Blessed Bernard the Penitent

Equipped with a letter from his bishop and his body laden with iron bands, according to the custom of the great penitents of that era, the blessed Bernard began his life of pilgrimages, fatigues, and extraordinary penances. Three times he went to Jerusalem Jérusalem Holy city where the Cross was lost and subsequently recovered. to shed tears at the tomb of the Savior. From there he traveled to the Indies, to seek the protection of Saint Thomas, the Apostle, who was th saint Thomas, apôtre Apostle whose protection Bernard sought in the Indies. e first to preach the faith in those vast regions. He is also seen appearing successively in other countries, leaving everywhere in his path the sweet odor of the virtues of Jesus Christ. Who could express all that he had to suffer from hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and nakedness during these journeys?

The illustrious penitent, having ar rived in S Saint-Omer City where the church of Notre-Dame and the saint's tomb are located. aint-Omer, understood through an inner light that he was to stop in this city and settle there. He therefore accepted the small house offered to him by a virtuous inhabitant named Guillaume. This dwelling was ad jacent to the Abbey of abbaye de Saint-Bertin Burial place of Saint Folquin. Saint-Bertin, and it gave Bernard the means to go and pay his respects to God at almost every hour of the day and night. He always arrived among the first for the Matins that the monks sang at the monastery during the night: from there he would go to the basilica of Saint-Omer where the office was then beginning, and finally to the parish church, towards the first hours of the day. He had his feet and legs bare, even in the most rigorous cold. "I learned," continues the Saint's biographer, "from the testimony of men and women filled with religion, that often, in the harshest winters, he would stand barefoot on the cold earth for a considerable time. He would sometimes leave the skin of his feet attached to the ground by the frost. And as the excessive cold caused large cracks in his feet, he would apply a remedy himself in this way: he would withdraw at night into a corner of his narrow dwelling, burn the tears in his flesh with a torch, and let a little wax drip into them."

These extraordinary austerities were still not enough for the spirit of penance that animated the blessed Bernard. He was so eager for them that he knew how to find them everywhere and for all hours of the day and night. After a few moments of sleep on a blanket that hid large and sharp stones, he would rise for prayer. As soon as it was finished, the penitent would devote himself to all kinds of works of charity and religion. He took care of the sick and the unfortunate, saw to the cleanliness of the churches, not only inside but also outside, picking up the stones he encountered around the house of God and carrying them further away or sometimes under his bed. Poor and destitute of everything, he received from the monastery of Saint-Bertin the things necessary for life, and would immediately share them with the poor for whom he was filled with the most affectionate compassion. In the midst of these frightening mortifications, the face of the blessed Bernard was always radiant with joy and happiness, and it was enough to see him to recognize that the grace of Jesus Christ superabounded in his soul. Thus, this sacred name was constantly on his lips, and he often made it ring in the ears of those he met. A phrase that was also very familiar to him and which he addressed to most of the people who stopped him is this: "May God grant us a good end."

This holy man, who had already done so much for God, later asked the Abbot of Sain t-Bertin for the habit l'abbé de Saint-Bertin Burial place of Saint Folquin. of his Order and entry into his monastery. All the religious rejoiced at the thought of having as a brother a man whose holiness edified the whole country, and through whose prayers miracles were obtained from heaven. Indeed, even before his death, Bernard the Penitent performed wonders, which, despite all his humility, he could not hide from public knowledge. A violent fire extinguished by a sign of the cross, a large wound on the leg healed in the same way, a drowned child regaining life in his hands when he had placed her on an altar, and many other similar facts are attributed to him by the historians of the time. The spirit of prophecy also manifested itself in him on several occasions and especially in the last days of his life. Being on his deathbed, in the midst of his gathered brothers, he still healed, by touching him, a small child who was brought to him in a desperate state. The admirable penitent surrendered, a few moments later, his beautiful soul to his creator, and went to receive in heaven the reward for his mortifications and all his other good works.

Hardly was his death known than people flocked from all sides to his mortal remains to see once more this holy personage who had been the edification and admiration of the whole region for many years. Everyone vied to ask for, or rather to take, a piece of his clothing or some object that had been in his use. The religious, in the midst of this constantly renewing crowd, could neither perform their duties nor proceed with the funeral ceremony. Some extraordinary healings performed at that moment added to the enthusiasm of the people, who could not tire of contemplating this penitent who had become a great Saint and one of their patrons in heaven. The religious of Saint-Bertin could only bury the body of the man of God with difficulty, because of the crowd that they did not know how to contain. They removed the instruments of penance that were on his body, such as the hair shirt, the iron cuirass, and the iron chains; then, after having respectfully washed his limbs which exhaled a sweet odor, they buried him in the monastery.

The historian of the life of the blessed Bernard, who is an eyewitness to almost all the facts he reports, cites in detail a large number of miraculous healings that took place after his death. Several blind people and many sick people in Saint-Omer, a dropsical person and a blind woman from Fauquemberg, an infirm child in Bergues, a little blind girl and a cripple named Gérard in Cassel, an infirm woman in Arques, a man sick for two years in Furnes, a woman in Bourg who was suffering horribly in her ears because an insect had entered them, were healed by commending themselves to the prayers of the new patron of Morinia. Other healings, also attested by eyewitnesses and reported in det ail, also took place in the nouveau patron de la Morinie Historical region corresponding to the former diocese of Thérouanne. following localities: Drinckam, Terdeghem, Saint-Pol, Blaringhem, near Cassel, Vissant, north of Boulogne, Helchy, near that same city, Calais, Bailleul, Aire, Furnes, Messines, Fécamp in Normandy, and Utrecht in Holland. Formerly, in the abbey of Saint-Bertin, a proper office of the blessed Bernard was celeb rated on April 19, Fécamp en Normandie Place of retreat for Maurilius before his episcopate. the anniversary of his Utrecht en Hollande Place where Suitbert began his ministry. death. His name is found in almost all martyrologies, and several give him the title of Saint. His body, raised from the earth in 1208, was placed in a monument on which these two leonine verses had been engraved:

Formam virtutis tegit hic lapis atque salutis: This stone covers the form of virtue and holiness;

Virtus Bernardi redolet sanctis vice nardi. The virtue of Bernard exhales the odor of the sweetest perfume.

Abbé Destombes.