St. Aelred, much against his inclination, was made abbot of a new monastery of his order, founded by William, Earl of Lincoln, at Revesby, in Lincolnshire, in 1142, and of Rieval, over three hundred monks, in 1143. Describing their life, he says, that they drank nothing but water; ate little, and that coarse; labored hard, slept little, and on hard boards; never spoke, except to their superiors on necessary occasions; carried the burdens that were laid on them without refusing any; went wherever they were led; had not a moment for sloth, or amusements of any kind, and never had any lawsuit or dispute.[5] St. Aelred also mentions their mutual charity and peace in the most affecting manner, and is not able to find words to express the joy he felt at the sight of every one of them. His humility and love of solitude made him constantly refuse many bishoprics which were pressed {135} upon him. Pious reading and prayer were his delight. Even in times of spiritual dryness, if he opened the divine books, he suddenly found his soul pierced with the light of the Holy Ghost. His eyes, though before as dry as marble, flowed with tears, and his heart abandoned itself to sighs accompanied with a heavenly pleasure, by which he was ravished in God. He died in 1166, and the fifty-seventh of his age, having been twenty-two years abbot. See his works published at Douay in 1625, and in Bibl. Cisterc. t. 5, particularly his _Mirrour of Charity_; Hearne's Notes on Gulielmus Neubrigensis, who dedicated to our saint the first book of his history, t. 3, p. 1: likewise his life in Capgrave, and the annals of his order. The general chapter held at Citeaux in 1250, declared him to be ranked among the saints of their order; as Henriquez and the additions to the Cistercian Martyrology testify. In the new Martyrology published by Benedict XIV. for the use of this order, the feast of St. Aelred is marked on the 2d of March,[6] with a great eulogium of his learning, innocence of life, wonderful humility, patience, heavenly conversation, gift of prophecy, and miracles. Footnotes: 1. Spec. {} 1, c. 28. 2. Spec. l. 1, c. 5. 3. Ibid. l. 1, c. 1. 4. Ibid. l. 1, c. ult. 5. L. 2, c. 2. 6. P. 304 JANUARY XIII. ST. VERONICA, OF MILAN. From her life, in Bollandus, t. 1, p. 890. A.D. 1497.