He was going to be 53 years old. The abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Acey, on the borders of Jura and Franche-Comté, in the village of Vitreux, died on Saturday August 5, after a fall in the mountains. “He unscrewed in the mountains in Switzerland where he had gone to rest. We mourn with those who mourn this man so good! », writes in a press release the diocese of Saint-Claude, announcing his death. Bishop Jean-Luc Garin, bishop of the diocese, invites us to pray for Father Godefroy, as well as for “the brothers of his community, his father and his Carmelite sister in Laval. »
A former naval commando, Brother Godefroy Raguenet de Saint Albin had discovered his monastic vocation thanks to Tibhirine’s message. In a long interview withThe crossin May 2021, he returned to this vocation which had been working on him since, as a teenager, he had stayed on the island of Lérins, off the coast of Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes), where he had discovered monastic life and the psalm prayer. “Assigned an exchange officer to the United States, I left with the trap door address of Spencer, Massachusetts, where the Lord awaited me, he said. A monk put in my hands the book of the Abbot General Dom Bernardo How far to follow? (1), which featured the martyr brothers of Tibhirine. I discovered the paradoxical fruitfulness of this community life, buried, which attracted me when I rubbed shoulders with it for 24 or 48 hours in an abbey. »
After leaving the army, Father Godefroy made several stays in Midelt, in Morocco, which extends the community of Tibhirine and where the two survivors lived, Brother Amédée and Brother Jean-Pierre (who have since died). From 2014, he became chaplain of the Trappistines of Azeir, Syria, on the border with Lebanon, for more than three years. Back in Europe, he spent several months at the abbey of Hauterive (Switzerland), from where he was asked to become the superior of Acey.
The funeral of the 64th Father Abbot of Acey will take place on Friday August 11.
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