LIFE OF St. STEPHEN HARDING

II.

STEPHEN AT MOLESME.

 

Stephen was returning from his pilgrimage with his faithful companion, probably on his way back to Sherborne, when God conducted his steps to the place which was to be the scene of his labors. As he was travelling through a dark forest in the diocese of Langres in Burgundy, he came to a poor monastery situated on the side of a sloping hill, on the right bank of the little river Leignes. It could hardly be called a monastery, for it was a collection of huts, built by the monks themselves, of the boughs of trees, which they had cut down with their own hands, surrounding a small wooden oratory. Around this little knot of huts, more like an encampment than a settled dwelling, was an open space in the forest, which the monks had cleared, and which had been given them by a neighbouring baron. The brethren had no means of subsistence but the produce of this piece of ground, which they tilled with their own hands, and they were as much dependent upon it as the poorest serf who gained his own livelihood by the sweat of his brow; yet amongst this poor brotherhood were men of noble birth and of high intellectual attainments. The monastery had only been established a short time, and was struggling with all the difficulties which beset an infant community. Its history is a curious one, as showing how the reckless fury of the times was beaten down by an element of good even more energetic than the evil which it had to encounter.

Two brothers of noble birth were one day riding through a solitary place in a forest not far from Molesme, called the forest of Colan; both were armed, for they were riding to take part in a tournament,—a species of festivity, which, with all its pageantry, its flutter of pennons and glittering of armour, was soon after condemned in strong terms by the Church. They were both worldly men, whose only object was honor, in the pursuit of which they feared neither God nor man. As they were journeying on, the devil, aided by the solitude and darkness of the place, suggested horrid thoughts to each of them—of murdering the other in order to obtain his inheritance, and it cost them a strug­gle to put the temptation down. Shortly afterwards, on returning from the tournament, they passed through the same place. The wicked thoughts which had attacked them in that spot rose to the mind of each, and each trembled secretly at the dreadful power which Satan possessed over his mind. Without revealing to each other their fears, they both hastened to the hut of a holy priest, who lived a hermit's life in the depths of the forest and separately confessed their sin. They then revealed to each other the dreadful thoughts which had crossed their minds, and recognizing that they could not serve God and Mammon, but must either be like devils in wickedness, or saints in holiness, they agreed to quit the world with all its honors, and to live in the forest under the direction of the holy hermit. The world soon heard of the conversion of these noble youths, who had quitted everything that it holds dear, to embrace a voluntary poverty, and to live a life of painful discipline; and a few others were induced to follow their example. At first they lived the life rather of hermits than of coenobites; afterwards, as their number in­creased to seven, they determined on adopting the rule of St. Benedict, and looked around them for some one to instruct them in it. They turned their eyes on Robert, then Abbot of St. Michel de Tonnere, a monastery near the town of Tonnere, on the borders of Champagne and Burgundy. Robert, however, was at that time unable to leave his post, and the hermits of Colan were disappointed in their hopes of obtaining him. Not long after, however, he was compelled to leave St. Michel by the incorrigibly bad lives of the monks, and to return to Celle near Troyes, his original monastery, from whence he was soon elected Prior of St. Aigulphus. At this place the hermits again sought him, and this time they applied to Rome for an order from the pope, commanding him to undertake the direction of them. Alexander II, the then reigning pontiff, pleased with their persevering zeal, granted their request, and Robert quitted St. Aigulphus to preside over this infant community. Under his guidance they gained frequent accessions to the brotherhood; and when at last their numbers amounted to thirteen, St. Robert saw fit to remove their habitation from the forest of Colan to Molesme.

The new monastery was founded in honor of the Blessed Virgin, on Sunday, the 20th of December, a.d. 1075. It was here that Stephen found the community, and he at once felt that he had reached the end of his wanderings. The place certainly had nothing tempting to common eyes. It is easy to conceive a person falling in love with what may be called the romance of monastic life: splendid architecture, a beautiful ceremonial, and, above all, religious peace and an absence of worldly cares, are the legitimate compensations for all that monks give up for Christ's sake. But at Molesme even these attractions were wanting. The monks, like St. Paul, worked with their own hands to get their daily bread; and so poor were they, that even this was often lacking, and they were obliged at times to live wholly on vegetables. They were visibly dependent on God's providence for their daily bread; and seeking first the kingdom of God, they trusted that their scanty food and raiment would be added to them. It was their poverty which attracted Stephen; these few men serving God in the wild of the forest were the very realization of the new order of things which was brought in by the cross of Christ, by which weakness was made strength and suffering sanctified to bring joy. They were the salt of the earth, preserving it from corruption by their supernatural virtues, and averting the anger of God from the sinful world. Here he found St. Benedict's rule carried out to the letter without any of the relaxations which had crept in through the lapse of time, and this we know from every one of Stephen's subsequent actions was the state of life at which he aimed in his own person, and which he tried to establish in others. This probably was the object of his prayers at St. Peter's tomb, and now they were answered, for he had thus lighted unexpectedly upon a place where he could follow after that perfection, which he had already conceived in his heart.

