Saint Stephen of Châtillon

His virtue, finding safety in this asylum, grew to such an extent that it soon seemed to equal that of those holy religious. Offering himself daily as a holocaust, he strove, like those models, to die to the world in order to make Jesus Christ live alone in his heart. He reduced his body to servitude through vigils, fasts, and macerations. According to the custom of the Carthusians, he wore a hair s Chartreux Religious order welcomed by Engelbert in Cologne. hirt and practiced many other austerities permitted by the Rule or authorized by the example of his superiors. The Rule ordained that three days of the week one should have for all food only bread, water, and salt. Stephen, going even further on this point, almost never wanted anything else on his table; and even then, beside this piece of bread, there was a manuscript upon which his eyes were always fixed, thus nourishing both body and soul at once. His love and devotion toward the adorable sacrament of our altars were so great that, while celebrating the holy mysteries, his face was flooded with tears drawn forth by gratitude. His preparation and his thanksgiving absorbed his whole life, since it was to make himself worthy of receiving his God in communion and to thank Him for having communicated Himself to him that he spent night and day in prayer, in meditation, and in singing the praises of the Lord. It was in the depths of this solitude that he made silence, prayer, and mortifications serve his holiness, the brilliance of which he took care to hide from the other religious through his humility. What began to reveal him to the outside world was the need the Carthusians of Portes had for a prior to govern them, in place of the one who had just died. They cast their eyes upon Stephen, and to overcome the reluctance that made him resist their choice, they all joined their entreaties and compelled him to yield. They were not mistaken in the judgment they had formed of his holiness and his talents, for it would be difficult to convey all the prudence, all the firmness, and all the zeal he displayed in his office of prior which, according to the Carthusian institute, required even more holiness than instruction. Thus his fame, mingled with the sweet odor of his virtues, filled not only the surrounding country but extended very far; for it was not only to those who were under his direction that he was useful, but he also strove to be so to many others. A numerous concourse of strangers, animated by the desire for their salvation, continually traveled to the Charterhouse of Portes, where the holy prior distributed to them the bread of life with tender solicitude. Thus, a good number of straying Christians owed to his wise counsel their return to the path of virtue.

Providence was insensibly forming him, through the functions of this employment, for the episcopate to which it destined him; and God did not delay in placing this burning light upon the candlestick, so that it might shine throughou t the whole Ch diocèse de Die Episcopal city of which Ismidon was bishop for twenty years. urch.

The diocese of Die, in Dauphiné, had just lost its pastor; the cathedral chapter and the people gathered to appoint a successor. Sentiments were divided and the choice fell upon different candidates, some of whom were not strangers to intrigue. The wisest cast their eyes upon Stephen, and united their votes in his favor through the praise they gave to his holiness, his prudence, his discernment, and his piety. But as it had been well foreseen that only violence could tear him from his dear solitude, they hastened to send to the Pope to obtain the bull of confirmation, while the one who was the object of it, retired in the depths of the desert, was absolutely ignorant of everything that was happening regarding him. The sovereign Pontiff, informed of this choice, expressed his joy, congratulating the diocese of Die and proclaiming aloud that such an election could only come from God. One sees by this that the reputation of Stephen's holiness had crossed many other mountains than those of Bugey, and that it had reached the sovereign Pontiff. The Pope, having thus imprinted the seal of apostolic authority upon this election, gave orders that the new pastor should take charge of the care of his flock without delay. The canons, provided with this order, flew to the humble Carthusian, showed him the letters of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and conjured him, in the name of the Church that had elected him, to yield to their wishes. Stephen, after having read these letters and heard the deputies of Die, held this humble language to them: "I am astonished that men, wise as you are, have cast their eyes upon an ignorant and unknown religious, without experience, raised in the desert, who knows neither the affairs of the Church nor those of the world, who possesses none of the virtues necessary for a bishop, and who owes all his time to penance; I am astonished that you wish to impose such a heavy burden upon him. Change your sentiments, I pray you, cease to do me violence; I will never adhere to your request." As they pressed him and begged him with even more insistence, he addressed to them the words of the blessed Hugh, formerly a Carthu sian like him, the bienheureux Hugues Bishop of Lincoln and Carthusian monk of Burgundian origin. n Bishop of Lincoln, and who had been in the odor of sanctity for two years. "Be persuaded that it is not in my power to yield to your ideas; I am a religious and subject to the will of another whom I must obey until death. Now, it is not fitting that I should abandon the care of this house to take into my hands the government of your Church."

After this response, the canons, seeing that they could gain nothing over his mind, without contesting any longer, withdrew and obtained new letters from the Pope who commanded the Prior of the Grande-Chartreuse to oblige the one of Portes to submit. From then on, the deputies of the Church of Die returned to Stephen; but informed of their arrival, he took flight and went to hide in the desert. The venerable Guigues, Prior of the Grande-Chartreuse, gave orders to search for him and force vénérable Guigues Prior of the Grande Chartreuse who compelled Stephen to accept the episcopate. d him, by virtue of holy obedience, to yield to the request of the clergy and the people of Die, and to the orders of the sovereign Pontiff. The canons, delighted and full of joy, led him to Vienne, and three archbishops gave him the episcopal unction in tha t city Vienne Episcopal see and principal city of the saint's activity. , in the year 1202.

