Saint Goswin of Douai

The young and religious professor took care to often draw from the reading of the holy books the spirit of faith and humility, without which man is well exposed to going astray in the curious researches of science. His piety alone would have led him to follow this conduct; the sight of the first deviation s of Abe Abailard Celebrated theologian whom Peter the Venerable caused to retract. lard, who was teaching at the same time as him, only further increased this feeling in his heart. This extraordinary man, whom his talents and knowledge could have made one of the glories of the Church, abandoned himself to that spirit of pride which a soul that is not deeply religious resists with difficulty. Stimulated more and more by a subtle self-love that often hides under the appearances of zeal, he persuaded himself that the thoughtless applause of his light and frivolous listeners should outweigh the wise and charitable criticism of those who have received the mission to preserve the deposit of truth. Abelard preferred the childish satisfaction of this popularity of a day to the pleasure of acknowledging by a noble admission that he had been mistaken; he submitted to the tribunal of his reason, undoubtedly elevated, but limited and fallible like all human reason, the sacred dogmas and the formidable mysteries that reason cannot reach and before which it must bow.

Goswin bitterly deplored these deviations of a mind that did not know how to recognize and respect the limits of human science. He groaned to see sacred doctrines subjected to the disputes of the school, like those human opinions that the Church leaves to the free discussion of intelligences. Very often his own disciples urged him to speak out against the innovator and to show him the falsity of his teaching and his temerity. Goswin long refused to engage in a struggle whose uselessness he perhaps foresaw. Abelard's self-love was too engaged and his virtue too weak for one to hope for a humble and sincere retraction from him. However, in order to show that eager and enthusiastic youth who surrounded the sophist's chair that there is no true teaching other than that which is in conformity with the doctrine of the Church, he took the resolution to attack some of his propositions.

Abelard was not at all accustomed to contradiction. Like all scholars whom the humble simplicity of faith does not guide, he was irritated to see his opinions discussed, when he himself was discussing, with an imprudent audacity, not opinions, but the sacred dogmas of religion. The controversy between the two professors took place in the presence of their disciples: Abelard would have liked to decline it; it seemed shameful to him to be obliged to dispute against a young man who was barely beginning the career that he had already been pursuing for a long time. However, at the insistence of his students he accepted the challenge, and Goswin having formulated a proposition contrary to one of those that Abelard had previously maintained, the latter replied immediately to support his opinion and defend it. After this reply, patiently listened to, Goswin presented to his adversary a series of arguments so logical, so pressing, of deductions so rigorous, that they laid bare the weakness of the reasonings that had been opposed to him. His victory was complete and it earned him a true triumph on the part of the students who brought him back amidst applause to his dwelling.

These solemn and well-deserved ovations did not in the least alter Goswin's humility; on the contrary, they made him understand, in a more sensitive way, the traps hidden for the self-esteem of men of science, who, instead of seeking the reward for their labors in the feeling of duty accomplished for God, go to ask for it from the sterile applause of the crowd. It was especially then that the thought of leaving the world to devote himself to God, which had already preoccupied him more than once, began to make a deeper impression on his soul.

After brilliantly completing his studies, Saint Goswin returned to Douai, where his rare merit led to his being appointed almost immediately as a canon of the chapter of Saint-Amé. It was not there, in the designs of God, that the brilliant philosopher, the illustrious antagonist of Abelard, was to settle. Providence destined him for a life of retreat and solitude, and it inspired in him the thought of going to Anchin, to the Abbey Anchin Benedictine monastery of which Goswin was abbot. of Saint-Sauveur, where regularity and the spirit of religion flourished. Upon receiving the young postulant who presented himself to him, the venerable Alvi se, th Alvise Abbot of Anchin and later Bishop of Arras, mentor to Goswin. en abbot of the monastery, felt filled with joy. Nevertheless, in order to test his vocation, he represented to him in the most striking manner all the sacrifices that the religious life imposed, the complete self-abnegation it demanded, and the perfect submission it required of the mind and heart.

