Aelred of Rievaulx

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx
Abbot
Born	1110 Hexham, Northumberland, England
Died	12 January 1167(1167-01-12) Rievaulx, Yorkshire, England
Honored 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 (1110 – 12 January 1167), also Aelred, Ælred, Æthelred, etc., was an English writer, abbot of Rievaulx (from 1147 until his death), and saint.

Life

Aelred was one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew's at Hexham and himself a son of Eilaf, treasurer of Durham. He was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110.

Aelred spent several years at the court of King David I of Scotland, rising to the rank of Master of the Household before leaving the court at age twenty-four (in 1134) to enter the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire. He may have been partially educated by Lawrence of Durham, who sent him a hagiography of Saint Brigid. Aelred became the abbot of a new house of his order at Revesby in Lincolnshire in 1142 and in 1147 was elected abbot of Rievaulx itself, where he spent the remainder of his life. Under his administration, the abbey is said to have grown to some hundred monks and four hundred lay brothers. He made annual visitations to Rievaulx's daughterhouses in England and Scotland and to the French abbeys of Cîteaux and Clairvaux.

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"). He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendent of Anglo-Saxon kings. 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.

Aelred died on January 12, 1167, at Rievaulx. He is recorded as suffering from the stone (hence his patronage) and arthritis in his later years (). He is listed for January 12 in the Roman Martyrology and the calendars of various churches.

Writings

For his efforts in writing and administration Aelred has been 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 … . No other English monk of the twelfth century so lingers in the memory."

Extant works by Aelred include:

Histories and biographies

• Vita Davidis Scotorum regis ("Life of David, King of the Scots"), written c.1153.
• 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.
• De quodam miraculo miraculi", also known as "[De Sanctimoniali de Wattun|De sanctimoniali de Wattun]" ("A Certain Wonderful Miracle" or "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 spiritali amicitia ("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

many sermons

All of Aelred's works have appeared in translation, most in English, but all in French.

Patronage

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, and there is a primary school in York. Formerly there was also a high school on Gleniffer Road in Glenburn, Paisley, named after St Aelred.

Issues of sexuality

Aelred's work, private letters, and his Life by Walter Daniel, another twelfth-century monk of Rievaulx, have led historians, such as John Boswell of Yale University and Brian Patrick McGuire of Roskilde University in Scotland, to suggest that he was homosexual. For example, in writing to an anchoress in The Formation of Anchoresses, Aelred speaks of his youth as the time when she held on to her virtue and he lost his. All of his works, nevertheless, encourage virginity among the unmarried and chastity in marriage and widowhood and warn against any sexual activity outside of marriage; in all his works in later life he treats of extra-marital sexual relationships as forbidden and condemns "unnatural relations" as a rejection of charity and the law of God. He criticized the absence of pastoral care for a young nun who experienced rape, pregnancy, beating, and a miraculous delivery in the Gilbertine community of Watton.

Several gay-friendly organisations have adopted Aelred as their patron saint, such as Integrity 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.

References

• Bell, David N. (2004). "Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8916. Retrieved 30 Jan 2008. 
• Boswell, John, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. University of Chicago Press, 1980.
• McGuire, Brian Patrick, Brother and Lover: Aelred of Rievaulx. Crossroad, 1994.
• Sommerfeldt, John R., Pursuing Perfect Happiness. Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 2005.

Primary sources

• Aelred of Rievaulx, "Opera." Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 1, 2A, 2B, 2D. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 1971, 1983, 2001, 2005.
• Aelred of Rievaulx, "For Your Own People: Aelred of Rievaulx's Pastoral Prayer," trans. Mark Del Cogliano, crit. ed. Marsha L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series 73 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2008).
• 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, "Mirror of Charity," trans. Elizabeth Connor, Cistercian Fathers series 17 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1990).
• Aelred of Rievaulx, "Dialogue on the Soul," trans. C. H. Talbot, Cistercian Father series 22 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1981).
• Aelred of Rievaulx, "Spiritual Friendship," trans. Lawarence Braceland, ed. Marsha L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers series 5 (Collegeville: Cistercian Publications, 2010).
• Aelred of Rievaulx, "Treatises and Pastoral Prayer," Cistercian Fathers series 2 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1971).

