Saint Theobald of Marly

The Abbey of Vaux-de-Cernay L'abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay Cistercian abbey of which Thibaud was abbot. was then very flourishing. Our Saint retired there; hardly had he taken the habit, than one saw all religious virtues shine in him. His companions, who could not follow him, admired his modesty, his silence, his humility, his fervor, his assiduity in prayer, and above all his gentle and pliable spirit, which was like soft wax in the hands of his superiors. The elders blessed God for having sent them a young man who joined to the nobility of his blood and the perfections of his body, a soul so well-born and so many rare spiritual qualities. As he had studied almost nothing, they gave him a master, who taught him, in a short time, what one learns in public schools. His virtue always growing with age, he was elected prior of the monastery, and, some time later, Abbot Richard, under whom he had exercised this office with singular prudence, having died, he was put in his place. He resisted this inclination of his brethren for some time; but, unable to make them change their resolution, he was obliged to yield to their insistent prayers. As they had only elected him after a long trial of his justice and his charity, they had no reason to repent of their choice. They had in him a wise, vigilant, merciful superior, filled with compassion for the needs of his brothers and always ready to help them.

Thibaud did not believe that the abbot should have any rights or privileges other than to be the example of his house, and to surpass the other religious in all monastic virtues as much as he surpassed them in dignity. His humility was so prodigious that there was no task in the monastery, however lowly it might be, to which he would not joyfully stoop. He often took it upon himself to light the lamps of the church, the dormitory, and the infirmary; he cleaned the shoes and clothes of his brothers; he sang in the choir, in his turn, the responsories that are ordinarily sung by the youngest clerics. He made no difficulty of serving as an assistant to the masons, and of carrying stones and mortar on his shoulders to advance the buildings of his convent. Finally, he was so poorly dressed that he surpassed in this the last of the lay brothers. These practices of humility being known in the Order of Cî teaux, the abbot Ordre de Cîteaux Monastic order to which Bertrand and the Abbey of Grandselve belong. s reproached him for them at the General Chapter, where his position obliged him to be present; but he immediately closed their mouths by telling them that "they would not be reproving him and would find no fault with his conduct if he had arrived well-mounted and they saw him in a precious and brilliant habit."

What made him especially admirable was his devotion and tenderness for the Blessed Virgin; he thought of her continually; and he had the skill to attribute to her glory everything he said and everything he did. When books were being written for the choir, he wanted her name to always be formed in red letters; when he heard it pronounced, his love moved him to say these beautiful words: "Sweet name of the Blessed Virgin, venerable name, blessed name, ineffable name, name lovable throughout all eternity." If he passed before the high altar, where the Blessed Sacrament was, he would say with a heart full of joy: "Blessed be Jesus Christ, Son of God, who, by his temporal birth, filled with ineffable glory Our Lady, his most worthy and most glorious Mother." One day he was told that there might be excess in this affection for the Virgin Mary, because it seemed that he was dividing his heart between God and her, and that Jesus Christ did not have full possession of it. But he satisfied this complaint with a response as Christian as it was modest: "Know," he said, "that I only love the Blessed Virgin as much as I do because she is the Mother of my Lord Jesus Christ; if she were not, I would not love her more than the other holy virgins. Thus, it is Jesus Christ himself whom I love, honor, and revere in her." He added that he did not doubt in the least that she was raised above all the angels and all the elect, and that she consequently deserved to be loved above all things after God.

