“Promoting peace, without becoming discouraged, even in the face of failure": This is one of the legacies of St. Bernard of Aosta according to Pope Francis, who on November 11, 2024, received a delegation from the Diocese of Aosta and the Congregation of the Canons of the Great St. Bernard at the Vatican, on the occasion of the ninth centenary of his canonization and the millennium of his birth.
Just over 100 years ago, on August 20, 1923, Pope Pius XI proclaimed St. Bernard the patron saint of mountaineers, travelers, and inhabitants of the Alps.
It is this saint who gives the famous mountain dogs their name.
St. Bernard of Aosta was an “operator of peace,” reflected Pope Francis, referring in particular to his journey to Pavia “to try to convince Emperor Henry IV to renounce his intention to wage war against Pope Gregory VII.”
He died shortly afterwards, in 1081, exhausted by this attempt at mediation.
Failed mission
“His attempt was unsuccessful," the Pope noted. "But this makes him all the more noble in our eyes, for it shows him engaged in a delicate and uncertain undertaking, with no guarantee of success (…). How much we need this courage even today!"
Francis also highlighted St. Bernard's dynamism in proclaiming the Christian faith. “Archdeacon of the Diocese of Aosta, he was a preacher capable of touching the most hardened hearts and opening them to the gift of faith and conversion,” he emphasized.
Cultivating a sense of welcome
But it is above all the dimension of welcome associated with St. Bernard that is still known today. He was given the mission “to care for pilgrims and travelers who crossed the Alpine passes near Mont Blanc - passes that still bear his name today - to go to Italy from France and Switzerland and vice versa.”
“The journey was impassable and involved the risk of getting lost, being attacked, and dying in the ice,” Francis recalled, explaining that the two hospices founded by St. Bernard are still active today, and keep alive the motto "Here, Christ is worshipped and fed."
“This is a program of integral charity, both material and spiritual, which has the Eucharist at its center, and which moves from prayer to welcoming all those who knock at the door,” explained the Holy Father, seeing it as "a true model also for our times: welcoming and caring for everyone who asks for help, in body and spirit, without distinction."
Addressing the Alpine guides and instructors in the delegation in particular, the Pope wove a mountain metaphor. “St. Bernard's ice axe was the Word of God, with which he was able to grasp even the coldest and most hardened souls; his rope was the community, with which he walked - and helped others to walk - even on risky paths, to reach his goal."
Finally, he wished all the members of this Alpine delegation “to walk beautiful paths like his, among high mountains, but above all paths within the heart.”
