Saint Theobald of Le Dorat

At the age of adolescence, at the moment when he aspired with the greatest ardor to develop the knowledge already acquired, seeing himself suddenly deprived of his worthy master, who had just left the school of Le Dorat to go to the co urt of Robert t Robert le Pieux King of France who ordered the reconstruction of the church of Saint-Aignan and the translation of the relics. he Pious, and from there to the abbey of Saint-Junien, Theobald resolved to leave his homeland and go far away in search of new masters and new books. The city o f Périgue Périgueux City near the saint's birthplace and center of his cult. ux drew the steps of the humble pilgrim.

After a few years, Theobald, having become a master in the knowledge and practice of the liberal arts, felt his heart moved with regret at the memory of his homeland: he wished to see again his pious parents, the tranquil banks of the Brame, along which he had once led his father's modest flock, and that abbey of Le Dorat where he had received with such distinction the first elements of science and piety. In taking the road back to his homeland, he did not dream of surrendering himself to the sweetness of rest; for this science that he had just acquired, he considered it, not as a means to lead an idle life, but as a precious talent entrusted by the Father of the family to his industrious vigilance. He was eager to shut himself away with it in a secure refuge, to increase it further through meditation and study, and above all to spread it around him and make it bear fruit a hundredfold.

Saint Theobald took the road back to the lower Marche; he first came to greet his parents, threw himself at their feet, and insistently asked their permission to retire to a religious house where he could associate with pious and learned men, in order to work there for the rest of his days in the service of God. Decided in principle on the way of life he should embrace, Theobald nevertheless hesitated on the choice of the religious house at whose door he would knock. Very close to him, however, flourished at that time the church of Le Dorat, which was so dear to him, and in which he was personally known and appreciated by the holy figures who spent their lives serving God there in the practice of all virtues.

While he was maturing with anxious solicitude the decision that was to forever fix his future, the canons of the church of Le Dorat, knowing the probity, learning, and holiness of this young man, believed that it would be honorable and useful to their church to attract him to them and incorporate him into their college. They hastened to make the proposal to him, which Theobald welcomed with great joy, and he embraced the rule of the canons in this pious company. This event, which fixed the future of Saint Theobald, was determined above all by the eager consent and persuasive advice of Abbon, a canon as remarkable for his personal distinction as for his birth, and who then exercised a great and legitimate influence on the church of Le Dorat.

Never was the chapter of Le Dorat more brilliant than at the hour when Saint Theobald was admitted to it. Saint Israel, surrounded by the respect and admiration of all, was Saint Israël Master and model of Saint Theobald at Le Dorat. then returning from Saint-Junien, after several years of absence, to end his days in his homeland. He had the happiness of finding the community flourishing and the canonical rule practiced in all its rigor, with a filial and scrupulous eagerness. It was with the liveliest feelings of joy that he welcomed his former pupil as the continuator and support of his work of reformation. More than all the other canons, indeed, he felt how truly Theobald was animated by his spirit.

The essential character of holiness, which distinguishes it from all other human prerogatives, is intimate union with God through prayer. The saints cannot be content with thinking of God in sterile meditations: they think of Him with that love and trust in His goodness which are the natural breath of the Christian soul, whether it is expressed outwardly in words, or remains contained in recollection and silence. Theobald had given himself entirely to God: his life from then on was nothing but a continual aspiration toward the supreme Truth and Beauty. It was no longer enough for him to remain the entire day in contemplation and prayer, to attend with tireless assiduity the Vigils and the office of Nocturns, which the canons of Le Dorat, like almost all congregations of brothers, were accustomed to celebrate in the middle of the night, toward the cockcrow; but he spent entire nights praying, and his tears no less than his words testified to the yearnings of his heart.

He gave to rest only the time indispensable to nature; and for fear that the softness of his bed might be too pressing an invitation to sleep, he had made himself a bed whose mattress was thin and hard, and whose covering was composed only of miserable rags of cloth. Freed from the shackles of material comfort, he nevertheless found himself hindered in his prayers, and obliged to contain his sighs and tears, for fear of disturbing the sleep and rest of his brothers; finally, desirous of conquering at any price the holy freedom of exterior prayer and tears, he set up his bed in a place separated from the common dormitory where the other canons rested.

