celtic; and from this monastery and forest a district of
the country on the south of the Marne took the same name, and is now called
Brie. 3 This monastery was founded double,
and St. Eustasius sent thither from Luxeu St. Cagnoald, who, in 620, was made
bishop of Laon, and St. Walbert, who being born of an illustrious family in
Ponthieu, and having served some time in the army, had retired to Luxeu. He
afterwards succeeded St. Eustasius in that abbacy in 625. Jonas was also a monk
at Faremoutier, soon after the foundation of that house, and an eye-witness to
the eminent virtues of the holy persons who inhabited it, and of which he has
left us an edifying account.
St. Fara, though very young, was
appointed abbess of the nunnery, and, assisted with the councils of St.
Cagnoald and St. Walbert, settled there the rule of St. Columban, in its
greatest severity. We find that the use of wine was there forbidden, and also
that of milk, at least in Lent and Advent, and the religious made three
confessions a-day, as is mentioned in the life of St. Fara; that is, thrice
every day they made a strict examination of their consciences, and made a
confession or manifestation of what passed in their souls to their superior.
This practice of rigorous self-examination and confession or manifestation is
most strenuously recommended and ordered in all the ancient rules of a monastic
life, 4 as a most important and useful means
of attaining purity of heart, a perfect government of the affections, an
habitual Christian watchfulness, and true perfection. Under the direction of
guides perfectly disengaged from all earthly things, and enlightened in the
paths of virtue, many heroic souls at the same time filled this monastery and
all France with the odour of their sanctity. Among these, several are honoured
in the calendars of the saints, as St. Sisetrudis, St. Gibitrudis, St.
Hercantrudis, 5 and others. From the life of St.
Gibitrudis, it appears, that in this monastery it was customary to say a
trental of masses for every one that died in the house, during thirty days
after their decease. St. Fara was the directress of so many saints, and walked
at their head in the perfect observance of all the rules which she prescribed
to others. Her younger brother St. Faro was so moved by her heavenly discourses
one day when he came to pay her a visit, that he resigned the great offices
which he held at court, persuaded a young lady to whom he had promised marriage
to become a nun, and took the clerical tonsure. In 626, he succeeded Gondoald
in the episcopal chair of Meaux, died in 672, and was buried in the monastery
of the Holy Cross, which he founded, and which bears his name. His protection
and holy counsels were a support and comfort to St. Fara, under the assaults
which she had to sustain. Agrestes, a turbulent monk, pretending to correct the
rule of St. Columban in several points, drew over St. Romaric, founder of the
abbey of Remiremont, and St. Amatus, first abbot of that house: though they
afterwards discovered the snare, and repented of their fault. St. Fara was upon
her guard, and constantly opposed all attempts to undermine the severity of the
holy rule which she had professed. Ega, mayor of the palace of Clovis II.
raised a troublesome persecution against her, which she bore with patience and
constancy to his death, in 641. On the other side, the reputation of her virtue
reached the remotest parts. Several English princesses crossed the seas, to
sacrifice at the foot of the altars the pomp and riches which waited for them
on thrones. The glittering splendour of the purple and courts appeared in their
eyes an empty seducing phantom: they trampled it under their feet, and
preferred the humility of a cloister to worldly greatness.
Sedrido, the first of these
princesses, was daughter of Hereswith, whose father Hereric, was brother to St.
