ST. WALTER, ABBOT

HE was a native of Rome, and in his youth withdrew himself from the tumult of the world to make the study of God and himself his only employment. By the exercises of self-denial and holy contemplation, he had already made great progress in an interior life, when, out of a desire of following perfectly the sweet call of divine grace, he retired to San-Serviliano, a town in the diocese of Fermo, in the Marche of Ancona, where he some time after built a monastery, of which he was chosen the first abbot. Though endowed with an eminent spirit of all Christian virtues, and a sublime gift of heavenly contemplation, he was most remarkable for his tender and extraordinary devotion to the cross and sacred passion of Christ. He flourished in the thirteenth century. His body is enshrined on the right side of the high altar in the parish church of St. Mark at San-Serviliano; and several churches in that country keep his festival on the 4th of June. See his life, written in the fifteenth century, with the notes of Papebroke, t. 1, Junii, p. 405.

Another ST. WALTER

Another saint of the same name, an Englishman by birth, was the thirty-fourth abbot of Fontenelle, or St. Vandrille’s, and the fortieth saint of that house. Pope Innocent II. commended his humility and piety, and his extraordinary zeal for regular observance. He died in 1150. See the particular lessons for his office, and Chatelain.