Saint Albert of Espain

However, they were compelled to leave their solitude for a time and to make a journey to Rome: for the abbot of Crespin, named Rainier, being obliged to go to the Pope to have the privileges of his abbey confirmed, wished to have these two holy solitaries in his company. The three of them made this journey barefoot, with hair shirts on their backs, and without other riches than the abundance of their poverty; they suffered much along the way, and one of them fell ill. When they were in Rome, they learned that Pope Urban II had gone to Benev pape Urbain II Pope who preached the First Crusade. ento. Rainier, seeing that his two companions needed rest, had them enter the monastery of Vallombrosa, where th ey were received by the h monastère de Vallombreuse Italian monastery where Albert stayed during his journey. oly religious of that house with a charity worthy of the true children of Saint Benedict; as for him, he continued his journey and went to Benevento, where the Pope granted him what he requested. Upon his return, he took them back from Vallombrosa and brought them with him to Hainaut; they shut themse Hainaut Region where Pacifique exercised his ministry and founded convents. lves up in their hermitage and continued there their angelic life, which their journey had in no way interrupted.

Some time later, Albert had a vision in which he imagined himself climbed upon a great tree between Asnon and Saint-Amand, abbeys of Hainault, while a white eagle or vulture presented him with its beak a religious habit. He believed that God was thereby warning him to enter a monastery, and, without further delay, he went to beg the abbot of Crespin to receive him among his religious. Some of the brothers initially opposed it, because they saw nothing in his exterior that pleased them; but the abbot opened his arms to him all the more willingly as he had known, through his own experience, his holiness and the admirable qualities of his soul. He soon shone among them through the harmony of all kinds of virtues, like a sun amidst the stars, so that they changed their contempt into admiration, and their indifference into a singular love and benevolence. He was made provost and cellarer of the house, and he discharged these offices so well that they judged him worthy of the highest dignities of their house. Indeed, while he did his utmost to assist the sick and to give everyone what they needed, he was so severe toward himself that he had only bread, water, and a few vegetables once a day. Never did meat, milk, or cheese enter his mouth. A bench was his only bed; the oldest and most tattered habit was the one he loved the most; he only took off his hair shirt to put on another, or to mend the one he had. He recited the one hundred and fifty psalms of David on his knees every day before Matins; he attended the divine offices with marvelous fervor and attention. Outside of the time for common prayers, he often made genuflections to adore the majesty of God present in all places. In a word, one saw in him a perfect model of a true religious.

However, he still sighed for his first solitude; and, after twenty-five years of cenobitic life, he recognized that it was the will of God that he should return to it. He obtained permission from his abbot, according to the intention of the Rule of Saint Benedict. His life, in this final retreat, surpassed incomparably everything he had done before. At the end of three years, a great flood of water having surrounded his cell, he was for several days not only without food, but also, which was much more intolerable to him, without being able to hear Mass. In this extremity, he invoked the Blessed Virgin: she appeared to him, consoled him, and placed a piece of extraordinary bread in his mouth; he received such great strength from it that for the rest of his life, which lasted another twenty-two years, he had no need to eat bread, but a few herbs and roots sufficed for him. He also remained twenty years without drinking, although he had never bound himself by vow to such an extraordinary mortification.

The sweet odor of his virtues spreading on all sides, and attracting an infinity of people to his cell, Burch ard, Bi Burcard Bishop of Cambrai who ordained Albert as a priest. shop of Cambrai, ordained him a priest and gave him the power to administer the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist to those who came to him. He even received from Popes Paschal II and I Pascal II Pope reigning during the episcopate of Geoffrey. nnoc ent II the Innocent II Pope reigning during the saint's lifetime. authorization to remit all kinds of reserved cases; but he only used it in extremity, and usually obliged penitents, on these occasions, to ask for absolution from their bishops. He said two Masses every day, one for the living and the other for the dead. He recited one hundred and fifty Hail Marys, partly on his knees, partly prostrate on the ground. He was also accustomed to chanting the Office of the Dead with nine lessons, and to saying fifty psalms at each Nocturn, so that he recited the entire Psalter each day. He added new austerities to the previous ones every day. Finally, his historian asserts that it would have been difficult to find a tyrant who would have treated him as rigorously as he treated himself for so many years; he concludes that he truly hated his body, and that he justly deserves the glorious title of martyr of Jesus Christ.

He was visited not only by the common people, but by bishops, religious, and canonesses, of whom there were several communities in that land. Great lords and ladies of the highest standing came to his cell to receive light in their difficulties, consolation in their sorrows, and a remedy for their temptations. In a word, he was like the miracle of his century and the refuge of all the unfortunate. Count Arnoul, brother of Baldwin, Count of Hainaut, be comte Arnoul Brother of Tarcice and treasurer of Charlemagne. ing attacked by a dangerous illness for which the physicians could find no remedy, had himself carried to his hermitage. After having confessed to him, he begged him to give him something to drink, because the fever was burning and tormenting him. The Saint told him that there was no other liquor in that place than well water: the Count wished for some; and the Saint, having had some drawn, gave it his blessing and presented it to him. But this blessing was so powerful that the water changed into a wine more generous and more pleasant than that of the best-situated hillsides; what more can I say? It wrought such a great change in his body and strengthened him so much that he was healed at that very instant, and he returned home in perfect health and without any trace of his infirmity.

Finally, it pleased God to crown the merits of this admirable hermit, who had joined the rigors of the most severe penance to a life so pure and so innocent that it is believed he never lost, through mortal sin, the grace he had received at baptism. He fell ill a few days before Easter, and, feeling that his end was approaching, he sent for Dom Angilbert, prior of Crespin, to administer the last sacraments, which he received with an entirely angelic devotion. Finally, on Easter Day of the year 1140, April 7, he rendered his spirit to God to be crowned with His glory. His body was buried in his own hermitage by the venerable abbots of Crespin and Saint-Amand; since then, it has been transferred to the abbey of Crespin; some bones were given, partly to the abbey of Haulmont, in Hainaut, and partly to the Black Sisters of Mons and to the parish church of Esparu, the birthplace of this great Saint.

At a short distance from Condé and Crespin, one finds a chapel that bears the name of Saint Albert, and which has been erected as a parish church. There is also in the village of Blaheries, between Saint-Amand and Tournai, a chapel placed under the invocation of the humble recluse. He is invoked above all for the healing of fever. The sick take with confidence, for this purpose, water from a well that bears his name. Here is an ancient prayer that those who recommend themselves to his intercession are accustomed to recite.

« O most holy father Albert, faithful and just servant of the most high God, you who bring aid to those who have fever and give the remedy to persons attacked by various illnesses, I pray you, by your accustomed compassion, have pity on me, and restore to health through your prayers, him whom a long and painful fever torments, so that, sound in soul and body, I may render thanks to the almighty God and serve him all the days of my life ».

Here are the popular attributes of Saint Albert in the arts: an eagle drops the Benedictine habit near him; which determines his vocation; — he is standing near a well, with a ladder in his hand, to recall that for twenty years, he deprived himself of all drink, even water.

We have used, to make this summary, his life written by Robert, archdeacon of Ostrovand, and reported by Surius and by the continuators of Bollandus.