Aelred of Rievaulx

Aelred of Rievaulx
Aelred of Rievaulx
Abbot
Born	1110; Hexham, Northumberland, England
Died	12 January 1167 (aged 56–57); Rievaulx, Yorkshire, England
Resting place	Rievaulx chapter house next to William, first abbot
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church;; Anglican Communion
Major shrine	Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, England; (destroyed)
Feast	12 January
Attributes	Abbot holding a book
Patronage	bladder stone sufferers

Aelred of Rievaulx (Latin: Aelredus Riaevallensis); also Ailred, Ælred, and Æthelred; (1110 – 12 January 1167) was an English Cistercian monk, abbot of Rievaulx from 1147 until his death, and known as a writer. He is regarded by Anglicans, Catholics, and other Christians as a saint.

Life[edit]

The ruins of Rievaulx Abbey on the River Rye in North Yorkshire.

Aelred was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110,^[1] one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew's at Hexham, himself a son of another Eilaf, treasurer of Durham.^[2]

Aelred spent several years at the court of King David I of Scotland in Roxburgh, possibly from the age of 14,^[3] rising to the rank of echonomus^[4] (often translated "steward" or "Master of the Household") before leaving the court at age twenty-four (in 1134) to enter the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire.^[5] He may have been partially educated by Lawrence of Durham, who sent him a hagiography of Saint Brigid.

From 1142 – 1143, Aelred served as novice master at Rievaulx.^[6] of a new daughter house of Rievaulx at Revesby in Lincolnshire. In 1147, he was elected abbot of Rievaulx itself,^[7] a position he was to hold until his death. Under his administration, the abbey is said to have grown to some 140 monks and 500 conversi and laymen.^[8]

His role as abbot required him to travel. Cistercian abbots were expected to make annual visitations to daughter-houses, and Rievaulx had five in England and Scotland by the time Aelred held office.^[9] Moreover, Aelred had to make the long sea journey to the annual general chapter of the Order at Cîteaux in France.^[10]

Alongside his role as a monk and later abbot, Aelred was involved throughout his life in political affairs. In 1138, when Rievaulx's patron, Walter Espec, was to surrender his castle at Wark to King David of Scotland, Aelred reportedly accompanied Abbot William of Rievaulx to the Scottish border to negotiate the transfer.^[11]

In 1142 Aelred traveled to Rome, alongside Walter of London, Archdeacon of York, to represent before Pope Innocent II the northern prelates who opposed the election of William, nephew of King Stephen as archbishop of York. The result of the journey was that Aelred brought back a letter from Pope Innocent summoning the superiors whom Aelred represented to appear in Rome the following March to make their deposition in the required canonical form. The resulting negotiations dragged on for many years.^[12] The fourteenth-century version of the Peterborough Chronicle states that Aelred's efforts during the twelfth-century papal schism brought about Henry II's decisive support for the Cistercian candidate, resulting in 1161 in the formal recognition of Pope Alexander III.^[13]

Aelred wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them Speculum caritatis ("The Mirror of Charity," reportedly written at the request of Bernard of Clairvaux) and De spiritali amicitia ("On Spiritual Friendship").^[14] He also wrote seven works of history, addressing three of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendant of Anglo-Saxon kings.

In his later years, he is thought to have suffered from the kidney stones and arthritis.^[15] Walter reports that in 1157 the Cistercian General Council allowed him to sleep and eat in Rievaulx's infirmary; later he lived in a nearby building constructed for him.

Aelred died in the winter of 1166–7, probably on 12 January 1167^[16] at Rievaulx.

Writings[edit]

Aelred's Life of Edward the Confessor, late 12th century illuminated manuscript, British Library.

For his efforts in writing and administration Aelred was called by David Knowles the "St. Bernard of the North." Knowles, a historian of monasticism in England, also described him as "a singularly attractive figure," saying that "No other English monk of the twelfth century so lingers in the memory."^[17]

All of Aelred's works have appeared in translation, most in English and in French; the remaining three volumes of his sermons are being translated into English and will appear from Cistercian Publications in 2018–2020. There are already available in French in a five volume edition.

