Saint Caesaria

Her brother had a monastery built for her which he was on the verge of completing when the Goths, besieged in the city of Arl es (5 10) by the Franks and the Burgundians, unfortunately destroyed all his work. But, once the siege was over, he resumed his labors, continued them until their full completion, and thus built a church, a cloister, and cells for the nuns. He dedicated this monastery in the tenth year of his episcopate, on August 26 (512). Caesaria first enclosed herself there with two or three sisters.

Soon a multitude of virgins, drawn by their example, came to join them, voluntarily leaving their possessions and their parents; courageously saying farewell to the pleasures of this world, fleeting flowers and messengers of our sad earth. They came to throw themselves into the arms and place themselves under the protection of Caesarius and Caesaria, their father and mother according to grace. There, they waited, their lamps lit, for the door of heaven to open for them, so that after having happily crossed the threshold of eternal happiness, they might enjoy without end the embraces of Christ, their divine spouse.

Retained by their own will within a cloister that allowed them only the sight of the sky, they would not leave it until the hour of their final passing. Prayer, penance, and work were their whole life; celebrating the glory of God in psalms, hymns, and canticles; engaging in pious reading, this was their only recreation. However, they also learned letters and copied the holy books.

After having laid the foundations of a holy rule, Caesaria, illustrious for her miracles, flew to Christ after a few years, on the 12th of January. The glory of her holiness had spread throughout the universe, and from her monastery came many families of virgins who kept the rule of Saint Caesaria; one of t he most famous was the one that Saint Radegund, wife of King Clotaire , instituted in the city of Poitiers and in which th is queen herself took the religious habit; she gave, in fact, as a rule to her Congregation, that of Saint Caesarius of Arles.

Another Caesaria succeeded our Saint. She was the mother of two hundred nuns whom Saint Caesarius had the joy of seeing gathered in his monastery before his departure from this world. Thirty years had sufficed for this holy institution to reach this high degree of prosperity. The holy bishop lef t it rich not only in income and property, but above all in an excellent rule of life and a considerable sum of good examples. He took such great care of this Congregation that he had himself carried there by his servants three days before his death, to visit the Abbess Caesaria and the other nuns, to console them, to bless them, and to exhort them to the conquest of eternal life. As befitted a true pastor and a father full of days, he warned them to carefully keep the rule he had dictated to them a few years earlier. In his testament, he recommended them to the bishops his successors and submitted them to their direction.

The feast of Saint Caesaria is celebrated in the diocese o f Aix on January 28. Proper of Aix.