Abbess (595-ca. 655)
Her life
+ Fara (who is also known as Saint Burgundofara) was the daughter of Count Agneric, a coutier of King Theodebert II (a regional king in what is now the north-eastern region of modern-day France)
+ Saint Fara’s sister, Cagnoald, and brother, Faro, are also honored as saints. As a child, Saint Fara was blessed by the monk-missionary Saint Columbanus.
+ Although she desired to become a nun, her father arranged a marriage for her. After Fara became critically ill, her father gave permission for her to enter religious life and constructed an abbey for her.
+ Fara and her nuns originally followed the Rule of Saint Columban, but today the monastery—known as the Abbey of Faremoutiers—follows the Rule of Saint Benedict.
+ Saint Fara served as the community’s abbess for 37 years and trained many English nuns who were later honored as saints, including Saint Ethelburga, the daughter of the king of the East Angles.
+ Saint Bede the Venerable praised Saint Fara and the Abbey of Brie in his famed Ecclesiastical History of the English People, noting that Fara’s community received women from throughout England and Wales and also from France.
For prayer and reflection
“I despised the kingdom of the world and all worldly finery for love of my Lord, Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, in whom has been my delight.”—Entrance Antiphon for the Mass from the Common of Holy Men and Women: For a Nun
Prayer
O God, who called your handmaid blessed Fara to seek you before all else, grant that, serving you, through her example and intercession, with a pure and humble heart, we may come at last to your eternal glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For a Nun)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
And today we celebrate...