Extant works^[18] by Aelred include:

Histories and biographies

Vita Davidis Scotorum regis ("Life of David, King of the Scots"), written c. 1153.^[19]
Genealogia regum Anglorum ("Genealogy of the Kings of the English"), written 1153–54.
Relatio de Standardo ("On the Account of the Standard"), also De bello standardii ("On the Battle of the Standard"), 1153–54.
Vita S. Eduardi, regis et confessoris ("The Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor"), 1161–63.
Vita S. Niniani ("The Life of Saint Ninian"), 1154–60.
De miraculis Hagustaldensis ecclesiae ("On the Miracles of the Church of Hexham"), ca. 1155.^[20]
De quodam miraculo miraculi ("A Certain Wonderful Miracle") (wrongly known since the seventeenth century as De Sanctimoniali de Wattun ("The Nun of Watton")), c. 1160

Spiritual treatises

Speculum caritatis ("The Mirror of Charity"), ca. 1142.
De Iesu puero duodenni ("Jesus as a Boy of Twelve"), ?1160–62.
De spirituali amicitiâ ("Spiritual Friendship"), 1164–67.
De institutione inclusarum ("The Formation of Anchoresses"), ?1160–62.
Oratio pastoralis ("Pastoral Prayer"), c. 1163–67.
De anima ("On the Soul"), c.1164–67.

Sermons

These sermons mainly relate to the seventeen liturgical days on which Cistercian abbots were required to preach to their community.
Several non-liturgical sermons survive as well, including one he apparently preached to a clerical synod, presumably in connection with a journey to the general chapter at Cîteaux, and one devoted to Saint Katherine of Alexandria.
In 1163-4 he also wrote a 31-sermon commentary on Isaiah 13–16, Homeliae de oneribus propheticis Isaiae ("Homilies on the Prophetic Burdens of Isaiah"), submitting the work for evaluation to Gilbert Foliot, who became bishop of London in 1163.^[21]

Later reputation[edit]

Depiction of Saint Aelred (or Ailred; Latin: Sanctus Aelredus Riaevallensis), from an 1845 book

Aelred was never formally canonised in the manner that was later established, but he became the center of a cult in the north of England that was officially recognized by Cistercians in 1476.^[22] As such, he was venerated as a saint, with his body kept at Rievaulx. In the sixteenth century, before the dissolution of the monastery, John Leland, claims he saw Aelred's shrine at Rievaulx containing Aelred's body glittering with gold and silver.^[23] Today, Aelred of Rievaulx is listed as a saint on 12 January, the traditional date of his death, in the latest official edition of the Roman Martyrology,^[24] which expresses the official position of the Roman Catholic Church.

He also appears in the calendars of various other Christian denominations.

Much of Aelred's history is known because of the Life written about him by Walter Daniel shortly after his death.

Until the twentieth century, Aelred was generally known as a historian rather than as a spiritual writer; for many centuries his most famous work was his Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor.

Patronage[edit]

A high school named after St. Aelred (the more modern spelling of his name) in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, in the United Kingdom, closed in 2011; a primary school in York is named for him. Formerly there was also a high school on Gleniffer Road in Glenburn, Paisley, named after St Aelred.

Sexuality[edit]

Aelred's work, private letters, and his Life by Walter Daniel, another twelfth-century monk of Rievaulx, have led some historians, such as John Boswell of Yale University and Brian Patrick McGuire of Roskilde University in Denmark, to suggest that he was homosexual.^[25] No definitive conclusions can be reached. However, his most famous work is De spiritali amicitia ("On Spiritual Friendship") potentially reveals his own conscious homosexual orientation and has been described as "giving love between persons of the same gender its most profound expression in Christian theology".^[26]

Nevertheless, in line with contemporaries his works exhorted chastity among the unmarried and widowhood, and fidelity within marriage - condemning extra-marital sexual relationships and describing "unnatural relations" (presumably sodomy) as a rejection of charity and the law of God.^{[citation needed]}

Several gay-friendly organizations have adopted Aelred as their patron saint, including Integrity USA^[27] in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, National Anglican Catholic Church in the northeast United States, and the Order of St. Aelred in the Philippines.^[28]

Works[edit]

Critical editions[edit]

Aelred of Rievaulx, '"Opera omnia." Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3, 3A. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 1971, 1989, 2001, 2012, 2005, 2015, 2017.
Aelred of Rievaulx, For Your Own People: Aelred of Rievaulx's Pastoral Prayer," trans. Mark DelCogliano, crit. ed. Marsha L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series 73 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2008). [Translation of Oratio Pastoralis].

