BL. BERCHTOLD, ABBOT - 3 NOVEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of November

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. BERCHTOLD, ABBOT

Blessed Berchtold (Berthold) was abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Engelberg in Switzerland; date of birth unknown; died November 3, 1197. 

Before becoming abbot he was a monk at Engelberg and a favourite disciple of the learned abbot, Blessed Frowin. When Frowin was on the point of dying he advised his monks to elect the pious Berchtold as his successor. Accordingly, after Frowin’s death, which occurred on March 27, 1178, Berchtold was chosen abbot. 

HE BECAME ABBOT

Following in Frowin’s footsteps, he was intent on maintaining strict monastic discipline, the importance of which he inculcated by his own example. Nor did he neglect, at the same time, to encourage his monks in the pursuit of Divine and human knowledge. 

By his order they reproduced many old writings, some of which are still extant in the library of Engelberg. The more learned monks were encouraged to write original works. Berchtold himself wrote “Apologia contra errorem Burchardi Abbatis S. Joannis in Thurthal seu Vallis Taurinae”, in which he shows himself not only well versed in Holy Scripture and the writings of the Fathers but also a master in theological knowledge and dialectical skill. 

HE PROVIDED FOR THE MONKS' WELFARE

Though especially mindful of the spiritual and intellectual advancement of his monks, Berchtold did not omit to provide also for the temporal welfare of Engelberg. 

The contemporaneous annals of Engelberg relate that Berchtold foretold the death of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. 

Later chronicles state that, through his blessing, the lake near Stanzstad was stocked with fish, and that shortly before his death he three times changed water into wine. 

BLESSING FISH

He is generally represented in the act of blessing fish. His miracle of turning water into wine is corroborated by an epigram beneath a representation of him which was kept in the choir of Engelberg up to the seventeenth century. At Engelberg his feast is celebrated on the anniversary of his death. 

(Excerpts from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)