Edwin, the glorious king of the Northumbers. St. Hereswith had her by a first
husband, whose name has not reached us. Her second husband was Annas, king of
the East-Angles, with whose consent she renounced the world, and died a nun at
Chelles. Her daughter Sedrido passed into France in 644 or 646, about two years
after Annas, her father-in-law, had ascended the throne, and embracing the
humble state of a crucified life at Faremoutier, served God with joy, in
sackcloth and ashes, in the heroic practice of all Christian virtues. Though a
stranger, she was chosen to succeed St. Fara, and governed this flourishing
colony of saints from 655 till her happy death. Her mother Hereswith, her
sister Edelburge, (daughter of Hereswith and King Annas,) and her niece
Erkengota, daughter of her sister Sexburga, and of Ercombert king of Kent,
passed at the same time into France, hoping in this exile more perfectly to
forget and be forgotten by the world, which they renounced. St. Edelburge,
called by the French St. Aubierge, is called by Bede 6 the natural daughter of Annas; whence many have
inferred that she was illegitimate. But the word natural child seems never to have been
anciently taken in that sense, but in opposition to an adoptive child. 7 It is at least visible that Bede
here uses it to distinguish her birth from that of
Sedrido, who was only step-daughter to Annas. 8 St. Edelburge was chosen third
abbess of Faremoutier, upon the death of Sedrido, and is honoured among the
saints in the diocess of Meaux, on the 7th of July. An ancient chapel in her
honour, which stands not far from the abbey, was rebuilt in 1714. A spring
which is near it is esteemed a holy well: and
many drink at it out of devotion. It was beautiful and adorned at the expense
of certain English gentlemen, who resided in that country in 1718. St. Erkengota,
called by the French Artongate, died a private nun at Faremoutier, and is
honoured with an office in the diocess of Meux on the 23d of February. 9 Some Benedictin writers add to these
St. Hildelide, a nun of Faremoutier, who was also an English princess; and was
the assistant of St. Edelburge in the foundation of the great nunnery of
Barking. The primitive spirit of the religious state which was established by
these glorious saints, was long maintained in this monastery of Faremoutier. 10 St. Fara, after having been purified
by a painful lingering illness, and made worthy of the crown of eternal glory,
was called to receive it on the 3d of April, about the year 655. 11 By her last will she gave part of
her estates to her brothers and sister, but the principal part to her
monastery; and in these latter, mentions her lands at Champeaux. 12 It therefore seems a mistake in some
critics that she founded there another monastery. A conventual priory seems to
have been afterwards erected there by the monastery of Faremoutier. It has been
since converted into a collegiate church of canons, and is situate in the
diocess of Paris. The relics of St. Fara were enshrined in 695, and a great
number of miracles has been wrought through her intercession.
Dame Charlotte le Bret, daughter to
the first president and treasurer-general of the finances in the generality or
district of Paris, who was born in 1595, lost her left eye at seven years of
age, was received a nun at Faremoutier in 1609, and in 1617 lost her right eye,
and became quite blind. She went twice out of her monastery to consult the most
famous oculists at Paris, who unanimously agreed that an essential part of the
organ of her eyes was destroyed, and her sight irrecoverably lost; and, to remove
the pain which she frequently felt, they by remedies extinguished all feeling
in the eye-balls and adjacent nerves, insomuch that she could not feel the
application of vinegar, salt, or the strongest aromatic; and if ever she wept,
she only perceived it by feeling the tears trickle down her cheeks. Four years
after this, in 1622, the relics of St. Fara being taken out of the shrine, she
kissed one of the bones, and then applied it to both her eyes. She immediately
felt a pain in them, though they had been four years and a half without
sensation, and the lids had been immovably closed; and she had scarcely removed
the relics from her eyes, than a humour distilled from them. She cried out,
begging that the relics might be applied a second and a third time; which being
done, at the third touch she cried out, that she saw. In that instant her sight
was perfectly restored to her, and she distinguished all the objects about her.
Then, prostrate on the ground, she gave thanks to the author of her recovery,
and the whole assembly joined their voices in glorifying God. 13 The certificates and affidavits of
the surgeons and physicians who had treated her, and the affidavits of the
eye-witnesses of the fact were juridically taken by the bishop of Meaux, (John
de Vieupont,) who, by a judicial sentence, given on the 9th of December, 1622,
declared, that the cure of the said blindness was the miraculous work of God.
The abbess, Frances de la Chastre, and the community of nuns, signed and
published a certificate to the like purport; in which they also mention the
miraculous cures of two other nuns, the one of a palsy, the other of
rheumatism. 14 Other miracles performed through her
intercession are recorded by Carcat 15 and Du Plessis, who appeal to
memoirs of the abbey, drawn up in an authentic manner, &c. The name of St.
Fara is exceedingly honoured in France, Sicily, Italy, &c. See the life of
St. Burgundofara ascribed to Bede, but really the work of Jonas, of whom some
account is given at note under the life of St. Columban, on the 21st of
November; he wrote at Faremoutier the lives of St. Columban and his successors,
St. Attalus and Bertulfus at Bobio, St. Eustatius at Luxeu, and St. Fara. See also Du Plessis, Hist. de
l’Eglise de Meaux, t. 1, l. 1, n. 21, &c. t. 2, p. 1
Note 1. St. Faro, in ancient writings, is
called Burgondofaro, and St. Fara, Burgundofara. Baillet (28 Oct. in S. Faro)
pretends that they were so called because Burgundiæ
farones, or lords of the
kingdom of Burgundy; for this critic pretends, that Brie was part of the
province of the Senones, which belonged to the dominions of Gontran, king of
Orleans and Burgundy, though it had formerly been part of the kingdom of
Austrasia. See F. Daniel, Hist. t. 1, p. 146. But Du Plessis shows that Meaux
belonged not to Gontran, but to Theodebert II. king of Austrasia; and that,
Fara signifying lineage, these names implied that the persons were of
Burgundian extraction, which Jonas, in the Life of St. Fara, testifies to have
been the interpretation of this name. See Mabillon, Act. Ben. p. 617. Ruinart,
Not. in Chron. Fredegarii, p. 621. Du
Plessis, Hist. de Meaux. Not. 11, p. 632, t. 1.
