Example of Saints using strong language

St. Bernard of Clairvaux has a reputation of being one of the more gentle, merciful types of Saints.  I think that reputation is really undeserved.  He did, after all, preach the Second Crusade with great fervor and effect.  That the Crusade eventually failed had nothing to do with his efforts. A huge army was raised, but German skittishness doomed the effort. Nonetheless, St. Bernard was a man who could lay some invective when it needed being done.

There is a very prevalent trend in the Church today to equate Catholicism with very nearly total pacifism.  And I don’t mean strictly with regard to warfighting, I mean in any regard.  We are constantly preached mercy, tolerance, engagement, dialogue, instead of more muscular virtues. There are many leaders in the Church who seem positively embarrassed to use strong terms in condemning error (save the greatest evil of our times, Catholicism!) or proclaiming the Truth.  A few do acknowledge that early Church Fathers like Saints Jerome and Augustine sometimes used strong language, but that is often presented as a countervailing vice to their predominate virtues.

None of which is to say that we should speak intemperately or lose our charity towards others.  It is simply to say that there is room in the Church for strong arguments and language when important matters are at stake.

To give an example of how second millenium Doctors of the Church could use strong language, I present the following from The Liturgical Year, Vol. 12.  In this case, St. Bernard was actually writing vociferously against a bishop who eventually became a Saint in his own right, St. William.  Which fact shows even very good, well intentioned and saintly people can wind up at loggerheads when it comes to this glorious Faith of ours:

Innocent II being dead, Bernard, convinced that the honor of the Church was at stake, repeated his supplications, more urgently than ever, to Pope Celestine II and the Roman court: “The whole world is aware of the devil’s triumph,” he exclaimed. [Regarding the election of St. William Bishop of York] “The applause of the uncircumcised and the tears of the good resound far and wide.….If such were to be end of this ignominious cause, why not have left it in obscurity?  Could not that infamous man, the horror of England and the abomination of France, have been made bishop without Rome also witnessing the general infection spread as far as the very tombs of the Apostles?….Well, be it so; this man has received sacrilegious consecration; [no, he didn’t, there was some controversy which St. Bernard fell into unknowingly, but it was totally valid] but still more glorious will it be to precipitate Simon from midair, than to have prevented his mounting thus far. [A reference to the demonic magician Simon Magus from Acts of the Apostles]Otherwise, what will you do with the faithful, whose sense of religion makes them suppose that they cannot, with a safe conscience, receive the Sacraments from this leprous hand?  Are they, then, to be forced by Rome to bend the knee to Baal?

 In the event, Rome refused for many years to remove St. William from his see, until a disciple of St. Bernard was elected pope (Pope Eugenius III), and then William was duly removed. Saint William evinced great virtue in this trial, never complaining, never defending himself against those who attacked him, and after Eugenius died, William was restored to his see.   

St. Bernard is known as the mellifluous Doctor for his great gift of preaching.  And he was a great theologian, as well, tremendously advancing the Church’s devotion to Our Blessed Mother.  There is no question of his sanctity.  And yet he very demonstrably got very heavily involved in a controversy he knew little about, and in fact very much argued from the wrong side.

Which I pray gives some hope to all of us, that if we run to the feet of Our Blessed Lord and beg his forgiveness for our many failings, and cling to the Grace he so beneficently provides us, we, too, may spend eternity in Heaven adoring His Glory.

St. Bernard is one of my favorite Saints.  I really enjoyed reading this story about him, because it does give me hope for myself.  Sancte Bernardus, ora pro nobis!