Letters370 Letter CCCLXX. To THE SAME. He recommends to Suger the Abbey of Ste. Genevieve. (Circa A.D. 1147)
Letter CCCLXX. To THE SAME. He recommends to Suger the Abbey of Ste. Genevieve. (Circa A.D. 1147)
To his very dear father and lord SUGER, Abbot of S. Denys, Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and the assurance of his friendship.
It behoves you to fulfil the duties of him who has left you in his stead, or rather to do the work of the Lord your God, who has chosen you for the functions which you have to discharge. It is plainly the work of God to have restored religion and order in the Abbey of Ste. Genevieve-du-Mont; that new plantation finds in you its great guardian and helper. I entreat you that what you have well begun you will finish still better, and that you will oppose yourself as a wall for the defence of the house of Israel that man may not prevail against it. Be so kind, I entreat of you, as to raise up again the courage of the Abbot of that place, who is easily cast down: that will be especially conducive to the honour of your person as well as to the saving of your soul, particularly at this time.
Charissimo patri et domino SUGERIO, Beati-Dionysii abbati, frater BERNARDUS Clarae-Vallensis vocatus abbas, salutem et dilectionem.
Oportet vos operari opera ejus qui reliquit vos in loco suo, imo opera Domini Dei vestri, qui ad tale ministerium vos elegit. De operibus ejus est, quod ecclesia de Monte religionem induit et decorem: ubi vos novella illa plantatio consiliatorem et auxiliatorem magnum invenit. Supplicamus, ut quod bene coepistis, melius consummetis, et opponatis vos murum pro domo Israel, ut non praevaleat homo. Dignemini etiam consolari abbatem loci illius quia pusillanimis est: quia sic convenit honori personae vestrae, et saluti animae vestrae, et specialiter in tempore isto.