Saint Robert de Matallana

Robert of Matallana (Burgundy?, France, early 12th century – Matallana, before 1198) was a Cistercian monk and the first abbot of the Monastery of Matallana (in the municipality of Villalba de los Alcores, province of Valladolid). He was regarded as a saint and, although never officially canonized, was venerated as such within the Cistercian Order. The site of Matallana was acquired by Alfonso VIII of Castile in 1181 and ceded to the nobleman Tello Pérez de Meneses. In 1185, Tello and his wife, Gontroda, founded a monastery there, Santa María de Matallana, which they entrusted "to God, the Mother of God, Abbot William of the Cistercian monastery of La Crête, and Robert, first abbot of Matallana," as stated in the deed of donation. The community consisted of monks from the monastery of La Crête (Haute-Marne, France), with Robert, a monk from that monastery, serving as the first abbot. They likely settled in an existing building, perhaps belonging to its former owners, the Order of the Hospital, and construction on the new monastery did not begin until 1228. Little is known of this abbot other than that he was a virtuous man held to be a saint. He must have died before 1198, when Abbot Isidor is recorded in his place. He died on April 19, as the monastery's martyrology stated: "Obiit domnus Robertus bonae memoriae, primus abbas Mataplanae." Tello Téllez de Meneses, the son of the founder and future Bishop of Palencia, was his disciple. Buried under the high altar of the Matallana monastery, he was venerated as a saint and credited with miracles until the monastery was secularized and abandoned in 1835. He was invoked against locust plagues and for the protection of crops. The Order celebrated his feast day on December 5, while the Gallican calendar observed it on December 2.