These words, listened to by Goswin with great attention, only increased in his soul the desire that led him to embrace the monastic life. However, it was not possible for him to follow this attraction immediately, and the devil seemed to take advantage of the circumstances that motivated this delay to press the pious young man with all sorts of temptations.

He therefore attacked him in a thousand ways and omitted none of the infernal ruses by which he is accustomed to deceive men. Above all, he sought to win him over through that worldly glory which attaches itself to science and which seduces all the more easily as one is less on guard against it. On the other hand, Goswin was very strongly solicited by Haimeric, one of his first masters, to go again to Paris where his talent would not fail to shine brilliantly. The young scholar appeared to yield to this proposal and was already making arrangements for his departure with Haimeric, when the latter fell ill and died. Goswin believed he recognized a warning from heaven in this event, which made a vivid impression on his mind. The wise counsels of Alvise came to confirm him in his resolution, and soon, generously breaking with the world, he retired with his brother Bernard to the monastery of Anchin.

From the first days of his consecration to the Lord, he showed himself a worthy and fervent religious, and one would have said that he no longer remembered his past science and triumphs except to humble himself more before his brothers. Like all extraordinary virtues, that of Goswin had to be subjected to the test. Suddenly the young novice felt attacked by temptations and disgust. The exercises of piety that had once held so many charms for him now caused him boredom, and a vague sadness took away that intimate joy of the soul which had until then been his delight. In the midst of the perplexities to which his soul was exposed, he did not forget the spiritual weapons that God places in the hands of his servants to fight the enemies of salvation. Despite his disgust, he gave himself over to the holy exercise of prayer, and drew, from a more assiduous reading of the Holy Scriptures, abundant favors and graces. In a short time he had recovered calm, peace, and happiness, never to lose them again until the end of his life.

His novitiate completed, Goswin received the priesthood and was soon after chosen to fulfill the duties of prior. He performed them with success and further developed religious discipline in the already very regular community of Anchin. His reputation spread rapidly through the monasteries of the region, and several abbots, struck by his rare merit, begged him to come to them to establish a wise reform among their religious. Alvise and Goswin refused for a long time; but finally, they had to yield to the pressing requests made to them, and the Abbot of Anchin allowed his wise and venerable prior to go successively to Saint-Crespin and Saint-Médard of Soissons. "Now," says a chronicler of the time, in a mystical metaphor, "Goswin, after having established the brothers on the solid foundations of the faith, enclosed them in the quadrangular cloister of the four virtues—prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude—supported by innumerable columns of other virtues, and placing the brothers in the refectory, at the table of the angels, he nourished and comforted them with the divine word; and the doctrine of his discourses spread far and wide, so much so that even strangers were sent to draw teachings from them."

While Goswin was carrying out these important works, the bishops of France assembled in great numbers at Sens to examine the errors of Abelard and condemn them. This her esiarch, Abailard Celebrated theologian whom Peter the Venerable caused to retract. like most of those who had preceded him, retracted momentarily only to continue soon after to spread the same errors. The sentence of the Fathers of the Council having been confirmed by Pope Innocent II, Abelard was sent to the monastery of Saint-Médard of Soissons and entrusted to Goswin, who was still

In this community. The latter received him with great gentleness, presenting to him, in the manner most likely to touch him, the reasons that should determine him to abandon his former doctrines to live henceforth in peace in the simple and reasonable obedience of the faith. But Abelard had been listening to his pride and following all its aspirations for too long to accept such wise counsel without retort. Moreover, he was loath to receive them from the mouth of a man younger than himself, and seeing in Goswin his victorious antagonist of the past rather than the most learned and holy religious of the region, he forgot himself to the point of letting slip disrespectful words. Goswin, however, was not discouraged, and by mixing gentleness with wise firmness, he knew how to subject this rebellious and proud nature to the yoke of the common rule.