Further reading

• Boquet, Damien, L'ordre de l'affect au Moyen Âge: Autour de l'anthropologie affective d'Aelred de Rievaulx. Caen: CRAHM, 2005.
• Dutton, Marsha L.,"Friendship and the Love of God: Augustine's Teaching in the Confessions and Aelred of Rievaulx's Response in Spiritual Friendship", in American Benedictine Review 56 (2005), p. 3-40.
• Dutton, Marsha L., "Sancto Dunstano Cooperante: Aelred of Rievaulx’s Advice to the Heir to the English Throne in Genealogy of the Kings of the English", in: Emilia Jamroziak and Janet Burton (ed.), Religious and Laity in Northern Europe 1000-1400: Interaction, Negotiation, and Power. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007, p. 183–195.
• Dutton, Marsha L., "A Historian's Historian: The Place of Bede in Aelred's Contributions to the New History of his Age", in: Marsha L. Dutton, Daniel M. La Corte, and Paul Lockey (ed.), Truth as Gift: Studies in Cistercian History in Honor of John R. Sommerfeldt" (Cistercian Studies Series 204). Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 2004, p. 407–48.
• Freeman, Elizabeth, "Aelred of Rievaulx’s De Bello Standardii: Cistercian Historiography and the Creation of Community Memories," in: Cîteaux 49 (1998), p. 5–28.
• Freeman, Elizabeth, "The Many Functions of Cistercian Histories Using Aelred of Rievaulx’s Relatio de Standardo as a Case Study," in: Erik Kooper (ed.) The Medieval Chronicle: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle. Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1999, p. 124–32.
• Freeman, Elizabeth, Narratives of a New Order: Cistercian Historical Writing in England, 1150–1220. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002.
• Freeman, Elizabeth, "Nuns in the Public Sphere: Aelred of Rievaulx's De Sanctimoniali de Wattun and the Gendering of Authority", in: Comitatus 17 (1996), p. 55–80.
• Garrison, John, “One Mind, One Heart, One Purse: Integrating Friendship Traditions and the Case of Troilus and Criseyde,” in Medievalia et Humanistica 36 (2010), p. 25-48.
• La Corte, Daniel M., "Abbot as Magister and Pater in the Thought of Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx", in: Marsha L. Dutton, Daniel M. La Corte, and Paul Lockey (ed.), Truth as Gift: Studies in Cistercian History in Honor of John R. Sommerfeldt" (Cistercian Studies Series 204). Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 2004, p. 389–406.
• Mayeski, Marie Anne, "Secundam naturam: The Inheritance of Virtue in Ælred’s Genealogy of the English Kings", in: Cistercian Studies Quarterly 37 (2002), p. 221–28.
• Nouzille, Philippe, Expérience de Dieu et Théologie Monastique au XIIe Siècle: Étude sur les sermons d'Aelred de Rievaulx. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1999.
• Powicke, Frederick M., "Ailred of Rievaulx", in Ways of Medieval Life and Thought. London, 1949.
• Raciti, Gaetano. "The Preferential Option for the Weak in the Ælredian Community Model", in: CSQ 32 (1997), p. 3–23.
• Ransford, Rosalind, "A Kind of Noah's Ark: Aelred of Rievaulx and National Identity", in: Stuart Mews (ed.), Studies in Church History 18 (1982), p. 137–46.
• Sommerfeldt, John R., Aelred of Rievaulx On Love and Order in the World and the Church. Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 2006.
• Squire, Aelred, "Aelred and King David", in: Collectanea Cisterciensia 22 (1960), p. 356–77.
• Squire, Aelred, "Aelred and the Northern Saints.", in: Collectanea Cisterciensia 23 (1961), p. 58–69.
• Squire, Aelred, "Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study" (1960), in: Cistercian Studies series 50. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1981.
• Squire, Aelred, "Historical Factors in the Formation of Aelred of Rievaulx", in: Collectanea Cisterciensia 22 (1960), p. 262–82.
• Yohe, Katherine, "Aelred’s Recrafting of the Life of Edward the Confessor", in: CSQ 38 (2003): p. 177–89.