Saint Paschasius Radbertus

From then on, he regarded this conduct as a great fault that had to be expiated by the tears of penance. Radbert recognized through his own experience the dangers of the world: fearing to be lost in it, and finding nothing there to satisfy the desires of his heart, he retired while still young to t he monastery of Cor monastère de Corbie Monastery that acquired the relics of Saint Précord. bie, where he was well received by the holy abbot Ad saint abbé Adélard Abbot of Corbie and mentor to Paschasius Radbertus. alard, brother of the abbess of Notre-Dame de Soissons, his benefactress. The new religious applied himself to study with such success that, in a short time, he was judged worthy to teach others divine and human letters. From then on, he gained a great reputation for his eloquence, his knowledge of Scripture and the Fathers, and above all for his virtue. His humility equaled his reputation: he could not refuse the order of the diaconate, but he did not receive the priesthood, of which he judged himself unworthy. He signed his letters: Paschasius Radbertus, levita, monachorum omnium peripsema, that is to say: Paschasius Radbert, levite, the last (the sweepings) of all the monks.

Such rare merit earned him the esteem and affection of Adalard and W ala, Wala Brother and successor of Adalard as head of Corbie. his brother and successor in the dignity of abbot. He accompanied them on all their travels and was, as it were, the soul of their counsel in important matters. In 822, they took him with them to Saxony to found the new Corbie. Louis the P Louis le Débonnaire King of the Franks who made Aldric his advisor and commander of the palace. ious esteemed him no less: he often employed him in public affairs, which Radbert always knew how to conduct with great wisdom. Wala having died in 835, our Saint wrote the history of his life, which he titled: Epitaph of Arsenius. He had already recounted the life of Saint Adalard around 830; and, in 831, he had composed his famous Trea tise on the Body and Blood of Our Lord, that Traité du corps et du sang de Notre-Seigneur Major theological work on the Eucharist. is to say, on the E ucharist, a Eucharistie Central sacrament for which Ambrose defends the real presence. t the request of his disciple Warin, surnamed Placidus, who, after having been a monk in the old Corbie, was abbot of the new one. It is a precious monument of the Catholic belief regarding the Eucharist, not only in the 9th century but in all the preceding centuries. Paschasius Radbertus, in this treatise, teaches clearly and demonstrates that the Church has always taught mainly three things: That the Eucharist is the true body and the true blood of Jesus Christ; that the substance of the bread and wine no longer remains there after the consecration; and finally that, in the Eucharist, we receive the same body that was born of the Virgin Mary, that suffered on the cross, and that came forth from the sepulcher.

Charged with publicly explaining, according to custom, the holy Gospel to the religious of Corbie on Sundays and feast days, he fulfilled this noble function with such success that he was asked to comment on the entire Gospel according to Saint Matthew in this way. He acceded to these wishes and composed the learned Commentary that he left us in twelve books. The first four were written before 844, and the other eight after the year 851. The Saint analyzes therein, as he always does, previous works, and mainly those of Saint John Chrysostom, and specifically combats the errors of his time. He took great care to apply to himself the beautiful maxims he drew from the sacred text, so that he made great progress in the spiritual life: he resisted temptations and rose from his faults by practicing, a rare thing, what he preached to others. He gave, moreover, an example no less useful to writers living in community: he only worked on his books during the hours that remained to him after having attended all the exercises of the monastery, because obedience is more meritorious in the eyes of God than study, and because one cannot, moreover, better prepare oneself to write on divine things than by celebrating, like the angels, the glory of God, by meditating on it, by putting oneself, so to speak, in communication with heaven. In 844, our Saint, although a simple deacon, was elected abbot of Corbie after the deat abbé de Corbie Monastery that acquired the relics of Saint Précord. h of Isaac. Around the same time, he published his treatise on the Birth of the Virgin, dedicated to the nuns of Notre-Dame de Soissons: he shows therein that Mary gave birth to Our Lord in a supernatural manner, without ceasing to be a virgin.

The illustrious abbot attended, in the year 847, the C Concile de Paris Council at which the Abbey of Corbie was honored. ouncil of Paris, which showered the monastery of Corbie with praise for its regularity and prosperity, and granted it great privileges. He was also present at the Assembly of Quierz y-sur-Ois Gotescalc Monk whose theses on predestination provoked a doctrinal crisis. e (849), where Gottschalk was condemned for the second time. Having gone to Bazoches, in the Soissonnais region, to visit the church of the holy martyrs Rufinus and Valerius, he was requested by the local inhabitants to rewrite the history (the Acts) of these Saints, and to put it into a better style, without changing anything, neither in substance nor in the order of the facts. He did so very willingly, convinced, as he said, "that the life of the Saints should be no less precious to us than their relics, and that, if one takes such great care to wrap their sacred bones in rich fabrics, one must also recount their actions in a noble style, equally removed from affectation and vulgarity."

Various causes, such as the distractions inseparable from the administration of a monastery and the opposition of some of his monks, led the holy abbot of Corbie to resolve to abdicate. His resignation was only accepted in 851. He had been powerfully supported in his troubles by the monks of Saint-Riquier, with whom he stayed for some time, and by his friend Lupus, abbot of Ferrières, who helped him not only with his advice but with his influence with King Charles the Bald. R eturned to himself an roi Charles le Chauve Emperor who confirmed the rights of the priory in the 9th century. d to study, Radbert resumed his literary works, continued his interrupted writings, and composed new ones. He joined prayer to study, weeping incessantly for his sins and those of his neighbor. It was to maintain these sentiments of compunction that, after finishing his commentaries on Saint Matthew and on Psalm 44, he composed one on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, dedicated to Severus, his friend, whose real name was Hildeman. In this work, as in some others that he wrote towards the end of his life, he deplores the disorders of his time, the scandalous vices of ecclesiastics and religious, the dissolution of public morals, and the misfortunes resulting from the invasion of the Normans. Breathing only for the Church and for France, he signals and mourns the calamities that threaten them, and does everything in his power to avert them. He was a great enemy of selfishness: he always forgot himself, he immersed himself in his humility, to think only of others. Thus, although he had written the lives of his masters Adalard and Wala, he expressly forbade his disciples to write his own. His orders were only too scrupulously executed. Today, to know the actions of such a great man, we have hardly any other resources than his own writings.

He died holily, around the year 865, on the feast day of Sa int Riquier, saint Riquier Apostle of Ponthieu and spiritual director of Saint Vulphy. for whom he had a very special devotion. His body was buried in the chapel of Saint-Jean; but, in 1073, it was transferred to the main church, by the authority of the Holy See, which, because of the miracles performed at his tomb, placed him in the rank of Saints whom the Church honors during the course of the year. The almost complete remains of Saint Paschase Radbert are still held at Corbie.

In addition to the works mentioned in the course of this account, we also have from Saint Paschasius: the Treatise on Faith, Hope, and Charity; some Poems and a Letter that he wrote to King Charles the Bald, while sending him the Treatise on the Body and Blood of the Lord: "He speaks, in his works, only according to Scripture and the Fathers. One sees there that he was very well versed in the Greek and Hebrew languages. His style is always appropriate to the subjects he treats.

Blessed Paschasius is represented with a monstrance or ostensorium in his hand, to recall the zeal with which he defended the dogma of the Eucharist.

We had to completely redo the history of this Life, which, in Father Giry, is reduced to a vague account without narrative. (See the biography that precedes the works of the Saint, in the Patrology of M. Migne; Hugues Ménard, in his notes on the Benedictine martyrology; Dom Cuillier; the authors of the Hist. litt. de France; Mabillon, etc.)