Switzerland tells

Bernard de Menthon – Founder of the Hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard

In the middle of the tenth century, the son of the lord of Menthon manifested, from his earliest years, a compelling purpose for the ascetic life. His parents were keen to perpetuate a race of valiant, so old that it had taken for: «Ante Christum natum, baro jam natus Run »et, to change provisions of their heir coenobitic, they obtained for him the hand of a beautiful girl. He submitted with docility the most auspicious ; only, while we waited for the nuptial blessing, in the chapel, he escaped, jumping out the window of his room in a precipice a hundred cubits, during which the prit lands lentement, supported by his guardian angel. He came then seek a retreat, to live alone, close to the sky, among the snows of Mount Jou. This happened in 970. Shortly after, young Menthon instituted at the top of this steep desert, for pilgrims, two homes that still exist, and retained the name of Bernard of Menthon, their founder. Thus, after the canonization of Father charitable institutions, Jupiter, dethroned Mount Jou, disappeared from the Saint Bernard.

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