ST WALTHEN, ABBOT - 3 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of August

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.

ST WALTHEN, ABBOT OF MELROSS 

Saint Walthen (Waltheof) was second son of Simon, Earl of Huntingdon, and Maud, daughter to Judith the niece of William the Conqueror. The consideration of the snares of the world led him to his religious profession among the regular canons of St Austin [Augustine], in St Oswald’s monastery at Nostel, near Pontefract in Yorkshire. 

Here he lived concealed from the world, in the company of his crucified Jesus.  After some time he was promoted to the holy order of priesthood; and, agreeably to his inclinations, always to attend the altar, was appointed sacristan. He was soon after, against his will, chosen prior of Kirkham, a numerous house of that Order in the same county. 

HE WAS FAVOURED WITH A WONDERFUL VISION

In saying Mass one Christmas Day, after the consecration of the bread, he was ravished in the contemplation of that divine mystery of God made man, and melting into tears of love and tender devotion, was favoured with a wonderful vision. 

The Divine Word, who on that day had made himself visible to mankind by his nativity, was pleased to manifest himself not only to the eyes of faith, but also to the corporal eyes of his servant. The holy man saw in his hands, not the form of bread, but a most amiable infant of ravishing beauty, stretching out its hands as if it had been to embrace him, and looking upon him with a most gracious countenance: in which vision the saint finding himself penetrated with unspeakable sweetness and heavenly delights, paid a thousand adorations to that divine infant whom he could not sufficiently love. 

When he had laid down the host on the altar he saw only the sacramental form. He could never after remember this favour without tears of sensible joy, sweetness and love. 

HE BECAME A CISTERCIAN

Walthen, moved by the great reputation of the Cistercian Order, then took the habit of that Order at Wardon, a Cistercian convent in Bedfordshire. 

Four years after his profession Walthen was chosen abbot of Melross, a great monastery in the marches of Scotland, on the river Tweed. 

HE FOUNDED THE MONASTERY OF KYLOS IN SCOTLAND AND THAT OF HOLM-COLTRUM

He founded the monastery of Kylos in Scotland, and that of Holm-Coltrum in Cumberland. By his great alms he supported the poor of the whole country round his abbey to a considerable distance. In a famine which happened in 1154, about four thousand poor strangers came and settled in huts near Melross, for whom he provided necessary sustenance for several months. He sometimes induced his monks to content themselves with half their pittances of bread, in order to supply the poor. He twice multiplied bread miraculously.    

PATIENCE IN HIS LAST ILLNESS

The contemplation of that day which would drown him in the boundless ocean of eternal joy, was the comfort and support of his soul during his last illness, in which he bore great pains with the most edifying silence and patience. Having exhorted his brethren to charity and regular discipline, and received the last sacraments, lying on sackcloth and ashes, he calmly gave up his soul to God on August 3, 1160.  

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)