Feast day: May 28

St. Bernard of Montjoux

Priest · c. 1020–1081

Patron of Mountaineers, the Alps

An archdeacon who for forty years served the people of the Alps and built hospices on the high, deadly passes to shelter and rescue travelers crossing the mountains.

Bernard of Menthon, also called Bernard of Montjoux, was born about 923 into a noble family of Savoy and, according to tradition, fled an arranged marriage to give himself to the Church. He became archdeacon of Aosta, with charge of the diocese, and devoted his life to the people of the Alpine valleys.

His name is bound forever to the high mountain passes of the Alps. These passes were the great routes between Italy and northern Europe, crossed every year by countless pilgrims, merchants, and travellers — and they were deadly: bitterly cold, swept by avalanches, and infested by brigands who preyed on the helpless.

To protect them, Bernard founded hospices at the summits of the two passes that still bear his name, the Great and the Little St. Bernard, where communities of canons sheltered, fed, and rescued travellers caught in the mountains. The famous St. Bernard rescue dogs, bred at the hospice to find people lost in the snow, carry his name to this day.

He laboured for some forty years among the Alpine peoples and died about 1008. Canonized in 1681, he was later named by Pope Pius XI the patron saint of mountaineers, skiers, and all who travel in the mountains.

The Alpine passes, the hospices, and the famous rescue dogs all bear his name — he is the patron saint of mountaineers and skiers.

Image: Alexander Goetiers (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/02503b.htm