Letter CCCLXIX. To Abbot Stgkr

(Circa A.I). 1147.)

He congratulates Suger on the reformation of the Ahhev •of Ste. Genevieve, happilv set on foot, and urges him to persevere in his undertaking.¹

To his very dear father and lord SUGKR, by the grace of God the venerable Abbot of S. Denys, Brother BKRNARD, of Clairvaux, health and the assurance of his prayers.

Blessed be God who by your hands has re-established the salutary reign of rule and discipline - in the Abbey of Ste. Genevieve. The Apostolic authority itself thanks you because you have set about a great work faithfully and effectually. I, too, with all those who love the Lord in truth, render to you such thanks as we can. I beg and earnestly entreat your Greatness that, according to the tenor of the Pope's letter, you would cause the work to proceed² with all speed, that what has been grandly begun may go on from day to day and be happily accomplished. I regard it as unnecessary to ask your kind help for the Abbey of S. Victor,³ because I am aware that the charge of all the religious houses has been committed to you. But it is needful to be particularly watchful over those in which the state of religion leaves much to be desired.

Footnotes

1. Formerly No. 356; the former No. 369 is now No. 338. ↩

2. Suger had established there Regular Canons of S. Augustine in place of the monks whom Pope Eugenius had sent thither to succeed the secular canons. The reference is to the same house in the following Letter, in which it is called Sif. ↩

3. See Letter 410. ↩