Note 2. Saltus Briegius, Bede, &c.
Note
3. See Du Plessis, n. 17, p. 639.
Note 5. See Mabill. Act. Bened. pp. 439, 441, 442.
Note 6. Bede, l. 3, c. 8.
Note 8. Du
Plessis, note 34, p. 699, t. 1.
Note 9. Bede, l. 3, c. 8. Brev. Meldens.
Menolog. Bened.
Note 10. At what time the abbey of
Faremoutier exchanged the rule of St. Columban for that of St. Bennet, has been
the subject of warm debates between le Cointe and the Benedictins. The latest
epoch that can be fixed is about the time of Charlemagne. Within half a league
from Faremoutier is situated the abbey of La Celle, which name was formerly
given to hermitages and small monasteries. This was raised upon the cell of St.
Blandin, a hermit, born of poor parents, who died there on the 1st of May,
about the tenth century. A council of Meaux, about the year 1082, ordered all
small communities which did not maintain above ten monks, to be subjected
either to Marmoutier or Cluni. Thus La Celle became subject to the former. In
1633, the monks of Marmoutier yielded it to F. Francis Walgrave and the English
Benedictin monks, upon condition that the claustral prior, after his election,
be instituted to his office by, and his community be subject to, the visitation
of the grand prior and monks of Marmoutier. (See the deed of this convention in
Du Plessis, t. 2, n. 40, p. 343, and his account of this transaction, t. 1. p.
117, l. 2, n. 38.) The English Benedictins were aliens in France till
naturalized by Lewis XIV. in 1650, by letters patent, which were renewed in
1674, and again by Lewis XV. in 1723, (ib. p. 734, t. 2, p. 443.)
Note 11. See Mabillon, Act. SS. Bened. t. 2, p. 449, et Annal. Bened. t.
1, p. 434. Du Plessis, note 19,
p. 642.
Note 12. See her last will and testament,
published by Toussaints Du Plessis, Hist. de l’Eglise de Meaux. Pièces Justificatives, t. 2, p.
1.
Note
13. Du Plessis, t. 1, l. 5, n. 12, pp. 433, 434.
Note 14. Ib.
Pièces Justif. t. 2, pp. 320, 322.
Note 15. August.
Carcat, Vie de S. Fare, p. 238, &c
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume XII: December. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
St. Burgundofara (or Fara) of France
Commemorated on April 3 (and December 7)
Blessed by St. Columbanus
as a child, Burgundofara became a nun despite her father’s opposition. She was
responsible for founding the convent of Brige in France.
The monastery was later
renamed Faremoutiers (Fara’s Monastery) where she was abbess for thirty-seven
years. She fell asleep in Christ in 657.
By permission of www.orthodoxengland.org
SOURCE : http://www.antiochian.org/node/18208
Ma, divenuta adulta, il padre, incurante della promessa fatta al santo, pensò di maritarla. La fanciulla, allora, si ammalò e rimase in tale stato finché Eustasio, succeduto a Colombano nella direzione del monastero di Luxeuil, rivelò a Cagnerico che, lasciata libera di consacrarsi a Dio, ella sarebbe guarita. Il padre promise e la giovane riebbe la salute. Promise, ma non mantenne. Burgundofara, allora, accortasi che si cominciava a riparlare di nozze, abbandonò la casa paterna e si rifugiò, con un'amica fedele, presso la chiesa di S. Pietro. Scoperta, pregata di ritornare in famiglia, minacciata di morte se avesse rifiutato, non recedette dalla decisione presa. Eustasio, informato di ciò che stava accadendo, intervenne: ammonito severamente Cagnerico, impose il velo alla fanciulla.
Burgundofara, più tardi, ricevuto in eredità dal padre un terreno tra due fiumi, vi fondò il monastero di Evoriacum (Faremoutiers), di cui fu badessa per quarant'anni. Il cenobio, cui sorse accanto la chiesa consacrata alla Vergine e ai ss. Pietro e Paolo, divenne ben presto centro di fervida vita` spirituale: prima fu adottata la regola di s. Colombano, poi quella benedettina.
