Saints and Blesseds
Blessed Milo of Sélincourt
July 16
During the second quarter of the twelfth century northwestern Europe saw a revival of religion centering around the monasteries established by St. Norbert at Prémontré and other places, spreading from those locations over France, Germany and the Netherlands, and to England and elsewhere. Milo of Sélincourt, who for some years lived as a hermit with several others at Saint-Josse-au-Bois in the Pas-de-Calais, felt himself called to the common life; he therefore offered his little group to the Premonstratensians, they were accepted and in 1123 he was advanced to the government of the monastery, being instituted by St. Norbert himself. He held office for eight years, discharging it in perfect accordance with the constitutions of his order, dividing his time between the worship of God in choir and active work for souls. In 1131 he was appointed Bishop of Thérouanne, and his first episcopal act was to give the canonical benediction to Simon, the new abbot of the famous monastery of Saint-Bertin at Saint-Omer. As befitted a canon regular, Blessed Milo insisted on the strictest discipline in his diocese, and he was quick to check any infringement of a bishop's prerogative: one Arnoul built a castle at Thérouanne which Milo saw as a threat to the independent position of the bishop and a menace to his people's peace - so he made him pull it down. Milo also showed himself very critical of the Cluniac monks for which he was rebuked by Blessed Peter the Venerable. Nevertheless he is said to have been personally a humble man.
In the contoversy about the teaching of Gilbert de la Porrée, Milo ranged himself on the side of St. Bernard (they were close personal friends) and vigorously supported his attack; he appeared against Gilbert before Pope Eugeniius III at the Council of Rheims in 1148. The English pope, Adrian IV, appointed Milo to be his delegate in 1157 to judge a dispute between the bishop of Amiens and the abbot of Corbie. Cardinal Baronius highly praised the goodness and learning of Milo, but it is not decided which of the works attributed to him are authentic. Peter Cantor, a contemporary, in his Verbum Abbreviatum quotes a sermon said to be his in which the following passage occurs: "It is not decent that Christian women should trail at their heels long skirts which pick up filth off the roadway. Surely you realize, dear ladies, that if a gown of this kind were necessary to you, Nature would have met the case by attaching to you something more suitable with which to sweep the ground."
Footnotes:
See Corblet, Hagiographie d'Amiens, vol. iii, pp. 254-277; Le Paige, Bibliotheca Praemonstratensis, pp. 450 seq.; Goovaerts, Dictionnaire bio-bibliographique, vol i, pp 590 seq.
The title "Blessed" seems to have been accorded to Milo chiefly on account of the miracles reported at his tomb.
| Blessed Milo of Selincourt. |
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Source: Butler's Lives of the Saints, unabridged, volume III, pages 119-120, July 16th.
