Bl. Hugh of Fosses

First Abbot of Prémontré

Feastday: February 10

"Through election by your confreres, you will succeed me in the house of our poverty. Go, for the hand of the Lord will be with you.”

(Vita Norberti B, XLVIII)

While Norbert received the original inspiration and charism from God, and through his preaching drew multitudes to embrace the apostolic way of life, it was Hugh of Fosses who institutionalized this charism in statues and united the various monasteries Norbert founded into one Order, thus laying the structure that has enabled the Norbertine Order to endure for nearly 900 years.

Hugh, a young cleric from Fosses in Belgium, was serving as court chaplain to Bishop Burchard of Cambrai when he met Norbert in 1119. In the fervor of his generous heart, Norbert had been practicing such austere penance, walking barefoot even through the deepest snow as he went about preaching, that his first three companions fell ill and died in Valenciennes, France. Hearing that Burchard, an old friend from the Emperor’s court, was also in Valenciennes, Norbert went to visit him. Hugh witnessed Burchard’s astonishment at the change in Norbert, and was inspired by Norbert’s holiness and whole-hearted service of God. When Norbert himself became seriously ill, it was Hugh who nursed him back to health, and then begged to accompany Norbert as he continued his itinerant preaching. Norbert joyfully accepted this new companion and continually instructed him in the ways of truly apostolic living. After the founding of Prémontré in 1121, Norbert appointed Hugh as his prior, since he himself was very often away preaching. When Norbert was elected archbishop of Magdeburg, the community at Prémontré unanimously elected Hugh to be the first abbot in 1128, a decision which Norbert both recommended and confirmed.

Hugh was gentle, wise, beloved by all, and imbued with the spirit which animated Norbert, complementing Norbert’s active temperament with his own gift for stability and organization. Hugh adapted the Cistercian model of government, binding the many “Norbertine” communities scattered throughout Europe into one Order comprised of autonomous houses that met in an annual General Chapter. Thus, he also became the Order’s first Abbot General. The Order flourished under Hugh’s 35-year abbacy until the time of his holy death in 1164. Hugh also bequeathed two other inestimable gifts to the young Order: its first liturgical books and an eyewitness account of the Life of Saint Norbert (Vita Norberti B).

(Saint drawings courtesy of St. Norbert Abbey, De Pere, Wisconsin.)