Aelred from Rievaulx

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Aelred von Rieveaulx, contemporary illustration from the manuscript De Speculo Caritatis , ca.1140

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (* 1110 in Hexham , Northumberland , † January 12, 1167 in Rievaulx , North Riding of Yorkshire ) was a medieval abbot , preacher and mystic . He was one of the most important monks in the first generation of the Cistercian order .

Live and act

Aelred, whose name is also spelled Ælred, Ailred, Æthelred and Ethelred, was born in Hexham, on the border between England and Scotland. He was educated and taught with the Benedictines in Durham . At the court of the Scottish King David I (1124-1153), Aelred worked for a number of years as a palace marshal and steward ("economus" and " dapifer summus "), but also on a diplomatic mission.

On a delegation to the Archbishop of York he got to know the monastery of Rievaulx ( Yorkshire ) and was very impressed by the life of the monks. He entered there at the age of 24 and after a short time first became an economist , then in 1141 briefly a novice master . 1141–1143 he became abbot of the newly founded Revesby and in 1147 abbot in the very influential mother monastery of Rievaulx.

His twenty-year term in office was very successful; his biographer Walter Daniel praised everything : “ He doubled everything: the monks and conversers [lay brothers], the land, goods and equipment; but he has tripled religious discipline and love. ” (quoted from Brem, introduction to Spec. car., 10. see below) This is rather an understatement: when he entered the monastery there were only 25 monks, when he died there were 300 ( !) - despite the establishment of Revesby in the meantime. Later it even comprised 650 monks (after the founding of Waverley Abbey in 1128, the Cistercianism in the British Isles grew by leaps and bounds: 58 abbeys were founded there within just 25 years; when the monastery was abolished by King Henry VIII it was around 120).

The hardships of the Cistercian life and the cold and humid climate (only one room in the monastery was heated) seriously affected his poor health; in the last years of his life he suffered from rheumatism and bronchitis . Nevertheless, he did not neglect his official duties, nor did he neglect the spiritual care of his monks, except for the deathbed. He died on January 12, 1166 (or 1167). The Cistercian Abbot Gilbert von Hoyland gave him a moving obituary in which he praised Aelred's mental health, care, gentleness and patience (sermo 40 in Canticum Salomonis).

Aelred was canonized as early as 1191. Copies of his works were distributed throughout Europe; only after the destruction of all English abbeys by Henry VIII did they gradually fall into oblivion. It was rediscovered in the 19th century, e.g. B. by John Henry Newman , who brought him back to science. It was not until 1950 that Walter Daniel's Vita Aelreds was published by historian F. Maurice Powicke ; A critical edition that has not yet been completed has only started in the last few decades. In more recent theology and spirituality research, it receives - like all Cistercian mysticism - great attention (cf. the information on secondary literature).

Works

Aelred, historicizing illustration from 1845

Aelred's most famous works are the Speculum Caritatis ( Mirror of Love ) and the writing on spiritual friendship: De Spirituali Amicitia . Both were arranged by Bernhard von Clairvaux. His works can be found in the Patrologia Latina Vol. CXCV [195]; some smaller ones are also available in different translations. Critical Edition: Aelredi Rievallensis opera omnia ; Vol. I opera ascetica , Vol. II Sermones I - XLVI Turnholti (Brepols) 1971 ff.

De Spirituali Amicitia deals with Cicero and various church fathers ( Augustine , Hieronymus ) and with fine psychology the nature of friendship, especially spiritual friendship, the ultimate goal of which is Christ. “How blessed is it. to share, to plan anything with one another, to examine and to become of one mind in all pieces. In addition, friends pray for one another more effectively. [...] The holy love that embraces the friend leads up to that blessed love that lets us embrace Christ. ” (Aelred: On spiritual friendship. 109)

Speculum caritatis treats - against the background of the conflict between Cluniac and Cistercians about the "correct" type of monastic reform - in biblical language the essence and the "sublimity of love, its fruit and right order" (so Bernhard von Clairvaux in his letter the request for the drafting of the work, quoted in Aelred, Spiegel 1989, 17).

Furthermore, Aelred left behind many sermons (over 200 sermones have already been edited in the PL, a further 100 not until 1952, recently another 100 have been discovered in the holdings of the former libraries of Cluny and Clairvaux); they are seen as particularly eloquent examples of Cistercian rhetoric. Some consider him the "English Bernhard von Clairvaux ".

For the monastic community of his sister he wrote a rule of reclamation .

sexuality

From Aelred's works, his private letters and his biography (of Walter Daniel , a monk from Rievaulx, and Aelred's student and secretary as well as one of the interlocutors in De amicitia spiritualis ), the historian John Boswell came to the conclusion that Aelred was homosexual . In De institutione inclusarum , Aelred writes, “When I was still a schoolboy, I was so gripped by the charm of my friends that - among the weaknesses and failures of that age - my senses surrendered entirely to emotion and devoted themselves to love. It seemed to me nothing sweeter or more beautiful or more valuable than to love and be loved. ” In a letter to his sister, Aelred writes of this time as one in which she kept her virtue while he lost his. This would not be surprising, since Aelred lived at the court of the Scottish king and did not enter the monastery at Rievaulx until he was 24 years old (under medieval conditions that is late).

