Cistercian Saints on Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance

Atlas Martyrs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In March 1996, seven monks from the monastery of Our Lady of Atlas, near the village of Tibhirine in Algeria, were abducted by a radical faction of the Islamic fundamentalist GIA. The monastery had been founded in 1934 by monks from France and six of the seven monks who were killed had transferred to Tibhirine from monasteries in France. Under the leadership of the Prior, Dom Christian de Chergé community had decided to remain at the monastery despite the danger and risk of death. The monks were executed on 21 May 1996. Their funeral Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral of Algiers and they were buried in the cemetery of their monastery at Tibhirine. They were beatified together with 12 other Algerian martyrs in Oran on 8 December 2018.

Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Iwene Tansi was born in Nigeria in 1903. His parents were not Christian but he was baptised in 1912 and given the name Michael. He trained and worked as a teacher but later joined the seminary and was ordained for the diocese of Onitsha in 1937 where he served with great zeal for 13 years. He felt a call to lead a more contemplative life and desired to bring monastic life to Nigeria. In 1950 he entered the monastery of Mt St Bernard in England where he was given the name Cyprian. When Mt St Bernard made a foundation in Cameroon in 1963 Cyprian was named as Novice Master of the new monastery, but he was unable to travel because of his ill health. He died on 20 January 1964. Cyprian Michael Iwene was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 March 1983, the first Nigerian to receive beatification.

Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maria was born in Sardinia in 1914. Her father and some of her brothers died while she was still a child. He sister died when Maria was 18 moved her to deepen her faith. She became a member of the movement ‘Catholic Action’. In 1835 Maria entered the monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome taking the name Maria Gabriella. The Abbess had promoted ecumenism within the community and during the week of prayer for Christian Unity in 1938 Maria Gabriella offered herself as a spiritual sacrifice. Shortly afterwards she contracted tuberculosis. Maria Gabriella deid on 23 April 1939. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 25 January 1983.

Blessed Marie-Joseph Cassant

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Prot. No. 419

Pierre Joseph Cassant was born on 6 March 1878 in Casseneuil, in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, within the diocese of Agen, France, to a family of fruit growers.

He received a solid Christian upbringing, and gradually a deep desire to become a priest grew within him. His lack of aptitude for memorisation and systematic study meant that entering the seminary was not recommended. The young man’s love of silence, contemplation and prayer, and his love for the Eucharist, led the parish priest, Fr. Filhol, to direct him to the Trappists. He entered the Cistercian Abbey of Sainte-Marie du Désert, in the diocese of Toulouse, on 5 December 1894, where he took the name Joseph-Marie.

Martyrs of Viaceli

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In 1936 15 monks from the monastery of Viaceli in Spain were killed as part of the religious persecution at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The monastery of Viaceli was founded in 1903 and by 1936 numbered 60 monks. On 8 September of that year the 40 remaining monks were forcibly removed from the monastery, two of them were shot a fortnight later while 12 others were bound and drowned in the sea at the beginning of December and one other was executed at the end of the month. They were all killed because of their Christian faith and because they were monks. They were beatified on 3 October 2015, at the cathedral in Santander.

St Rafael Arnáiz Barón

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

(Prot. No. 1120)

San Rafael Arnáiz Barón was born in Burgos on 9 April 2011. An architecture student in Madrid, he discovered the monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas in 1930, and in 1934 he abandoned his university studies and a promising future to embrace the monastic life. After a few months, struck by a diabetic crisis, he had to return to his family and in Oviedo lived through the terrible days of the Asturian Revolution of October 1934. He returned to the monastery in 1936 as a simple oblate, that is, a monk without public vows, and from a legal standpoint the lowest-ranking member of the community. For him, monastic life alternated with stays with his family due to health problems. At the end of 1937, he decided to return definitively to the Trappist monastery, aware of the risk this would entail for his life. He died of a diabetic coma on 26 April 1938, at the age of 27. In a short time, he walked an exceptional path of faith, love, humility and prayer, which, along the Way of the Cross, led him to an exemplary contemplative and mystical experience. His letters and diaries have been widely circulated. On 19 August 1989 in Santiago de Compostela, the Saint Pope John Paul II held him up as a model for young people throughout the world and beatified him on 27 September 1992. He was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 October 2009.

Venerable Romano Bottegal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Romano Bottegal was born in 1921 in northeastern Italy. After school he entered the local seminary. Though he expressed the desire to enter monastic life he was advised to continue with his studies for priesthood. He was ordained a priest in June 1946 and joined the monastery of Tre Fontane a few months later. In 1961 he went to Lebanon to assist with the foundation of a new monastery. Though the monastery was closed after two years Fr Roman subsequently received permission to live in Lebanon as a hermit. He died from Tuberculosis in 1978. His beatification process was begun in 2000 by the Church in the Lebanon and Fr Romano was declared venerable on 9 December 2013.