This great love often earned him the sight, the conversation, and the holy caresses of this august Queen. He was also one day consoled by a vision of the most adorable Trinity, and he learned, on that occasion, that God took singular pleasure when the canticle of the three children of the furnace of Babylon was sung with fervor. The Abbot of Clairvaux bore witness to this fact after the death of Thibaud, at the ceremony of the elevation of his body. His prayers were so effective that they obtained from God everything he asked of Him. We have two memorable examples of this. One day, a novice of his monastery, violently tempted, wanted to renounce religious life: the master of novices spared no effort to make him understand that it was a trick of the devil; but it was useless. The holy abbot went to find him himself, and, in the fervor of his zeal, said everything that a father full of charity can say to his child to prevent him from being lost; but he gained nothing. Finally, he begged him to wait at least until the next day to execute such a disastrous resolution: which he obtained only with difficulty. After Compline, he began to pray for him, and continued throughout the night, but with such success that the next day the novice was found so changed, so confused by his fickleness, so resolved to persevere in his vocation, that he protested that he would not leave for all the treasures in the world. Que en Margaret, wife o La reine Marguerite Wife of Saint Louis, Queen of France. f Saint Louis, having no children, was quite desolate, and the whole of France with her. Prayers were being said for her everywhere. Saint Thibaud, animated by the spirit of God, said that one should not despair so quickly, and that God, prayed to with perseverance, would come to the aid of the kingdom of France. Indeed, the prayers of the Saint were of such efficacy that the Queen had several children. This princess was so grateful to Saint Thibaud that after his death she came to his tomb, and, having prostrated herself with her face to the ground, she paid her respects to him as her singular benefactor.

This great man only left his abbey with regret, and, when he was outside, he was like a fish out of water: "O my soul!" he would say, "your Beloved, the one whom you seek and desire is not here; let us return, I pray you, to Vaux-de-Cernay, it is there that you will find him, that you will converse with him and that you will have the happiness of seeing him by faith in prayer, while waiting to see him face to face and as he is in himself." He would add, in the fear of becoming too distracted: "Return, Shulamite, to your monastery, return there promptly, and there you will adore your God with more devotion and security!" Would to God, says a learned author of the Order of Saint Benedict on this subject, that these flighty religious, who only take pleasure outside their cloister, would reflect on these words; they would love solitude more than they do, and would not put all their affection into making useless journeys and conversing with seculars!

Our Saint could find no other consolation than that which came to him from God; he was for the most part retired in his cell where, for all sustenance, he was brought brown bread and water. If, during that time, letters arrived for him from the outside, even from prelates and great lords, they were placed on the small window of his oratory to receive a response, without interrupting him or speaking to him. He took particular care to refer to God everything he saw or heard. Being at the court of Saint Louis, where a musician was enter taining the saint Louis King of France whose chaplain was Thomas Hélye. company, he was raised to a high contemplation of divine holiness and the joys of paradise, such that tears flowed abundantly from his eyes; which led that holy king to say that Thibaud had found the secret of converting temporal joy into spiritual joy, and of drawing profit from the losses of others. Finally, the life and conversation of this holy Abbot were so edifying that his monastery, far from relaxing the rigor of observance under his government, became a monastery even more regular and austere than it had been before; so much so that it was commonly called the prison of the Order, and only the most fervent religious wished to remain there. Guillaume de Paris also charged Thibaud with the government of the nuns of Port-Royal, two and a half leagues from Vaux-de-Cernay. This was not the only monastery of nun s that our Port-Royal Monastery of nuns directed by Thibaud. Saint was obliged to take under his direction; he was entrusted with that of Le Trésor, in the Vexin, between Gisors and Mantes. He further governed an abbey of men, called Breuil-Benoît, a daughter of that of Vaux-de-Cernay and mother of that of La Trappe, in the di ocese of Séez Breuil-Benoît Monastery for men governed by Thibaud. . He lived thus until the year 1247. God, to reward his labors and crown his merits, sent him an illness which was the instrument of his deliverance and the path by which he arrived at a blessed death. His body was first buried in the chapel, where Queen Marguerite, and later, Philippe the Bold, her son, visited it. Fourteen years later, it was raised from the earth and transferred to a chapel, where i Philippe le Hardi King of France who visited the saint's tomb. t has always been honored since. His cowl was found intact and so well preserved that Abbot Geoffroy, one of his successors, used it for the rest of his life on certain ceremonial days. The miracles that have been performed and are continually performed at his tomb are without number.

We have drawn this account from the monastic martyrology, commented on by Hugues Ménard, and from the menology of Citroux, commented on by Henriques. The Messieurs de Sainte-Marthe, conscientious authors, also speak of him in the rank of the abbots of Vaux-de-Cernay.