Some of his works encouraged unmarried virginity and chastity (but not abstinence) in marriage or as a widower, and warned against sexual activity outside of marriage. In all of his works he treats same-sex attraction as equally possible and equally dangerous as opposite-sex attraction, since they represent the same danger to the vow of celibacy (celibacy and chastity). No concrete sexual practice on the part of Aelred can be proven. However, he was lenient to human error and criticized the lack of pastoral care for the nun von Watton and her fall of pregnancy in a Gilbertine monastery .

Patronage

Saint Aelred is the patron saint of those who suffer from bladder stones . In Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire a school is named after him. Aelred is patronized by a number of lesbian and gay-friendly organizations, including Integrity in the Episcopal Church in the USA , the National Anglican Catholic Church in the northeastern United States, and the Order of St. Aelred in the Philippines . In Schortens , Friesland, there is a hermit hermitage that is consecrated to Abbot Aelred.

literature

expenditure

  • Aelredi Rievallensis opera omnia in Patrologia latina, tom. CXCV.
  • Aelredi Rievallensis opera omnia; Vol. I opera ascetica, Vol. II Sermones I-XLVI. ed. A. Hoste / CH Talbot. Turnholti (Brepols) 1971 ff. (Also Corpus Christianorum CM I [1871])
  • Aelredo di Rievaulx: Regola delle Recluse, a cura di Domenico Pezzini. Paoline, Milano 2003, Italian translation.
  • Aelred de Rievaulx: Sermons pour l'année. 3. Deuxieme collection de Clairvaux, Sermons 29 à 46. Introduction by Pierre-André Burton. Abbaye Notre Dame du Lac (Pain de Cîteaux 18), 2002
  • Aelred von Rieval: The sacred friendship: the blessed abbot Aelred von Rieval booklet “De spirituali amicitia” with an obituary by the same on his friend Simon. Trans. V. Karl Otten. Theatiner-Verlag, Munich 1927
  • Aelred von Rieval: About spiritual friendship (Latin - German). In Dt. transfer by Rhaban Haacke. Spee, Trier 1978, ISBN 3-87760-011-5 (series: Occidens 3)
    • Excerpt again as: Friendship with God. In: Klaus-Dieter Eichler (ed.): Philosophy of friendship. 2nd edition, Reclam, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-379-01669-1 , pp. 67-82
  • Aelred by Rieval: mirror of love. (Speculum caritatis, German translation: Hildegard Brem) Cistercian Abbey, Eschenbach 1989 (texts by the Cistercian fathers 2)
  • Aelred by Rieval: mirror of love. (Transferred and introduced by M. Hildegard Brem. Abridged and revised by Hans Urs von Balthasar). Johannes-Verlag, Einsiedeln 1989, ISBN 3-89411-006-6 . (Christian Masters 37)

Secondary literature

  • Wolfgang Buchmüller: The asceticism of love. Aelred von Rievaulx and the basics of his spirituality . Bernardus-Verlag, Langwaden 2001, ISBN 3-934551-36-X
  • Pierre-André Burton: Aelred de Rievaulx, 1110–1167. De l'homme éclaté à l'être unifié. Essai de biography existential et spiritual . Editions du Cerf, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-204-09033-9 .
  • Walter Daniel: The life of Aelred of Rievaulx . Translated from the Latin and annotated by Frederick Maurice Powicke , Cistercian fathers series 57, Kalamazoo 1994, ISBN 978-0-87907-257-5 (first edition 1950).
  • Walter Daniel: La vie d'Aelred, Abbé de Rievaulx . Pain de Citeaux 19 Ser. 3, Notre Dame du Lac, Oka (Quebec) 2003, ISBN 978-2-921592-25-3
  • Marsha Dutton (Ed.): Aelred of Rievaulx: The Historical Works . Cistercian Fathers Series 56, Kalamazoo 2005, ISBN 978-0-87907-288-9
  • Marsha Dutton: Christ Our Mother: Aelred's Iconography for Contemplative Union. In: E. Rozanne Elder (Ed.): Goad and Nail: Studies in Medieval Cistercian History. Cistercian Studies Series 84. Kalamazoo 1985, pages 21-45.
  • Martin Elze:  Aelred von Rievaulx . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 1, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 3-11-006944-X , pp. 533-535.
  • Gerd Fösges: Aelred von Rievaulx's image of man . Altenberge (Oros-Verlag) 1994, ISBN 3-89375-096-7
  • Ursula Lievenbrück:  Aelred von Rievaulx. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 22-33.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Frederick Maurice Powicke: Ailred of Rievaulx and his biographer Walter Daniel. Longmans and Green, Oxford 1922. Reprinted by General Books LLC, Manchester 2010, ISBN 978-1-151-86977-7

Web links

Wikiquote: Ethelred von Rievaulx  - Quotes
Commons : Aelred of Rievaulx  - collection of images, videos and audio files

proof

  1. ^ John Boswell: Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality. University of Chicago Press, 1980.
  2. ↑ Kirchensite.de: From the stage to the hermitage (January 30, 2013) ; accessed on August 21, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Aelred from Rievaulx
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ælred; Ailred; Æthelred; Ethelred from Rievaulx
BRIEF DESCRIPTION medieval abbot, preacher and mystic
DATE OF BIRTH 1110
PLACE OF BIRTH Hexham , Northumberland
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1167
Place of death Rievaulx , North Riding of Yorkshire