In thus quitting his original monastery and entering another, he was in no way violating his rule, for St. Benedict expressly allows an abbot to receive a monk of any distant monastery which was unknown to him; that is, as it is interpreted, he excludes monasteries which are so near as to admit of intercourse. But there was another difficulty, which it cost Stephen a painful struggle with himself to overcome. The devil often gathers all his powers to give battle to great saints, when they are on the eve of doing some action which is to be the turning-point of their lives; and so it was with Stephen. He felt a most bitter pang at parting from the clerk who had been the faithful companion of his pilgrimage. His affectionate heart, which from his early consecration to God's service at Sherborne, could hardly have known the love of father, mother, brethren, or sisters, had, it seems, fixed itself so firmly on his friend, that now it was with great difficulty that he could tear himself away. He, however, vanquished in the struggle, and remained behind at Molesme, while his friend passed on. For this one friend whom he gave up, he at once found two others, in Robert and Alberic, the abbot and prior of Molesme. Both of them were his companions in the more arduous strug­gles of his after-life; both have been, with him, held up by the Church to the veneration of the faithful, among the Saints; and it was their joint work which he was afterwards left on earth to complete. When, however, Stephen joined them at Molesme, they were but sim­ple monks unknown to the world.

Robert, the spiritual father of both Alberic and Stephen, was of one of the noblest families of Champagne; he had been a monk from a very early age, and had been distinguished for his adherence to the strict rule of St. Benedict; he had quitted the government of the abbey of St. Michel, as we have said above, and retired into a private station because of the incorrigible laxity of the monks. Alberic was one of the original seven hermits of Colan; he is described in the early history of Citeaux, as "a man of learning, well skilled in things both divine and human, a lover of the rule and of the brethren." These two walked hand in hand with Stephen, in all the trials in which they soon found themselves involved. The monastery at times suffered from actual want; from the loneliness of the spot and the fewness of visitors, they were quite forgotten by the world, and the alms of the faithful were turned into other channels. They continued however in cheerful faith, winning their livelihood out of the hard ground, and feeling sure that God would not desert them; and, indeed, they found that their faith was not misplaced.

One day, as they were about to sit down to a scanty meal, after the hard labour of the day, the Bishop of Troyes arrived at the monastery with a considerable retinue. The poor monks felt ashamed that they could so miserably supply the needs of their illustrious visitor, but cheerfully divided with him their hard-won meal. The bishop went away from the monastery, wondering at the fervent piety of its in­mates. For a long time nothing came of this visit, and the monks had probably forgotten it. Meanwhile the resources of the community became daily more straitened, till at last there were hardly provisions enough left to serve them for a few days. The brethren applied to St. Robert, and informed him of the state of the case. He bade them quietly trust in God, who would not leave his servants to perish in the solitude to which they had retired to serve Him. He ordered some of them to go to Troyes, which was much nearer to them than their own episcopal city of Langres, and bade them buy food, though he well knew that he had no money to give them.

The exact conformity of their lives to the very letter of Scripture, made them look upon it as a solace and a counsel in the minutest points, in a way of which we have no conception; thus the words of Isaiah rose to St. Robert's mind, "You who have no money, hasten, come, and buy." Encouraged by the faith of their abbot, the monks set out on their apparently hopeless journey. So long had the good brethren kept away from the world, that they forgot the singularity of their appearance. They were therefore surprised on entering the city that their naked feet, coarse habit, and features so worn with toil and watching, that the fervent spirit seemed to shine through the flesh, attracted general attention. The news flew hastily round, till it reached the Bishop's palace. He ordered them to be brought to his presence, and as soon as they entered recognized his hosts of Molesme. He received them with joy, took off their tattered habits, and sent them back with his blessing, and a waggon loaded with clothes and bread for their poor brethren at home. We may fancy the joy of the community when they saw their messengers return, not empty-handed as they went, but laden with the blessings which God had given them, as it were with His own hand, to reward their faith. This seems to hare been nearly the last of their struggles with poverty, “for” says the monk who has written St. Robert's life, “from that day forth there never was wanting to them a man to supply them with all that was necessary for food and clothing. And as they endured with the greatest constancy in God's service, many continually were added to their number, fugitives from the world, who leaving their earthly burdens, placed their necks under the yoke of the Lord”.