Translations[edit]

Walter Daniel, Vita Ailredi Abbatis Rievall. Ed. and transl. Maurice Powicke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950). [Translation reprinted with a new introduction as The Life of Aelred of Rievaulx and the Letter to Maurice. Translated by F. M. Powicke and Jane Patricia Freeland, Introduction by Marsha Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series no. 57 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1994.)]
Aelred of Rievaulx, On Jesus at Twelve Years Old, trans. Geoffrey Webb and Adrian Walker, Fleur de Lys series 17 (London: A. R. Mobray and Co., Ltd., 1955).
Aelred of Rievaulx, Treatises and Pastoral Prayer, Cistercian Fathers series 2 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1971). [includes De Institutione inclusarum, "De Jesu," and "Oratio Pastoralis."]
Aelred of Rievaulx, Dialogue on the Soul, trans. C. H. Talbot, Cistercian Father series 22 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1981).
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Niniani, translated by Winifred MacQueen, in John MacQueen, St. Nynia (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1990) [reprinted as (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005)].
Aelred of Rievaulx, Mirror of Charity, trans. Elizabeth Connor, Cistercian Fathers series 17 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1990).
Aelred of Rievaulx, The Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor, translated by Jerome Bertram (Guildford: St. Edward's Press, 1990) [reprinted at Southampton: Saint Austin Press, 1997].
Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, trans. Mark F. Williams (London: University of Scranton Press, 1994).
Aelred of Rievaulx, The Liturgical Sermons I: The First Clairvaux Collection, Advent—All Saints, translated by Theodore Berkeley and M. Basil Pennington . Sermons 1–28, Advent – All Saints. Cistercian Fathers series no. 58, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2001).
Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works, trans. Jane Patricia Freeland, ed. Marsha L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series 56 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2005).
Aelred of Rievaulx, The Lives of the Northern Saints, trans. Jane Patricia Freeland, ed. Marsha L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series 71 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2006).
Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, trans. Lawrence Braceland, ed. Marsha L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Collegeville: Cistercian Publications, 2010).
Aelred of Rievaux, "The Liturgical Sermons: The First Clairvaux Collection, Advent-All Saints," transl. Theodore Berkeley and M. Basil Pennington, Cistercian Fathers series 58 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2001).
Aelred of Rievaulx, "The Liturgical Sermons: The Second Clairvaux Collection, Advent-All Saints," transl. Marie Anne Mayeski, Cistercian Fathers series 71 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2016).
Aelred of Rievaulx, "The Liturgical Sermons: The Durham and Lincoln Collections," transl. Kathryn Krug, Lewis White, et al., Ed. and Intro. Ann Astell, Cistercian Fathers series 58 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, forthcoming 2019).
Aelred of Rievaulx, "The Liturgical Sermons: The Reading Collection, Advent-All Saints," transl. Daniel Griggs, Cistercian Fathers series 81 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2018).
Aelred of Rievaulx, "Homilies on the Prophetic Burdens of Isaiah," trans. Lewis White, Cistercian Fathers series 83 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2018).
(fr.) Aelred de Rievaulx, Sermons. La collection de Reading (sermons 85-182), trans. G. de Briey(+), G. Raciti, intro. X. Morales, Corpus Christianorum in Translation 20 (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2015)

Notes[edit]

