Maïeul of Cluny

Maïeul or Mayeul of Cluny or Holy Mayeul/Maïeul or Mayeul/Maïeul de Forcalquier , born towards 910 with Valensole, in Eastern Provence, died in 994 with Souvigny, fourth Abbot of Cluny.

The destiny of Mayeul is exceptional. He was spontaneously recognized like saint immediately after his death, and its worship, which constituted the first great abbey worship clunisien, was one of most important the Middle Ages and persisted with the Puy and Souvigny until the Révolution.

Biography

Mayeul is born with Valensole in 910 in a rich person family alleutière from High-Provence. In its childhood in 916 - 918, it flees with his the Provence devastated by the feudal wars (conflicts between the aristocratic families of Provence and the Burgundian families brought in Provence into 911 by Hugues of Arles) during which his/her parents find death. It takes refuge in Burgundy, with Mâcon.

It enters the secular clergy, studies then with Lyon, becomes then canon of the cathedral Saint-Vincent de Mâcon, then archdeacon. In 930, he refuses the archbishop's palace of Besancon. They are only ten years later that it returns as monk to Cluny, where it pronounces its wishes into 943 or 944. He then exerts the function of “armarius” (guard of the books and Master of the ceremonies). In 948, the abbot Aymard of Cluny, become blind, lets to him direct the monastery as coadjutor. Aymard resigns of its load of abbot into 954, opening 40 years of abbatiat with Mayeul.

Its good relationships with Adelaide, sister of the king de Bourgogne Conrad the Pacific (937-993) and marries of the king de Germanie Otton Ier, emperor as of 962, confer a certain influence to him as well at its court as with that of his/her son Otton II of the Holy roman Empire. It intervenes until in private quarrels of the imperial family, which was worth to him to be seen proposing the pontifical see after the death of Benoît VI or Benoît VII, seat which it refused, judging itself more useful in the middle of its monks.

The bonds with the Empire supported the extension of the " Ecclesia Cluniacensis" towards the east. It was certainly one of the advisers of Hugues Large the, duke of the Francs, which enabled him to reform monasteries and to place regular abbots there. Lastly, it continued the relations that Odon had tied with papacy. Mayeul being of a field crop and the copyists of the Scriptorium of Cluny were very active during its length abbatiat.

Mayeul took in heart the financial development of the abbey, managing carefully the donations which flowed towards an abbot whose reputation was immense. In all they will be approximately 900 villages, rights and incomes parochial, said, etc, of the neighborhoods of Cluny, the areas of the the Loire, the Bourbonnais, the Nivernais, the valleys of the the Saone and the the Rhone, which enriched the abbey. These donations are, for number of them, related to the new organization of the memory of deaths. The worship which is devoted to them takes in Cluny a great importance. In addition to the monks, he also addresses himself to the benefactors of the monastery.

As of 967, Mayeul also continues the work of reform initiated by Odon, founding the Règle bénédictine in many monasteries, thus reinforcing the influence of Cluny in Occident. It diffuses thus the religion clunisienne in areas moved away, as Pavia which will propagate it in its turn. With him, Ecclesia Cluniacensis, begun with Odon, makes important great strides assured by narrow control Cluny on the whole of the monasteries which are dependant for him. The three monasteries of Cluny, Souvigny and Charlieu form the heart then of it.

The abbey become too small for the growing community, Mayeul engages of new work in Cluny into 955. The construction of a new church, Saint-Pierre the Old one (Cluny II) is undertaken. It will be dedicated the February 14th 981 by the archbishop of Lyon. At the time of the one of its voyages to Rome, it brings back with him Guillaume de Volpiano. Though deeply attached to its recruit, Mayeul will prefer Odilon to succeed to him Cluny, trustful with the first the Benign abbey of St of Dijon from where it reformed many monasteries in particular in Normandy.

In 972, its capture in the Alps by the Buckwheats of Fraxinetum, involves a general mobilization of the aristocracy of Provence around the count Guillaume. Many objects of worship and goldsmithery of the treasure of Cluny were molten to pay its ransom. As of his release, the Count Guillaume of Provence organizes “in the name of Mayeul” a war of liberation against Buckwheats, which it drives out of Provence after the Bataille of Tourtour (973).

Invited by Hugues Capet to reform Saint-Denis, Mayeul dies out on the way, with the priory of Souvigny the May 11th 994, where it is buried. The king deals with his funeral. Before its death, it had made elect Odilon to direct the destiny of the abbey. Mayeul was the organizer of the monastic reform at the 10th century: he was a “firm, austere, shining and tempting” character. At that time, the borough of Cluny, then located at the North-West of the abbey, develops and obtains a church. It depends on the abbey, true seigniory probably including a court of justice.

Worship

The worship of Mayeul Saint was of a considerable importance in the Middle Ages in Occident. The recognition of the holiness of Mayeul is attested in the first years which follow its death:

As of 996, the king of France Hugues Capet goes in pilgrimage in Souvigny on its tomb.
the bubble of exemption delivered by the Pope Gregoire V on April 22nd 998 evokes “the happy memory of Mayeul Saint” what constitutes a kind of “patent” of holiness.
In 999, a vault of the Sainte-Marie monastery of Pavia is placed under the term of Mayeul Saint; this term is wide thereafter with the whole of the monastery.
the stop with Souvigny of Robert the Piles, king de France in 1019 - 1020 attests a well established pilgrimage from now on.

Its worship is spread as far as Brittany (Saint-Mayeux, Côtes of Armor) and in the Jura (Chapois) and the Lyonese (Ternais, the Rhone)

Liberator of Provence thanks to the war carried out on his behalf against Buckwheats, it is also, from the point of view clunisienne, the first abbot” of Cluny recognized like saint, emblematic figure of the Church clunisienne freed from the supervision of the laymen and the bishops.

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