Aelred of Rievaulx

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx
Abbot
Born 1110
Hexham, Northumberland, England
Died 12 January 1167(1167-01-12)
Rievaulx, Yorkshire, England
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church;
Anglican Communion
Major shrine Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, England
(destroyed)
Feast 12 January
Attributes Abbot holding a book
Patronage bladder stone sufferers

Aelred (1110 – 12 January 1167), also Ailred, Ælred, Æthelred, etc., was an English writer, abbot of Rievaulx (from 1147 until his death), and saint.

Life

The ruins of Rievaulx Abbey on the River Rye in North Yorkshire

Aelred was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110,[1] one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew's at Hexham and himself a son of another Eilaf, treasurer of Durham.[2]

Aelred spent several years at the court of King David I of Scotland in Roxburgh, possibly from the age of 14,[3] rising to the rank of echonomus[4] (often termed 'steward' or 'Master of the Household') before leaving the court at age twenty-four (in 1134) to enter the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire.[5] He may have been partially educated by Lawrence of Durham, who sent him a hagiography of Saint Brigid.

From 1142–3, Aelred was novice master at Rievaulx. In 1143, he became the first abbot[6] of a new daughter house of Rievaulx at Revesby in Lincolnshire. In 1147, he was elected abbot of Rievaulx itself, a position he was to hold until his death. Under his administration, the abbey is said to have grown to some 140 monks and 500 conversi and laymen.[7] His role also required an amount of travel. Cistercian abbots were expected to make annual visitations to daughter-houses, and Rievaulx had five in England and Scotland by the time Aelred held office.[8] Moreover, Aelred had to make the long sea journey to the annual general chapter of the Order at Cîteaux.[9]

Alongside his role as a monk and later abbot, Aelred was involved throughout his life in political affairs. In 1138, when Rievaulx's patron, Walter Espec, was to surrender his castle at Wark to King David of Scotland, Aelred accompanied Abbot William of Rievaulx to the Scottish border to negotiate the transfer. In 1142 Aelred travelled to Rome, alongside Walter of London, Archdeacon of York, to represent before Pope Innocent II a group of northern prelates who opposed the election of King Stephen's nephew William as archbishop of York (the result of the journey was that Aelred brought back a letter from Innocent summoning the superiors that Aelred represented to appear in Rome the following March to make their deposition in the required canonical form; the resulting negotiations would drag on for many years).[10] The fourteenth-century version of the Peterborough Chronicle states that Aelred's efforts during the twelfth-century papal schism brought about Henry II's decisive support for the Cistercian candidate, resulting in 1161 in the formal recognition of Pope Alexander III.[11]

Aelred wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them Speculum caritatis ("The Mirror of Charity," reportedly written at the request of Bernard of Clairvaux) and De spiritali amicitia ("On Spiritual Friendship").[12] He also wrote seven works of history, addressing three of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendant of Anglo-Saxon kings.

In his later years, he is thought to have suffered from the kidney stones and arthritis.[13] Walter reports that in 1157 the Cistercian General Council allowed him to sleep and eat in Rievaulx's infirmary; later he lived in a nearby hut.

Aelred died in the winter of 1166–7, probably on 12 January 1167,[14] at Rievaulx.

Writings

Aelred's Life of Edward the Confessor, late 12th century illuminated manuscript, British Library

For his efforts in writing and administration Aelred was called by David Knowles the "St. Bernard of the North." Knowles, a historian of monasticism in England, also described him as "a singularly attractive figure," saying that "No other English monk of the twelfth century so lingers in the memory."[15]

All of Aelred's works have appeared in translation, most in English, and all in French.

Extant works[16] by Aelred include:

Histories and biographies
Spiritual treatises

Sermons

Later reputation

Aelred was never formally canonised, but became the centre of a cult in the north of England which was recognised officially by the Cistercians in 1476.[20] As such, he was venerated as a saint, with his body kept at Rievaulx. In the sixteenth century, before the dissolution of the monastery, John Leland saw Aelred's shrine at Rievaulx containing Aelred's body glittering with gold and silver.[21] Today, he is listed for 12 January, the traditional date of his death, in the Roman Martyrology and the calendars of various churches.

Much of Aelred's biography is known because of the Life written about him by Walter Daniel shortly after his death.

Until the twentieth century, Aelred was generally known as a historian rather than as a spiritual writer; for many centuries his most famous work was his Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor.

Patronage

A high school named after St. Aelred (the more modern spelling of his name) in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, in the United Kingdom, closed in 2011; a primary school in York is named for him. Formerly there was also a high school on Gleniffer Road in Glenburn, Paisley, named after St Aelred.

