St. Bertoara and a Rule of Life

Celtic Advent Day 20
    December 4th  St Bertoara

So...I am halfway through my attempt to blog about a "saint" for each of the 40 days prior to Christmas:  Celtic Advent.  This is the time that in the secular world that the pace of things really starts to accelarate.  Hopefully saints like Bertoara will help me with this.

I had a problem similar to what I have described in previous posts for December 4th, a paucity of Celtic Saints listed in my books or on-line.  I had decided to just let the spirit guide me through general lists of saints for the date, randomly chose the name of Bertoara as it sounded a little unusual and was pleasantly surprised

Bertoara was French, from the mid 7th Century AD.  Obviously an initial reaction is "why are you writing about a French person, since this is supposed to be a Celtic blog?" People who know my cinematic sense of humor won't be surprised that my own initial reaction to being led to a French saint was a vision of John Cleese calling out with a French accent from the top of a castle, "You stinking English!'

But remember, that St. Hilda--see November 17th--was Anglo-Saxon, not Celtic, yet had adopted the way of Celtic Christianity as taught by St. Aidan.  And that is exactly the situation with Bertoara.
She was the founder abbess of the Notre-Dame-de Sales abbey in Bourges and is described a participating in many miracles of healing along with the local bishop, St. Austrille.  The monastery at one time had upwards of 900 nuns in residence.  She is also described as living under the "Rule of Columbanus."

 If you recall the post from November, Columanus was the Irish monk who travelled throughout France, Switzerland and Italy, setting up monastaries as he went.  One of his major centers was as Luxeuil, not too far from Bourges. Jonas of Bobbio was the earliest biographer of Columbanus and mentions the monastery of Bourges and Bertoara in the Vita Columbani.   So obviously she was, like Hilda, a strong local proponent of the Celtic way.  Which now leads us to the Rule of Columbanus.

Monastic groups, for the most part, were bound to together by a common sense of committent, which included a list of expectations for how they lived their lives together.  The most commonly quoted Rule for monastics in modern times is the Rule of St. Benedict.  There are marvelous websites and books devoted to this way of life, including daily devotions on particular aspects of the Rule.  It was a mild surprise to me to find out that although Benedict's life predated that of Columbanus, that it was the Rule of the latter saint that was being used more in the European monastaries during the 7th century.  You can see it in its entire content on Wikipedia in the section on Columbanus,  but it consists of vows of poverty, obedience, constant fasting, and confession of sins followed by penances.  Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbanus  if you want to read more. Benedict's rule is described by some as being slightly more lenient and became more popular.

What has been derived from both these saints is the concept making a personal Rule of life, a set of personal expectations to stay true to a spiritual commitment.  Most neomonastic groups have a format for these, and, as a member of the Order of St. Aidan and Hilda, I came up with my own personal Rule several years ago.  It commits me to prayer, service, non-attatchment, and several other areas of spiritual discipline.  And it is during times like the commercial pre-Christmas season that I need my rule the most.  Yesterday my mail box was filled with catalogues--it is awfully easy to start getting excited as I peruse them, thinking--"hmm, maybe I should ask Santa for that fancy plastic pistol that kills house flies by shooting table salt at them"...(I am not kidding-this exists).  But if I turn again to my rule and life with God, then I remember my committment, not only to honor God's creation (which means not taking a perverted sense of delight in killing flies) but to avoid spending on such items in the first place.  

So, thanks, Bertoara.  Few people remember you.  There is no church dedicated to you.  But for some reason I was led to you to remind me of staying true to my rule as you were true to yours.

Lord, thank You for the joy of the pre-Christmas season, the love, the expectation of family time together.  Thank You also for Your limits, Your rule of life for me, that keeps me devoted to You during times of commercial exploitation and temptation.  You keep me safe in Your love.  Amen