s holy monk, having served God eight years in
perfect fidelity, died in 1142, in wonderful peace, repeating with his
last breath, "I will sing eternally, O Lord, thy mercy, thy mercy, thy
mercy!"

St. Aelred, much against his inclination, was made abbot of a new
monastery of his order, founded by William, Earl of Lincoln, at Revesby,
in Lincolnshire, in 1142, and of Rieval, over three hundred monks, in
1143. Describing their life, he says, that they drank nothing but water;
ate little, and that coarse; labored hard, slept little, and on hard
boards; never spoke, except to their superiors on necessary occasions;
carried the burdens that were laid on them without refusing any; went
wherever they were led; had not a moment for sloth, or amusements of any
kind, and never had any lawsuit or dispute.[5] St. Aelred also mentions
their mutual charity and peace in the most affecting manner, and is not
able to find words to express the joy he felt at the sight of every one
of them. His humility and love of solitude made him constantly refuse
many bishoprics which were pressed {135} upon him. Pious reading and
prayer were his delight. Even in times of spiritual dryness, if he
opened the divine books, he suddenly found his soul pierced with the
light of the Holy Ghost. His eyes, though before as dry as marble,
flowed with tears, and his heart abandoned itself to sighs accompanied
with a heavenly pleasure, by which he was ravished in God. He died in
1166, and the fifty-seventh of his age, having been twenty-two years
abbot. See his works published at Douay in 1625, and in Bibl. Cisterc.
t. 5, particularly his _Mirrour of Charity_; Hearne's Notes on Gulielmus
Neubrigensis, who dedicated to our saint the first book of his history,
t. 3, p. 1: likewise his life in Capgrave, and the annals of his order.
The general chapter held at Citeaux in 1250, declared him to be ranked
among the saints of their order; as Henriquez and the additions to the
Cistercian Martyrology testify. In the new Martyrology published by
Benedict XIV. for the use of this order, the feast of St. Aelred is
marked on the 2d of March,[6] with a great eulogium of his learning,
innocence of life, wonderful humility, patience, heavenly conversation,
gift of prophecy, and miracles.

Footnotes:
1. Spec. {} 1, c. 28.
2. Spec. l. 1, c. 5.
3. Ibid. l. 1, c. 1.
4. Ibid. l. 1, c. ult.
5. L. 2, c. 2.
6. P. 304

JANUARY XIII.

ST. VERONICA, OF MILAN.

From her l