Saint Anthelm of Belley

Anthelm was born in 1107 in the castle of Chignin, a few miles from Chambéry in Savoy, the son of a Savoyard nobleman. ¹² katolsk.no says he was ordained young as a secular priest at Belley and became provost of Geneva; santiebeati says he was secretary first to the church of Geneva and then to the bishop of Belley, who ordained him. ¹²

katolsk.no describes the young priest as principled, hospitable and generous, but mainly interested in the affairs of this world. ¹ He had relatives among the Carthusians, and his visits to their monastery at Portes, in the diocese of Belley, changed him completely. ¹²

He resigned his offices and took the Carthusian habit at Portes, in 1136 according to santiebeati, in 1137 at the age of thirty according to katolsk.no. ¹² Before he had finished his novitiate, katolsk.no says, he was sent to the mother house of the order, the Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble, which had just lost most of its buildings to an avalanche. ¹ santiebeati dates the disaster to 1132 and says that once his novitiate was over he was made procurator, in charge of the house's property. ²

He threw himself into the rebuilding. ¹² The current Roman Martyrology remembers him first for this: as a monk he rebuilt the Grande Chartreuse after heavy snow had destroyed it. ⁵ In 1139, when the prior Hugh resigned, Anthelm was elected the seventh prior, only two years after entering the order. ¹² He repaired the buildings, surrounded them with a wall, brought in water by an aqueduct, and rebuilt the farm buildings and sheepfolds, while insisting on the rule in its first simplicity. ¹²

Until then each Carthusian house had stood on its own, answerable to the bishop of its diocese. ¹² In 1142 Anthelm called the first general chapter of the Carthusians, and the eight priors then in existence agreed that the prior of the Grande Chartreuse should be the head of the whole order, whom all the houses would obey. ¹² He was the first to hold that office, in practice if not in name, katolsk.no says; santiebeati calls him the first general of the Carthusians. ¹² The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him the seventh general of the order. ⁴

Recruits came. Among those who received the habit from him, katolsk.no says, were his own father, one of his brothers, and William, count of Nevers, who became a lay brother. ¹ katolsk.no also says he had Blessed John the Spaniard draw up a constitution for a community of women who wanted to follow the Carthusian rule. ¹

There was conflict too. santiebeati says that in 1149, when a monk of Portes was elected bishop of Grenoble, a bitter dispute broke out and some Carthusians left their monasteries to argue their case in the courts. ² Anthelm imposed a penance on them; Pope Eugene III readmitted them without one, and Anthelm resigned in protest. Saint Bernard persuaded him to withdraw the resignation for a time, and it was finally accepted in 1151. ² katolsk.no says only that in 1152, after twelve years, he was allowed to give up an office he had never wanted and return to his cell. ¹

His solitude did not last. Bernard of Varey, the founder of Portes, was too old to go on and asked for Anthelm as his successor. ¹² katolsk.no says he found the barns and storehouses at Portes overflowing, judged the surplus incompatible with Carthusian poverty while the countryside around went hungry, and ordered it given away to anyone in need; he even sold ornaments from the church to raise alms. ¹ santiebeati says that in this short time his charity earned him the name "father of the poor." ² katolsk.no has him back at the Grande Chartreuse by 1156. ¹

In 1159 a disputed papal election split the Church between Alexander III and the antipope Victor IV, the candidate of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa. ¹² Anthelm took Alexander's side and, with the Cistercian abbot Geoffrey of Hautecombe, won the support of his own order and of others for him in France, Spain and England. ¹² Butler, who calls the antipope "Victor III," says the services he rendered the Church in that schism were what marked him out. ³

Both lives think it was in gratitude for this that Alexander made him bishop of Belley. ¹² katolsk.no says the pope, receiving an appeal about the vacant see, set the chosen candidates aside and named Anthelm, who wept and begged to be excused, in vain, and accepted only out of obedience. ¹ katolsk.no dates his consecration to September 8, 1163; santiebeati says he was elected unanimously on September 7, 1163, and consecrated in the cathedral of Bourges. ¹² Butler and the encyclopedia give 1163. ³⁴

The diocese was in decline. At his first synod, katolsk.no says, he made an emotional appeal to his priests to live up to their calling, and he set out to enforce celibacy, since some priests were openly married. ¹ He began with persuasion and warnings; after two years he deprived the worst offenders of their offices. ¹ The Martyrology remembers him for his tireless and fearless correction of the morals of clergy and nobles alike. ⁵

katolsk.no says the pope chose him to go to England to try to reconcile King Henry II and Saint Thomas Becket, but the journey never took place. ¹ santiebeati says Barbarossa prevented it. ²

santiebeati says that in 1175 Barbarossa, now reconciled with him, gave him sovereignty over Belley and its surroundings and made him a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, a title that brought him nothing but trouble. ² Humbert III, count of Maurienne, would not give up his rights over Belley. ² He had a priest arrested, in breach of the Church's jurisdiction over clergy, and then killed; katolsk.no says the dead man was the priest Anthelm had sent to free the prisoner. ¹²

Anthelm excommunicated the count, in 1175 according to katolsk.no. Humbert appealed to Alexander III, who lifted the excommunication. ¹² Believing the count unrepentant, Anthelm withdrew from his see in protest, to Portes according to katolsk.no, to the Grande Chartreuse according to santiebeati. ¹² He was persuaded back only with difficulty; santiebeati says the people and clergy appealed to the pope, who ordered him to return and ordered Humbert to do penance. ¹²

He went on living with Carthusian simplicity as a bishop. ¹ katolsk.no says two foundations were especially dear to him, a community of women recluses at a place called Bons and a hospital for lepers he had founded, where he spent his last years caring for the sick. ¹ He fed the hungry in a famine and caught a fever. ¹

On his deathbed Count Humbert came to him and asked his forgiveness. ¹² He died on June 26, 1178. ¹²³ santiebeati places his death at Belley; katolsk.no at the Grande Chartreuse, at the age of seventy-two. ¹² katolsk.no adds that as he was laid in the grave a lamp used only on great feasts is said to have lit itself. ¹

He was so loved, both lives say, that for a time after his death Belley was called Anthelmopolis. ¹² His relics were enshrined in a chapel at Belley in 1630, survived the French Revolution, and were placed in a new reliquary on June 30, 1829. ¹²

None of the sources consulted for this page names Saint Anthelm as the patron saint of anything, and the page does not supply a patronage. ¹²

Saint Anthelm's feast day is June 26, the day he died. The current Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops print it, enters him on that day, "at Belley in Burgundy, in present-day France." ⁵ katolsk.no, santiebeati and Butler give the same date. ¹²³

katolsk.no notes that because of the Carthusians' humility he was only celebrated as a saint from 1607. ¹

Anthelm was a builder and an organizer who kept trying to resign. ¹² He rebuilt a monastery, gave an order its shape, and asked to be let go back to his cell; he was made bishop weeping. ¹²

At Portes he looked at full barns and hungry neighbors and decided the barns were the problem. ¹

As a bishop he was hard, on his priests and on a powerful count, and he did not always have the pope behind him. ¹² When Rome lifted the excommunication he thought deserved, he left rather than pretend. ¹²

The count came to his bedside at the end and asked to be forgiven. ¹² The sources record that the reconciliation happened, and do not say more.