les are recorded to have been obtained by his
intercession, particularly a ready supply of rain in time of drought.
See Bede, l. 1, c. 25. Will. of Malmesbury, de Pontif. l. 1. Monas.
Angl. t. 1, p. 24. Tho. Sprot, in his History of the Abbey of
Canterbury, Thorn, Henschenius ad 24 Feb., Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 10,
p. 1382.

B. ROBERT OF ARBRISSEL,

SO CALLED FROM THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH.

HE was archpriest and grand vicar of the diocese of Rennes, and
chancellor to the duke of Brittany; but divested himself of these
employments, and led a most austere eremitical life, in the forest of
Craon, in Anjou. He soon filled that desert with anchorets, and built in
it a monastery of regular canons. This is the abbey called De la Roe, in
Latin De Rota, which was founded, according to Duchesne, in 1093, and
confirmed by pope Urban II., in 1096. This pope having heard him preach
at Angers, gave him the powers of an apostolical missionary. The blessed
man therefore preached in many places, and formed many disciples. In
1099 he founded the great monastery of Fontevraud, Fons Ebraldi, a
league from the Loire, in Poitou. He appointed superioress Herlande of
Champagne, a near kinswoman to the duke of Brittany; and Petronilla of
Craon, baroness of Chemille, coadjutress. He settled it under the rule
of St. Benedict, with perpetual abstinence from flesh, even in all
sicknesses, and put his order under the special patronage of the blessed
Virgin. By a singular institution, he appointed the abbess superioress
over the men, who live in a remote monastery, whose superiors she
nominates. The holy founder prescribed so strict silence in his order,
as to forbid any one to speak, even by signs, without necessity. The law
of enclosure was not less rigorous, insomuch that no priest was allowed
to enter even the infirmary of the nuns, to visit the sick, if it could
possibly be avoided, and the sick, even in their agonies, were carried
into the church, that they might there receive the sacraments. Among the
great conversions of which St. Robert was the instrument, none was more
famous than that of queen Bertrade, the daughter of Simon Montfort, and
sister of Amauri Montfort, count of Evreux. She was married to Fulk,
count of Anjou, in 1089, but quitted him in 1092, to marry Philip I.,
king of France, who was enamored of her. Pope Urban II. excommunicated
that prince on this account in 1094, and again in 1100, because the
king, after having put her