^ Thurston, Herbert. "St. Ælred." "The Catholic Encyclopedia," vol. 1 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907). 20 September 2012 [1]
^ Bell, "Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)"
^ It is unclear exactly when Aelred joined King David's court. However, David became king in 1124, when Aelred was 14, and in his lament for David Aelred says he had known David "from the beginning of his age," which might well imply that Aelred had been at the court from around 1124. See Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (London: SPCK, 1969), p12.
^ See Walter Daniel, Vita A, ca. 2. (p91 of Cistercian Fathers translation)
^ '"The Lives of the Saints," Rev. S. Baring-Gould, 1:178 (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1914)
^ Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, (London: SPCK, 1969), p53.
^ "Saint Aelred of Rievaulx", Encyclopedia Britannica. Online at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Aelred-of-Rievaulx
^ Walteri Danielis Vita Ailredi Abbatis Rievall', ed. F. M. Powicke, (London, 1959), ca. 30.
^ Some evidence of these journeys remains. For instance, Walter Daniel records a visitation that Aelred made to Dundrennan. Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (London: SPCK, 1969), 65
^ It was probably during one of these journeys that he delivered the sermon titled as "To the Synod at Troyes."
^ Marsha L Dutton, 'Introduction,' in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2010), p16; Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (London: SPCK, 1969), p24.
^ Marsha L Dutton, 'Introduction,' in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2010), p16; Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (London: SPCK, 1969), p24.
^ Marsha L Dutton, "Introduction," in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2010), p17.
^ On the use of spiritali" instead of spirituali, see Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, transl. by L. Braceland Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2010), 25.
^ Walter Daniel, "Vita Aelredi"
^ This is the traditional date for his feast within the Cistercian Order, as celebrated on the authority of Walter Daniel, Vita A, ca. 57.
^ Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, 3rd edition (New York:Penguin Books, 1995). ISBN 0-14-051312-4.
^ Some of Aelred's works have apparently not survived, including his letters and his poetic eulogy to St. Cuthbert. The Rievaulx library catalogue also lists an otherwise unknown De fasciculo frondium, and Walter Daniel notes that he composed a liturgical homily on Luke 11:33 to be read on the feast day of St Edward the Confessor; Peter Jackson has identified and published what he believes to be that sermon (In translacione sancti Edwardi Confessoris: The Lost Sermon by Aelred of Rievaulx?," "Cistercian Studies Quarterly" 40 (2005): 45–82). See David N. Bell, ‘Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 5 Aug 2013
^ King David died on 24 May 1153.
^ This seems to be a sermon that Aelred preached at Hexham on 3 March 1155, when the relics of five former bishops of Hexham were translated to new shrines.
^ Marsha L Dutton, 'Introduction,' in Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, transl.. Lawrence Braceland, Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Collegeville, MI, 2010), p21-2
^ The entry on Aelred in the 1905 New International Encyclopedia states incorrectly that Aelred was canonized in 1191 ( Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Ailred". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. ). For correct information, see David N. Bell, 'Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167),' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 5 Aug 2013
^ Aelred Squire, OP, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (London: SPCK, 1969), p2.
^ Martyrologium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Ioannis Pauli Pp. II promulgatum, editio [typica] altera, Typis Vaticanis, A.D. MMIV (2004), p. 96.
^ Sommerfeldt 2005, pp. 8–9; See also Boswell 1980, McGuire 1994, and Roden 2002.
^ "Saint Aelred of Rievaulx", Encyclopedia Britannica. Online at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Aelred-of-Rievaulx#ref42010 which explores the relation between spiritual and human friendship in a monastic context.ref>American Council of Learned Societies: Dictionary of the Middle Ages, volume 4./ref> He wrote in De Institutione 32 about his experiences as a schoolboy, where "the charm of my friends greatly captivated me, so that among the foibles and failings with which that age is fraught, my mind surrendered itself completely to emotion and devoted itself to love. Nothing seemed sweeter or nicer or more worthwhile than to love and be loved". He confessed that for a while he surrendered himself to lust, "a cloud of desire arose from the lower drives of the flesh and the gushing spring of adolescence" and "the sweetness of love and impurity of lust combined to take advantage of the inexperience of my youth." He refers to the relationship of Jesus and John the Apostle as a "marriage" (implying a strong homo-social or even homoerotic reading) and held it out as an example sanctioning friendships between clerics.ref>Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, 2006, p. 180
^ "Saint Aelred -the Patron Saint of Integrity". Sacredpauses.com. 14 January 1988. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
^ "The Order of St Aelred (O.S.Ae)". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

References[edit]

Bell, David N. (2004). "Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
Burton, Pierre-André, Aelred de Rievaulx (1110–1167): De l'homme éclaté à l'être unifié. Essai de biographie existentielle et spirituelle. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2010.
Sommerfeldt, John R., Aelred of Rievaulx: Pursuing Perfect Happiness. Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 2005.