On
September 12, 1891, after Bishop Otto Zardetti consulted with
the priests, religious and lay people of the newly created diocese,
Pope Leo XIII named Saint Cloud the patron saint of the Church
of Saint Cloud, MN. Since that time our diocesan patron has been
honored each year on his feast day, September 7th. Saint Cloud
is also the patron
saint of the St. Cloud Hospital.
Saint
Cloud was born in 522 A.D. He was the grandson of Clovis, founder
of the Kingdom of the Franks,
and his wife Saint Clothilde.
Following
the death of his parents, Cloud and his two brothers were cared
for by their grandmother, Saint Clothilde, the widowed queen.
Upon his father's death, Cloud's uncles sought to
seize
his father's
throne by plotting the murder of Cloud and his two brothers. They
succeeded in killing his brothers, but Saint Cloud escaped and
sought sanctuary with Saint Remigius, the Bishop of Rheims, located
a short
distance from Paris. And so, Cloud
grew from childhood into young manhood under the
guidance and protection of the holy bishop and his sainted grandmother.
Little
is known of Cloud's life from the age of five until
the age of eighteen. He lived most of those years with the
Bishop of Rheims, and the latter years with Saint Severin, a
hermit. During
these formative years he drew closer to God through the
practice of silence and solitude. Although this life-style was
forced
upon him by his uncles' plot to murder him, Cloud grew
to appreciate his separation from the world and a life of silence.
At
the age of twenty, Saint Cloud left his hermitage, appeared
before the Bishop of Paris surrounded by religious and civic
leaders
and members of the royal family — his royal
family. Remember, Cloud was a prince and
heir to the throne! He clothed himself in royal
robes and carried a scissors in one hand and a coarse
garment in the other. He offered the coarse garment to
the bishop
who clothed
him with it as a symbol of his preferred "spiritual" rather
than "material" riches. With the scissors, the bishop
cut Cloud's
long hair which was a symbol of his royalty. In the silence
and solitude of his hermitage, Cloud had established priorities
in
his life. He had learned the difference between true and
false pleasures.
After
Saint Severin the hermit died, Cloud left the neighborhood of
Paris to find solitude deeper
in the forest. He sought
silence to
communicate with God more intimately as he prayed for
the needs of people. God answered his prayers in a strange
sort
of way by
sending people out to find him in the forest. They came
by the hundreds because they learned that Cloud had
the gift
of healing
the bodies
and souls of the afflicted. His was a ministry of healing
and reconciliation.
Cloud
lived eleven years as a hermit. During those years, he spent time
pouring over the Scriptures. These were
not idle
years for
the prince who had fled the royal court for a life
devoted to Christ! For this reason artists throughout
the centuries have portrayed Cloud
holding
a bible.
Although
Cloud shared many gifts with others, there was one gift he could
not share — the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of
Christ. People recognized this, and many urged Eusebius, Bishop
of Paris,
to ordain the hermit-prince
a priest. The bishop complied, and in 551 A.D. Cloud
was ordained a priest for the Church of Paris. He became pastor
of a small
village consisting of poor men and women who fished
in the river, and farm
families in a small village near Paris. Today, the
village (now a suburb of Paris) is called Saint Cloud.
In
the village, Saint Cloud used his gifts of healing, counseling,
preaching
and celebrating the Eucharist in ministry to the people.
As time passed,
the uncles of Saint Cloud repented of their sin
and reconciled themselves
with
their nephew. They, in turn, restored many castles,
estates and lands to Cloud. As a hermit, he sold
some of these properties
and
distributed his wealth to the poor. He received
permission from the Bishop Eusebius to use a small portion
of that wealth to build
a church with his own hands, and he dedicated
it to
Saint Martin of Tours.
Joy
is contagious. People like to be with happy people. Cloud radiated
that deep joy of
a Christian
heart
in love with God.
Others recognized
this in Cloud and came to live near him. In
time, he became a leader and teacher of those who joined
him.
They formed
a religious
community,
not like a convent or monastery, but an association
of persons dedicating themselves to love of
God and service
to God's
people. The last seven years of his life, Saint
Cloud lived in this community
attached to the Church of Saint Martin of Tours.
Surrounded by the community, he died serenely on September 7,
560 A.D.,
at
age 38.
In
May, 1922, Joseph F. Busch, Bishop of the Diocese of Saint Cloud,
MN, was present
in Saint Cloud, France,
for the 14th
centenary
of the
birth of Saint Cloud, the patron saint of
the city. At or around that time, Bishop Busch ordered
a statue
of the saint
to be carved
by
the French artist, M. Tourmoux. It was to
reside at the new St. Cloud Hospital in Saint Cloud,
MN. The statue
of Saint Cloud arrived
in
Minnesota in October, 1927, and was placed
over the altar
in the St. Cloud Hospital chapel.
A
painting of Saint Cloud now hangs in the entryway of the Diocese
of St. Cloud's Chancery in St. Cloud, MN. Another statue of the
patron saint sits in Bishop John F. Kinney's office in the Chancery.