Prayer enlightens the mind; it tempers the character and gives resilience to all the faculties. The fervent Theobald could not, therefore, despite his modesty, remain hidden in the crowd of vulgar souls. Everyone soon knew how to recognize, everyone knew how to highly appreciate his merits, and it was not long before they wished to use them for the good of the chapter. But Theobald's humility refused the dignities that could distinguish him from the other canons and the employments that were of a nature to distract his mind from meditation. One day, however, the whole community gathered and begged him insistently to allow himself to be established as guardian of the holy place, curator of the sacred ornaments, and finally administrator of the church's treasury. Theobald, dismayed and troubled to the depths of his soul, began to explain to his brethren all the difficulties of this office, to make them understand well that he was unworthy of it, and that it would be easy for them to find among themselves subjects a thousand times more capable of fulfilling it with fruit. He feared that these new preoccupations, that the concern for wealth and the material ornamentation of the temple, would too quickly alter in his heart his impulses of love for his God, and nothing could shake his resolution.

However, despite his resistance, Saint Theobald was promoted to the office of treasurer, and, in this capacity, invested with particular attributions, several of which were of real importance. They included the aedileship or the care of the building and the furniture intended for worship, the interior surveillance of the church, and the custody of the chapter's precious treasury, composed mainly of manuscripts, sacred vessels, and the relics of the Saints. Attached by love and duty to the sanctuary where the need to pray constantly called him and held him for long periods, Theobald only left it with the greatest difficulty and the keenest regret; having become the steward of the house of God, he chained himself to the sanctuary in the closest manner: nothing was small in his eyes in the duties and attributions of his office, because each of his functions, even the least important, directly concerned the service of God. Thus, he took care to ensure that everything was in its place, that the furniture and ornaments of the sacristy were kept with care in a decency and cleanliness worthy of their august destination. He himself arranged the holy images, set up the altars, and performed these thousand functions with so much eagerness and care that all were deeply edified. While his hands worked, his heart addressed to God this aspiration of the Prophet: "Lord, I delight in the beauty of your house!" and he never ceased to repeat to those around him that one could not take too much trouble to adorn and embellish the place where the sovereign Majesty has deigned to choose its dwelling. Far from limiting his solicitude to watching over the temple, to working so that one might see even on the walls that brilliance, that cleanliness, and that good taste which denote in the hearts of the ministers of the sanctuary a filial and eager love for the holy place, Theobald also exercised the policing of the church: he ensured that, during the office, the liturgical ceremonies were performed with the most scrupulous exactitude.

The eminent qualities of Theobald, and the influence they allowed him to exercise around him, led his superiors to desire that he be raised to the priesthood. But the humility of the holy religious opposed an insurmountable obstacle to this desire. Neither the supplications of his brethren, nor the entreaties of the venerable rector Abbon, could shake his resolution: it was only possible to make him accept the lower degrees of holy orders, the offices of porter, acolyte, reader, and exorcist, whose functions he performed with such care in his church, and the dignity of deacon which was necessary for him in order to fulfill with more propriety the duties of his office as aedile of the sanctuary and guardian of the Blessed Sacrament. Never could he be made to accept the formidable functions of the priesthood; and, throughout his life, he remained a simple deacon of the holy Church.

The sight of Theobald inspired piety, and more than once, a word, a look, or even silence was enough for him to bring back the most wayward and dissolute to their duty. There were sometimes immense difficulties in bending the rough characters of that era to the yoke of the rule and duty. When silent preaching and the tacit influence of virtue were not enough; when it was necessary to resort to counsel and severe words to correct one of the canons, Theobald set his own personality aside so well, he disengaged the self-esteem of the guilty with such delicacy, and he spoke with such humility, prudence, and gentleness, that the most difficult minds and the most intractable characters often accepted his reprimands as a true service. More than once, they were seen thanking him for his advice and effectively correcting their faults. God had given Theobald the science that excels above all others, the difficult art of guiding souls. He used it to combat the spirit of division and discord, the greatest scourge of societies, even when they are composed of souls who have made a profession of abandoning everything to seek only justice and truth.