Sexuality

Aelred's work, private letters, and his Life by Walter Daniel, another twelfth-century monk of Rievaulx, have led historians, such as John Boswell of Yale University and Brian Patrick McGuire of Roskilde University in Denmark, to suggest that he was homosexual.[22] All of his works, nevertheless, encourage virginity among the unmarried and chastity in marriage and widowhood and warn against any sexual activity outside of marriage; in all his works in later life he treats of extra-marital sexual relationships as forbidden and condemns "unnatural relations" as a rejection of charity and the law of God. He criticised the absence of pastoral care for a young nun who experienced rape, pregnancy, beating, and a miraculous delivery in the Gilbertine community of Watton.

Several gay-friendly organisations have adopted Aelred as their patron saint, such as Integrity[23] in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, National Anglican Catholic Church in the northeast United States, and the Order of St. Aelred.[24]

Notes

  1. ↑ Thurston, Herbert. "St. Ælred." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 20 September 2012
  2. ↑ Bell, "Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)"
  3. ↑ It is unclear exactly when Aelred joined King David's court. However, David became king in 1124, when Aelred was 14, and in his lament for David Aelred says he had known David "from the beginning of his age", which might well imply that Aelred had been at the court from around 1124. See Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, (London: SPCK, 1969), p12.
  4. ↑ See Walter Daniel, Vita A, ca. 2. (p91 of Cistercian Fathers translation)
  5. ↑ The Lives of the Saints, Rev. S. Baring-Gould, Volume 1, Page 178, Edinburgh: John Grant, 1914
  6. ↑ Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, (London: SPCK, 1969), p53.
  7. ↑ Walteri Danielis Vita Ailredi Abbatis Rievall', ed. FM Powicke, (London, 1959), ca. 30.
  8. ↑ Some evidence of these journeys remains. For instance, Walter Daniel records a visitation that Aelred made to Dundrennan. Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (London: SPCK, 1969), p65
  9. ↑ It was probably during one of these journeys that he delivered the sermon he is recorded as preaching at Troyes.
  10. ↑ Marsha L Dutton, 'Introduction', in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, (Collegeville, MI, 2010), p16; Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, (London: SPCK, 1969), p24.
  11. ↑ Marsha L Dutton, 'Introduction', in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, (Collegeville, MI, 2010), p17
  12. ↑ On the use of spiritali,'" instead of spirituali, see Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, transl. by L. Braceland (2010), 25.
  13. ↑ Walter Daniel, "Vita Aelredi"
  14. ↑ This is the traditional date for his feast within the Cistercian Order, as celebrated on the authority of Walter Daniel, Vita A, ca. 57.
  15. ↑ Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, 3rd edition. New York:Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-051312-4.
  16. ↑ Some of Aelred's works have apparently not survived, including his letters and his poetic eulogy to St Cuthbert. The Rievaulx library catalogue also lists an otherwise unknown De fasciculo frondium, and Walter Daniel notes that he composed a liturgical homily on Luke 11:33 to be read on the feast day of St Edward the Confessor; Peter Jackson has recently identified and published what he believes to be that sermon ('In translacione sancti Edwardi Confessoris: The Lost Sermon by Aelred of Rievaulx?', "Cistercian Studies Quarterly" 40 (2005): 45–82). See David N. Bell, ‘Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 5 Aug 2013
  17. ↑ King David died on 24 May 1153.
  18. ↑ This seems to be a sermon that Aelred preached at Hexham on 3 March 1155, when the relics of five former bishops of Hexham were translated to new shrines.
  19. ↑ Marsha L Dutton, 'Introduction', in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, (Collegeville, MI, 2010), p21-2
  20. ↑ The entry on Aelred in the 1905 New International Encyclopedia states incorrectly that Aelred was canonized in 1191 ( Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Ailred". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.). For correct information, see David N. Bell, 'Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 5 Aug 2013
  21. ↑ Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, (London: SPCK, 1969), p2
  22. ↑ Sommerfeldt 2005, pp. 8–9; See also Boswell 1980, McGuire 1994, and Roden 2002.
  23. ↑ "Saint Aelred -the Patron Saint of Integrity". Sacredpauses.com. 14 January 1988. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  24. ↑ "The Order of St Aelred (O.S.Ae)". Webcitation.org. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

References

Primary sources

Critical editions

Translations

Bibliographies

Burton, Pierre-André. Bibliotheca Aelrediana Secunda: Une Bibliographie Cumulative (1962[-]1996)." Fédération Internationale des Instituts d'Études Médiévales. Textes et Études du Moyen Âge, 7. Louvain-la-Neuve (France), 1997. Dutton, Marsha L. "Aelred of Rievaulx." Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies. New York, 2013. www.oxfordbiblographies.com. Hoste, Anselm. "Bibliotheca Aelrediana: Survey of Manuscripts, Old Catalogues, Editions and Studies concerning St. Aelred of Rievaulx." Steenbrugge, 1962.

Further reading

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