Saint of the Day – 30 December – Saint Raoul of Vaucelles O.Cist. (Died 1152) Cistercian Priest, Abbot and Founder of Vaucelles Abbey under the instruction of St Bernard (1090-1153) the Doctor of Clairvaux. Born in Sussex, England and died in 1152 of natural causes at the Monastery which he had founded in France. Also known as – Radulphe, Ralph, Raul. There are sadly no available images of our Saint.
The Abbey, whose foundation was desired by St Bernard himself, included within its walls, the largest Cistercian Abbey Church in the world, is located in the Municipality of Rues-des-Vignes, was suppressed along with all other Catholic Churches, Monasteries and Convents) during the French Revolution.
Saint Raoul, who is believed to have been born in Merston, Sussex in England, was a Priest, who had been entrusted with a Parish in his own Country. Returning from a trip to Italy, Raoul stopped at the Clairvaux Abbey, and was fortunate enough to meet St Bernard along with the Monks of his community.
Raoul became deeply enthusiastic about this way of living his religious calling and he decided not to return to England and asked to become a Novice in that very Monastery.
In 1132, shortly after having pronounced his vows, he was sent by St Bernard together St Richard (Died 1169 – Feast day 28 January), another English Priest who had followed him in entering the Order,and with other Monk, to found the Abbey of Vaucelles, in the Diocese of Cambrai. Raoul was the main protagonist in the construction of the Abbey, whose Church was Consecrated in 1149 by Samson, the Bishop of Reims.
Saint Raoul was considered a model for his Monks as he personally trained them with the word and with the example of an upright religious life. He also had the temporal well-being of the Abbey under his care and at heart, so much so, that during his governance, the community began to prosper rapidly.
The story of the miracle of the endless wheat is also handed down about our Saint. During a severe famine, Raoul managed to guarantee the subsistence of a large number of poor people. And even when the grain diminished rapidly and he was advised to be prudent in his donations, he replied that as long as there was grain in the Monastery, he would feed all the unfortunate people who came along and, if the grain was not enough, he would also feed the hungry with the livestock of the Abbey.
We know that when he died, after twenty years of his Abbacy, his community was made up of over two hundred Monks.
Saint Raoul was buried in the chapter hall of the Monastery.
After the Lateran Council, his body together with that of St Richard the second Abbot and that of Nicholas the third Abbot, was moved to the cloister near the door of the Abbey by Abbot Adelgo, who governed the fate of the Monastery between 1166 and 1181.
The Feast day for St Raoul, in the Cistercian Menologium, was set for today, 30 December.
AnaStpaul 