Throughout the rest of his life, he never ceased to struggle to stifle in their germ the disputes and contentions that too often arise, for the most futile pretexts, between persons obliged to lead a common life: the holiest houses are not always exempt from paying this tribute to human weakness. As soon as he perceived a cooling of relations between brothers, his ingenious charity entered the fray: he would take no rest until he had succeeded in restoring concord. As he was not charged with any direction over the personnel, he acted in all these steps as a voluntary messenger of peace, having as his only means of action persuasion, gentleness, and humility, but never authority or command.

There is one defect that this valiant soul could not endure: always busy, always finding the hours of work and prayer too short, Theobald mortally hated laziness. He said that Satan never remained idle; that his ordinary occupation was to give occupation to those who do not have the skill to take it for themselves, and that idleness was the plague of communities. Certainly, one could not translate a more evident truth with more vigor, nor give, all at once, better than Theobald did, both precept and example. His activity was prodigious. As he had taken the precaution of setting up his bed outside the common dormitory, he took advantage of this voluntary isolation to rise in the middle of the night to work and pray; he would arrive at the choir before the other canons, without disturbing them and without being a source of fatigue or annoyance to them.

To have acquired such great mastery over the body, Theobald, far from yielding to the instincts of the flesh, had fought them through scarcity; he had dulled them by fasting, by vigils, and by the deprivation of sleep; he had managed to maintain and direct them, so to speak, at his will; his whole attitude breathed sobriety, respect for himself and others, benevolence, and kindness; he was the object of universal admiration.

He never took half-measures when it came to strengthening himself and progressing in the practice of virtue. In order not to be troubled by passions and worldly concerns, he fled with the greatest care the conversation of seculars, and especially of women: of angelic chastity, he knew how to protect himself against temptations through vigils, fasts, and the strictest surveillance over himself, reducing his body to servitude to establish virtue as sovereign in his soul.

However minute Theobald's occupations were, his spirit was not limited to directing the works of his hands: he sanctified even the humblest among them through continuous aspirations toward a higher order. It was for God alone that he performed each of his actions: his spirit never ceased to offer them to Him in adoration and prayer. This close union with God is the main trait of Theobald's soul. All the time that remained to him after the fulfillment of external duties, he used to place himself back in the presence of God, to pray; he sought out remote and dark places, in order to flee distractions and preserve all his freedom of soul. The true rest of his nights was prayer. Sometimes he was surrounded, while praying, as if by a celestial atmosphere; the emotion of his heart was so vivid that it was reflected on his face, and two streams of tears flowed from his eyes. He hid them with care, showing, upon leaving prayer, only a serene face, the mirror of a tranquil soul. More than once, the consolations he experienced were so vivid, and his union with God so close, that he was rapt in ecstasy; his soul was then absorbed in God and as if separated from the world, to the point that he seemed no longer to breathe, and it was very difficult to bring him back to himself.

An eager servant of the little ones and the humble, Theobald was the father of the lower employees of the church of Le Dorat, to whom he always strove to be useful. His heart could not remain insensitive to the sight or the story of any pain: in his eyes, exercising charity in its thousand diverse forms was at once the best use of his personal faculties and the most precious employment of the Church's treasure; always ready to render service, he knew no less how to worthily appreciate the services rendered. His tender solicitude for the poor and the sick was alone capable of making him leave this cloister where everything breathed solitude and silence, and of making him take his steps outside the monastery walls. When he had a moment of rest in his cell, when the duties of his office did not call him to the church or the school, he would leave the monastery and go through the city, asking with solicitude if there were any poor sick people; and, as soon as he had discovered them, he would visit them in their homes and lavish upon them with admirable eagerness all the spiritual consolations and bodily reliefs that were in his power.

Following the example of Saint Israel, Theobald regarded himself as the depositary of knowledge; he was thirsty to communicate it around him. The uncultivated and rebellious minds, and those for whom no one wanted to take responsibility, the disgraced of nature and science, these were Theobald's lot. He attached himself to them with love, and even with gratitude, so happy did he consider himself, by increasing his toil, to thus acquire new merits. To these young men who, for the most part, wanted to enter the clergy, he taught letters, Holy Scripture, psalmody, plainchant, and sacred music. While spending long hours at this harsh and thankless labor, he fed these young men at his own expense from the revenues of his prebend, thus providing with his own hands for their bodily nourishment, in order to better serve the bread of intelligence. He never became discouraged in this admirable work; and yet, disappointments were not spared him.