From Vienne, the new bishop hastened to go to Die, where he was received with the most brilliant testimonies of joy. Installed in the episcopal palace, he lived there with the same simplicity as in his cell, following, as much as possible, the pious exercises of his Order, even seeking to perform them in an even more perfect manner; he regularly attended the choir with his canons, celebrated the Holy Mass every day, with a devotion that astonished as much as it edified.

Following the example of the Savior, Stephen, from the first days of his episcopate, made it a Rule to practice himself the things he had to teach others, and people were extremely surprised to see the one they had believed to be only a religious and a man of piety, fulfilling all episcopal functions with such wisdom and dignity: his vigilance and his zeal extended to everything.

The visits he made in his diocese brought him the sad conviction that the people habitually profaned the holy day of Sunday, by consecrating it to the devil through trade, dancing, games, frequenting taverns, and spectacles most dangerous to morals. Stephen, afflicted by these abuses, applied himself through paternal but solid discourses, to show the enormity of such a prevarication and the injury it did to God. But a part of this blind and coarse population, far from yielding to his exhortations, despised them to the point of no longer wanting to listen to them. The zealous prelate did not become discouraged; he remembered that he was a shepherd and not a hireling, and resolved to preach in season and out of season. But he had recourse to a weapon even more effective than speech, to defeat the devil and bring his people back to their duties, which was prayer. This prayer worked wonders; morals were reformed, vices ceased, and the diocese of Die offered nothing more than the spectacle of the virtues that were admired among the first Christians.

The grandeur and cares of the episcopate did not make Stephen forget the Charterhouse of Portes, where he had spent such happy days. He returned there frequently; he lived there like the other religious, withdrawn into his cell and giving himself entirely to prayer and contemplation. The attributes of his dignity never accompanied him into this peaceful place; but the Rule found in him a humble disciple of Saint Bruno, who submitted with happiness to the holy laws of obedience. He wore no other clothes there than those of the Order; his bed, his table, his furnishings were no different from those of the lowliest religious. Often he took pleasure in going to the places of piety known to him, and there, gathering all the brothers, he addressed them with words full of sweetness and unction. This tender charity extended to all the unfortunate, and the pious authors of his life report an infinity of accounts which prove that God made him participate in His power to miraculously heal the sick, cast out demons, and relieve the poor. He loved them and treated them as brothers; he saw in them Jesus Christ suffering; thus he never left them at his door, but he brought them into his home and even served them food, conversed with them, instructed them, consoled them, and only sent them away after having showered them with his benevolence and his benefits.

The measure of the labors prescribed to him was filled in a short time. God, wishing to end his laborious pilgrimage and introduce him into the inheritance of the heavenly homeland, sent him an illness that turned the joy his Church had in possessing him into sadness. The love that his clergy and the laity bore him appeared in the care that everyone wished to lavish upon him, and came to soften the sufferings that this holy pastor endured. He had announced the hour of his death, and while awaiting it with admirable tranquility, he blessed his people and his clergy, exhorted them to live in great harmony, prayed with fervor, and gave his advice on what should be done when he would no longer be among them. While the last sacraments were being administered to him, which he received with the most touching piety, a woman who was ill and abandoned by doctors asked him for a special blessing. The dying man extended a failing hand toward her and called down upon her head the gifts of heaven that she sought for her healing. To the great astonishment of all those present, this woman, full of faith, returned home like the one who had shown such eagerness to touch the garments of Jesus Christ. It was thus that this man of God restored health to others, while he himself, weakened by illness, was dying; but he did not ask for the same favor for himself, for he testified by his vows the desire he had to go soon to finish in heaven this long prayer he had begun on earth. This happy moment for him arrived on September 7, 1208. He was fifty-three years old, and had spent twenty-one in the Charterhouse of Portes and six in the episcopate. His mortal remains were buried in the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, in his cathedral.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Immediately after his death, miraculous healings occurred daily at his tomb, prompting the Archbishop of Vienne and his suffragans to write to Pope Gregory IX t o request that t pape Grégoire IX Pope who attested to the miracles of Bruno. he holy bishop be inscribed in the catalogue of Saints. The Sovereign Pontiff permitted public veneration of the holy wonder-worker and the invocation of his protection. From then on, the crowd of petitioners redoubled, and the tomb of the holy Bishop became so illustrious that every new bishop of Die would go there to offer a prayer before taking possession, and would swear upon the relic to respect the exemptions of the chapter. Howe ver, as Ca Calvinisme Event during which the Cathedral of Meaux was devastated. lvinism was introduced into the Dauphiné, it penetrated the city of Die, and from that time on, devotion to Saint Étienne diminished along with faith in the holy truths. The rage of the Huguenots led them to destroy churches and burn the relics of the Saints. Masters of Die, they opened the tomb of Saint Étienne; his body, which they found still intact as at the moment of his death, could not command their respect. They removed it and threw it into the fire in the year 1561.

Mgr Devie, wishing to have such a powerful protector, who belongs to his diocese by birth, honored, had his name inserted into the calendar and ordered that his office be celebrated henceforth on the 7th of the month of September.

Excerpt from the Hagiological History of the Diocese of Belley, by Mgr Depéry. — Cf. Surina; Acta Sanctorum; Gallia Christiana; De rebus gesta episcoporum Diessens, by Jean Colombi; Chronicum cartusianum, by Pierre Dorland, Carthusian; Éphémérides de l'Ordre des Chartreux, by Dom Levasseur; and the History of Bresse, by Samuel Guichenon.