Podcasts · Traditional Catholic Daily Devotional

Sep 27 - XVIII Sun of Pentecost / S Hiltrude of Liessies

· 9:53

Episode Sep 27 - XVIII Sun of Pentecost / S Hiltrude of Liessies

0:00 9:53

It's the Feast of XVIII Sunday after Pentecost, 2nd Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: "Spiritual Paralysis", today's news from the Church: "Who Are You to Judge?", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org Sources Used Today:

• "Spiritual Paralysis" — From the Assumption to Advent

• https://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption

• "Who Are You to Judge?" (FSSPX.news)

• https://fsspx.news/en/news/who-are-you-judge-61240

• The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)

• https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop

Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:

• Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o • Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook

Saint Hiltrude of Liessies is one of those saints whose life never became famous far beyond her own region, but whose story has been quietly remembered in northern France for more than a thousand years.

She lived during the eighth century and was born into a noble Frankish family. Her father, Wibert, founded a monastery at Liessies, near what is now the French-Belgian border. Her brother, Guntrad, became its abbot.

Hiltrude, meanwhile, was expected to get married.

A suitable husband was found, the arrangements were made, and everyone seemed to know what Hiltrude's future would look like.

Everyone except Hiltrude.

She wanted to give her life entirely to God.

According to tradition, when the proposed marriage became unavoidable, Hiltrude fled rather than go through with it. She eventually returned after her family accepted her decision and allowed her to live as a consecrated woman.

But she didn't simply join a large convent.

Instead, Hiltrude chose a much more secluded life.

She lived in a small cell near the monastery at Liessies, close enough to participate in its spiritual life but separated enough to maintain the solitude she desired. Her brother, as abbot, became an important support in her vocation.

There's something interesting about that arrangement.

Medieval Christianity included all sorts of religious vocations that don't fit neatly into our modern categories. Some people became monks or nuns. Others became hermits. Still others, like Hiltrude, lived almost as recluses, attached to a church or monastery but spending much of their lives in prayer and solitude.

Hiltrude became known locally for exactly that kind of hidden holiness.

No enormous missionary journeys.

No royal courts.

No theological controversies.

Just years of prayer in one small corner of northern France.

After her death, her tomb at Liessies became a local place of pilgrimage, and devotion to her spread through the surrounding region of Hainaut. Her relics were treasured there for centuries.

The monastery itself had a much longer life. Liessies Abbey grew into an important Benedictine house and survived for roughly a thousand years before the French Revolution brought monastic life there to an end. Much of the abbey disappeared, but the village still preserves its memory, along with that of the young woman who chose solitude over the comfortable future her family had planned.

Hiltrude's story isn't dramatic.

That's actually what makes it interesting.

She believed that a life could be completely given to God without being particularly visible to anyone else.

And for her, that was enough.

Saint Hiltrude of Liessies, hidden daughter of prayer and solitude, pray for us.

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