However, these labors and solitudes, to which were added the exercises and austerities of the cloister, had considerably weakened the health of the pious reformer. He feared, on one hand, that he would not be able to complete his work if he made his condition known to Abbot Alvise; on the other, he felt that his ailment was increasing every day and exposing him to a rather imminent death. God, to reward him, permitted a miraculous vision to restore to him a health of which he made such holy use. One night, therefore, when the brothers had gone to take their rest, Goswin remained in the church, according to his custom, occupied in prayer. Suddenly he was rapt as if in ecstasy and saw before his eyes the holy Pope Gregory saint pape Grégoire le Grand Pope and Doctor of the Church, cited for his writings on purgatorial punishments and apparitions. the Great, for whom he had extreme veneration and whose works he habitually read. The pontiff seemed to hold in his hands a small vessel filled with a liquid which he presented to Goswin. "Drink," he said to him, "this will be salutary. Do not fear, this drink will be in your mouth like sweet honey and you will be healed." Goswin did indeed take the remedy, then the vision having disappeared, he returned from his ecstasy and resumed his prayer, without feeling the slightest pain anymore: he was healed.

When Goswin had completed his work at Saint-Médard of Soissons, he went to the monastery of Saint-Remi of Reims, whose abbot had requested him with the most urgent pleas. Upon returning to Anchin , wher Alvise Abbot of Anchin and later Bishop of Arras, mentor to Goswin. e Alvise had recalled him to establish him as claustral prior, he learned that he had been elected abbot, almost at the same time, by the monks of the abbey of Saint-Pierre of Châlons-sur-Marne and by those of Lobbes. But it was at the monastery of Anchin itself that Goswin was to fulfill this important office. Alvise, in fact, having been called at that time to govern the church of Arras, deprived of a pastor by the death of Lambert of Guines, all the religious of Anchin chose their wise and worthy Prior to replace him in the direction of the abbey of Saint-Sauveur (1130.)

Goswin was then in the prime of life: to all his brilliant qualities he united a consummate experience in the conduct of men and the knowledge of the things of God. Thus his long administration was very happy and the abbey of Anchin prospered under his government. All the religious had for him such a sincere affection and such a deep respect that they strove to walk in his footsteps and to practice, by his example, all the virtues of their state. If sometimes he was obliged to address a reproach to someone, he did it with a gentle firmness that recalled them to duty without leaving any bitterness in the soul. Everything in his person was simple and without affectation, and he inspired these dispositions in his brothers. Strangers themselves and the guests he sometimes received were treated with a simplicity that further enhanced the merit of the abbot in their eyes; so that he was loved and venerated by all those who approached him.

Several miraculous healings that God deigned to perform at his prayer further increased this general veneration. It is reported that one Sunday, while he was celebrating the divine mysteries in a chapel dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, and in the presence of a large number of the faithful, a blind man well known in the region was among those present and stood leaning against a small door of this oratory. Suddenly, at the moment when the holy abbot was about to repeat the *Agnus Dei* for the third time, the blind man raised his voice and cried out: "Almighty God, assist me, for I can see!" He had indeed recovered his sight, and all the spectators, joining their voices to his, blessed the Lord who had just performed such an astonishing wonder. The humility of Saint Goswin did not allow them to indulge in the demonstrations of respect that this miracle prompted them to offer him: "God," he said, "performs his wonders through whom he pleases, and even through mute animals; it is He who has restored sight to this blind man."

When, in 1148, he went to the Council of Reims, which was presided o ver by Pope Eug pape Eugène III Pope who transferred the relics of Saint Vannes in 1147. ene III and in which the errors of Gilbert de la Porée, Bishop of Poitiers, were condemned, the Lord deigned to perform yet another new and touching miracle through the hands of his servant. As the Archbishop of Reims had invited him unexpectedly, and the time set for the opening of the council was very close, the abbot had had only a few hours to prepare for this long journey. The monks in charge of temporal administration being absent at that moment, Saint Goswin set out with only two small coins. Arriving near the woods of the village of Montigny, he gave one of these coins to a beggar who approached him, and the other to a second beggar who came to meet him a little further on. New poor people arrived after these first ones, and the holy man, putting his hand into his purse, found other coins there which multiplied in this way until his arrival in Reims.