Burgundofara morì verso il 675 e il suo corpo fu sepolto presso l'altare, presente il fratello Farone. Ad alcuni decenni di distanza, Maiolo, abate del monastero di S. Croce di Meaux, ne levò le reliquie da terra esponendole alla pubblica venerazione. A Faremoutiers se ne celebrava la memoria il 7 dicembre; la commemorazione del 3 aprile deriva da un'aggiunta spuria di alcuni codici della Vita S. Columbani. Burgundofara è invocata specialmente contro i mali degli occhi.
Autore: Pietro Burchi
Santa Fara (Burgundofara)
Badessa
Originaria
di Pipimisicum (oggi Poincy, presso Meaux), ebbe due fratelli santi: Cagnoaldo,
monaco a Luxeuil, e Farone, vescovo di Meaux. Lo stesso san Colombano, esiliato
a Luxeuil e ospite in casa dei genitori di Fara, da giovane le indicò la via
della consacrazione. Tuttavia, una volta cresciuta il padre si oppose,
preferendo per lei il matrimonio. Solo Eustasio, succeduto a Colombano nella
direzione di Luxeuil, convinse il padre a lasciarla seguire la via religiosa.
Ma la libertà concessa rimase solo un buon proposito perché Burgundofara, per
seguire la sua strada, dovette abbandonare la casa paterna e si rifugiò presso
una chiesa. La situazione si risolse solo grazie all'intervento diretto di
Eustasio che la consacrò. Burgundofara, più tardi, fondò il monastero di
Evoriacum (Faremoutiers) su un terreno ricevuto in eredità dal padre. Qui fu
badessa per 40 anni. Morì verso il 675. (Avvenire)
Patronato:
Cinisi (PA)
Martirologio
Romano: A Faremoutiers nel territorio di Meaux in Francia, santa Fara, badessa,
che, dopo avere retto per molti anni il monastero, si unì all’assemblea delle
vergini che seguono l’Agnello di Dio.
Nacque
nel villaggio di Pipimisicum (oggi Poincy, presso Meaux) dal conte Cagnerico e
da Leodegonda, ed ebbe due fratelli santi: Cagnoaldo, monaco a Luxeuil, e
Farone, vescovo di Meaux. Bambina, fu benedetta e votata a Dio da s. Colombano
che, esiliato da Luxeuil, aveva ricevuto ospitalità dai suoi genitori.
Ma, divenuta adulta, il padre, incurante della promessa fatta al santo, pensò di maritarla. La fanciulla, allora, si ammalò e rimase in tale stato finché Eustasio, succeduto a Colombano nella direzione del monastero di Luxeuil, rivelò a Cagnerico che, lasciata libera di consacrarsi a Dio, ella sarebbe guarita. Il padre promise e la giovane riebbe la salute. Promise, ma non mantenne. Burgundofara, allora, accortasi che si cominciava a riparlare di nozze, abbandonò la casa paterna e si rifugiò, con un'amica fedele, presso la chiesa di S. Pietro. Scoperta, pregata di ritornare in famiglia, minacciata di morte se avesse rifiutato, non recedette dalla decisione presa. Eustasio, informato di ciò che stava accadendo, intervenne: ammonito severamente Cagnerico, impose il velo alla fanciulla.
Burgundofara, più tardi, ricevuto in eredità dal padre un terreno tra due fiumi, vi fondò il monastero di Evoriacum (Faremoutiers), di cui fu badessa per quarant'anni. Il cenobio, cui sorse accanto la chiesa consacrata alla Vergine e ai ss. Pietro e Paolo, divenne ben presto centro di fervida vita` spirituale: prima fu adottata la regola di s. Colombano, poi quella benedettina.
Burgundofara morì verso il 675 e il suo corpo fu sepolto presso l'altare, presente il fratello Farone. Ad alcuni decenni di distanza, Maiolo, abate del monastero di S. Croce di Meaux, ne levò le reliquie da terra esponendole alla pubblica venerazione. A Faremoutiers se ne celebrava la memoria il 7 dicembre; la commemorazione del 3 aprile deriva da un'aggiunta spuria di alcuni codici della Vita S. Columbani. Burgundofara è invocata specialmente contro i mali degli occhi.
Autore: Pietro Burchi
Voir aussi : http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bec_0373-6237_1899_num_60_1_452540_t1_0095_0000_2
