Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/159

147 ST. PHARAILDIS 147 April 24, + n 40. First or second abbess of Fonteyranlt. Petronilla de Craon was already a good woman and widow of the baron of Ch^mill^, in Anjon, when she was strongly impressed by the preaching of B. Bobert d'Arbrissel, who is famous for the great number of conversions he effected ; and like the holy women of Gralilee and Bethany, she left everything to attach herself to the new messenger of God. When he founded the Order of Fontevrault, he confided to her the direction of thousands of persons, of all ages and ranks, who had embraced the new institution. She accompanied him on his evangelizing journeys ; looked after his temporal concerns ; procured for the new converts the aid they re- quired; instructed ignorant persons of her own sex, and performed the duties of those women who followed the Lord Himself. In 1099 Bobert founded the great monastery of Fontevrault, in Poitou ; he appointed Herland of Champagne, a near relation of the duke of Brittany, first abbess, with Petronilla for her coadjutor ; he subjected the nuns to the rule of St. Benedict in great strictness. They received and tended lepers, women who had led wicked lives and every type of female misery. Besides severe fast- ing and silence, the nuns were bound to the strictest seclusion ; no priest was admitted even to the infirmary ; and the sick and dying were carried into the church to receive the sacraments. The founder lived to see above three thousand nuns in this one house. The monks, who lived in another house at a consider- able distance, were under the abbess and she appointed their superiors. In February 1116, Petronilla travelled with Bobert, from Orsan in Berry, on a missionary journey. He then sent her to visit the nunneries of the Order in the province, while he went to places where he had promised to preach. At Bourg-Deol or Bourg-Dieu he was ex- hausted and fainted after preaching; he attempted to go on, as arranged, but had to be taken back to Orsan where he died. Petronilla was at Pny, but went to accompany the beloved relics to Fontevrault, where, by his own desire, he was buried. After his death she still had to undergo much contradiction and misunderstanding, as is shown by the writings of the Yen. Hildebert, bishop of Mans ; the letters of St. Ber- nard ; the decrees of popes, etc. Pope Calixtus II. (1119-1124) took her part and, at her request, consecrated the church of the abbey of Fontevrault, and soon afterwards he sanctioned the order founded by Bobert d'ArbrisseL Bishop Hildebert commended the Order, by letter, to the protection of Henry I. king of England, mentioning Petronilla as a holy woman. Petronilla finding herself opposed and misjudged, thought it would be for the good of the Order if she resigned, but Pope Innocent II. requested her to retain her office. Chambard sives the letter which shows the great esteem in which she was held by that pontiff (1130-1 138). St. Bernard of Clairvaux discerned her excellent character and ardent piety. Her reputation for sanctity was nearly equal to that of B. Bobert. A chapel was dedicated in her name in the abbey of Fontevrault. Chambard, Saints personnagcs dc V Anjon, Butler. Helyot. St. Petnide or Batrude, Epipuania (2). St. Pexine, Pbcinna. St. Pey, Pkoa. St. Pezaine, Pecinna. St. Pfezenne, Pecinna. St. Phaina, Fanchea. St. Phaire, probably Faka, perhaps Faina. Patron against certain kinds of tumours. St. Phana, Faina. St. Phara, Fara. St. Pharaildis or Sarachilde, called in Flemish Varelde, Veerle, Vereld, Vbrl, or Vkrylde, Jan. 4, V. + 745. Patron of Ghent ; of sickly children ; of the health of cattle ; of butter. Bepresented with a goose, or with loaves of bread, or with a cat. Very few saints have a cat, as it was more associated with the bad side of a woman's character. Pharaildis was daughter of Witger or Theodoric, duke of Lorraine, and St.