There, Saint Goswin paid his respects to the Sovereign Pontiff who, in concert with Saint Bernard, had had him called there, and then he began, as much as his new occupations and circumstances allowed, to follow the humble and modest practices of religious life. The council finished, the other prelates retired to their churches or abbeys, but Abbot Goswin was retained by the Pope, who had him enter his private council. At the same time, he entrusted him with the reform of the two monasteries of Saint-Corneille and Saint-Cyprien of Compiègne, where monks from Anchin were subsequently sent with wise instructions given to them by the worthy abbot.

Having returned to his community, the blessed Goswin continued to lead his brothers in the ways of perfection. Despite his advanced age and infirmities, he still showed himself to be the most fervent and the most faithful to the slightest pre scriptions of the Rul Règle de Saint-Benoît Religious order occupying the monastery of Honnecourt. e of Saint Benedict. In the final months of the year 1165, he felt himself attacked by a violent fever, the bouts of which weakened him greatly in a short time. When his illness prevented him from celebrating the divine mysteries, he was seen dragging himself painfully, supported by the arms of a few religious, to go and receive Holy Communion in the chapel. Feeling himself that his end was approaching, he prepared for it in the most edifying manner. According to the touching practice of Benedictine abbeys, he had himself laid upon a hairshirt in the middle of the church, in the presence of all his children gathered around him; then the venerable Hugh, Abbot of Saint-Amand, administered Extreme Unction to him. Addressing his disciples afterwards, he represented to them the precious advantages of peace and concord, to which he urged them to be always faithful. He likewise exhorted them to the practice of the virtues that make the perfect religious: humility, chastity, charity, and mercy towards the poor. He added to these exhortations the wisest advice for the choice of his successor, so that everything might be done according to the Rules of the Order and in the greatest tranquility.

Led back to his cell after this ceremony, which drew tears from every eye, the holy old man had the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ read to him, while, with his gaze fixed on a crucifix, he let his soul surrender to all the pious sentiments that this reading excited within it. The day before his death, he asked to be placed once again on that hairshirt. As he could no longer speak, he was seen to lift his eyes and hands toward heaven when, in the reading of the Passion, they reached these words: "My Father, if this chalice cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done," wishing thus to testify that he was intimately uniting himself to this sentiment of the Savior's adorable soul.

It was on Saturday, the ninth day of October in the year 1163, that the venerable Goswin gave up his spirit, at the moment when nobles and prelates were arriving from all parts at the monastery of Anchin for the anniversary feast of the dedication of the abbey. Most of them were witnesses to this edifying death, which made the most salutary impression upon their hearts.

"The body of the holy abbot," continues the author of the history of Anchin, "having been washed, then clothed in the monastic cowl, and over it in all-white priestly vestments, was carried to the church, amidst mournful chants, and deposited in the middle of the choir of chanters, so that it might be in plain view and that everyone could contemplate it. It bore no trace of death, and one would have said that he was only asleep in a peaceful slumber. His face, uncovered and white as his garments, was calm, and a sacred halo seemed to illuminate it and spread a divine charm over this whole small body. It would be difficult to say the number of the faithful and the brothers who pressed forward to kiss his venerable feet and hands. He was buried to the right of the presbytery of the basilica of the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the wall, very close to the place where he was accustomed, during his life, to come every day to pray on his knees and prostrate. Here is the translation of the epitaph that was engraved on his tomb: "In this small urn is enclosed a man of high merit, of vast renown and profound designs; true in his faith, firm in his hope, of ardent charity, humble of spirit, prudent of speech, of generous and benign hand. He was Martha for action, and Mary for his love of the word of God. He was Leah for fruitfulness, Rachel for meditation, Jacob for the discernment of spirits, Moses for continual prayer, Phinehas for the struggle against evil. O Goswin, the ninth of October, which was your last day, ranked you among the nine supreme orders of the Blessed, and we keep your ashes here below, we find a patron in him whom God had given us for a father."

We have borrowed this life from the Lives of the Saints of the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras, by the Abbé Dextembes.