Only one thing afflicted this noble heart: that his admirable zeal often encountered more envious people than imitators in the Chapter of Le Dorat. Obstacles and calumny were therefore not lacking; but, as one could not attack his excellent and even heroic actions, his intentions were attacked and disfigured: envy and malice interpreted them in the most unfavorable way, accusing the Saint of seeking, through so many labors, only the approval of men and the satisfaction of his vanity. But Theobald, working only for God, wanting no other applause than the testimony of his conscience, far from being discouraged, drew from his humility and his boundless love for God the most invincible constancy.

Filled with the visible graces of the Lord, Theobald pursued the course of his mortifications and the practice of his virtues throughout a long career: with indefatigable perseverance, he advanced each day in the ways of holiness. He had just entered his eightieth year when his body, exhausted by fasts and vigils, and seeming to have been maintained until then only by miracle, suddenly began to weaken in a worrying manner. Shortly after, undermined by fever and prey to a violent intestinal illness, finally succumbing under the weight of old age and the ravages of the disease, he was carried by the canons to the austere bed from which he was never to rise again. But, although he was reduced to extreme weakness, his mind and his tongue did not cease for a single instant to proclaim the praises of God. Solely occupied with the salvation of his soul, he confessed for the last time with the liveliest contrition; he received as viaticum the body of the Savior, and finally the sacrament of Extreme Unction. His mouth did not cease to publish the praises of God and to pray, when finally, after a long agony, he joyfully rendered his beautiful soul to his Creator, on November 6 of the year 1070.

CULT AND RELICS.

The body of Saint Theobald was buried with all the pomp his holiness deserved and amidst a great gathering of people. The miracles performed at his tomb increased the veneration of the faithful, who soon erected an oratory for him where his remains stayed until 1130, the time at which they were transferred to the great basilica of Saint-Pierre and placed in a gilded reliquary, then deposited in the crypt called the Sepulcher. This translation was performed by Eustorge, Bishop of Limoges, and accompanied by several miracles.

A Confraternity, established at Le Dorat "to keep watch in prayer near the relics of the Saint during the duration of the Ostension," was confirmed on July 22, 1659, by Pope Alexander V II, and enric Alexandre VII Pope reigning at the end of Olier's life. hed with precious indulgences by Pope Pius IX on Feb ruary Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. 16, 1869. The main feast of the Confraternity takes place on September 13, the day of the Saint's feast.

On March 20, 1659, the holy relics were transported from the crypt to the upper church and placed in a reliquary on one side of the high altar. This ceremony took place on September 13 of the same year, and it is to consecrate the memory of this that the feast of Saint Theobald was fixed to this day, as well as that of Saint Israel. Until then, the feast of the two Saints had been celebrated simultaneously on January 27; it was followed by an Octave. On the occasion of this solemnity, the chapter of Le Dorat sent a bone from the body of the Saint to the Canons of Saint-Junien.

The office of Saint Theobald was inserted for the first time in 1669 into the Proper of the diocese of Limoges. It was also placed in that of the Canons Regular of the Congregation of France, on February 8.

In 1793, the relics were saved from profanation; they were lowered into the crypt with those of Saint Israel, and, after having deposited them in an excavation below the middle chapel, they were carefully covered. In 1802, the reliquary was removed from the place where it had been deposited to be replaced near the altar. On June 12, 1802, the relics were examined and recognized as authentic. The tomb of Saint Theobald, empty of its precious deposit, was transported in 1825 to the cemetery chapel of Le Dorat, which had just been rebuilt on the ruins of the old one. It remained for forty-seven years leaning against the wall of the chapel, on the right side of the altar (epistle side). Finally, on June 28, 1871, it was once again returned to the sight and veneration of the faithful in the chapel recently consecrated to the cult of Saint Israel and Saint Theobald.

Excerpt from the Life of Saint Israel and Saint Theobald, by Abbé Rougerie, professor of philosophy at the minor seminary of Le Dorat.