ST. HUGH, ABBOT OF CLUNI, C.

HE was a prince related to the sovereign house of the dukes of Burgundy and had his education under the tuition of his pious mother, and under the care of Hugh, bishop of Auxerre, his great uncle. From his infancy he was exceedingly given to prayer and meditation, and his life was remarkably innocent and holy. The world he always looked upon as a tempestuous sea, worked up by the storms of human passions, and concealing rocks and shelves everywhere under its boisterous waves. In obedience to the will of his father, he learned the exercises of fencing and riding. But one day hearing an account of the wonderful sanctity of the monks of Cluni, under St. Odilo, he was so moved, that he set out that moment, and going thither, humbly begged the monastic habit. After a rigid novitiate, he made his profession in 1039, being sixteen years old. His extraordinary virtue, especially his admirable humility, obedience, charity, sweetness, prudence, and zeal, gained him the respect of the whole community; and, upon the death of St. Odilo, in 1049, though only twenty-five years old, he succeeded to the government of that great abbey, which he held sixty-two years. He received to the religious profession Hugh, duke of Burgundy, and died on the 29th of April, in 1109, aged eighty-five.* He was canonized twelve years after his death by pope Calixtus II. See his life written in the same age, by Hildebert, bishop of Mans, afterwards archbishop of Tours, among his works published by Dom. Beaugendre, in 1705, also in Papebroke, 29 Apr. pp. 628 and 658. See likewise Ceillier, t. 21, p. 353; Mabi1.1. 71 Annal. Bened. and t. 9, Actor.