ON SAINT GAUCHERIUS, PRIOR OF THE CANONS REGULAR OF AUREIL IN THE TERRITORY OF LIMOGES
IN THE YEAR 1130.
PrefaceGaucherius, Prior of the Canons Regular of Aureil, in the territory of Limoges (St)
G. H.
[1] Limoges, the famous city of first Aquitaine on the river Vienne, has in its diocese very many ancient monasteries of the Benedictine, Cistercian, and Augustinian Orders: among these was the Priory built by Saint Gaucherius in the eleventh century of Christ, in the place called Aureil, distant three leagues beyond the river Vienne from Limoges. Sacred cult in the Church of Limoges: The birthday of Saint Gaucherius falls on April 9, when he has a famous cult in the Church of Limoges, as the ancient manuscript Acts transmitted to us from there have, divided into six Lessons which were customarily recited in the Ecclesiastical Office: which same Philip Labbe afterwards published, Life divided into lessons. in volume 2 of the Collection of Aquitanian matters of his new Bibliotheca of manuscript books, page 560 and following. An illustrious compendium of this Life is in the Breviary of Limoges, published in 1626 by the authority of Raymond, Bishop of Limoges, and with the consent of the Chapter, where by precept the feast of Saint Gaucherius is celebrated under a semi-double rite, and the lessons of the second Nocturn are recited from the Life of Saint Gaucherius.
[2] Saussay published in his Gallican Martyrology on this April 9 a great elogium from the Life: Elogium in Saussay but when he asserts that he communicated religious counsel with Saint Leonard, it is not to be understood as if they lived together, since the same Saussay writes on November 6 that Saint Leonard was taken from the sacred font by King Clovis, and taught by Blessed Remigius, Archbishop of Reims, that is, more than five hundred years before the birth of Saint Gaucherius. But, as is said below in the Acts, spending the night at the tomb of Saint Leonard, he asked to obtain the effect of his desire.
[3] Franciscus Blosius, Councilor of the Most Christian King and Lieutenant, General President in the County and territory of Meulan, the birthplace of Saint Gaucherius, published in 1652 in the French language his Life translated from the Latin Acts, Life published in French, communicated to him from an old Legendary by the distinguished man Antoine Vion, Lord of Herouval, and augmented from various other monuments; in which, chapter 15, among the disciples of Saint Gaucherius, besides Saint Stephen, the founder of the Order of Grandmont mentioned below, disciples Saint Stephen, Lambert Bishop of Angoulême, and Saint Faucherius, he numbers Lambert, afterwards Bishop of Angoulême, and first Abbot of the monastery of Blessed Mary de la Couronne founded by himself, whom he also calls a saint, which may be examined on June 13, on which he died in 1148. He adds as a third disciple Saint Faucherius, whose head is preserved on the altar of the church of Aureil together with the head of Saint Gaucherius: which also Ferrari observed in his General Catalogue, where on this day he thus writes: "In the territory of Limoges, Saint Gauctrerius, founder of the monks of Saint Augustine"; and in his Notes he adds that his relics are held there in great veneration, together with the relics of Saint Faucherius, a monk of the same Order.
[4] Whether he lived in the monastery of Saint Ruf at Avignon. Charles Frémont, in the French Life of Saint Stephen of Grandmont, chapters 5 and 6, treats of his living with Saint Gaucherius: whom he asserts to have lived for two years among the Canons Regular of the monastery of Saint Ruf, built near Avignon. If this is true, it must have happened under Abbot Bertrand, afterwards Bishop of Barcelona, of whom we have treated on March 6 in the Life of Blessed Oldegarius, Bishop of Barcelona, chapter 1. That monastery of Saint Ruf was afterwards transferred to Valence.
[5] Saint Gaucherius is said to have died in the verses below in the year 1140, being then eighty years old, whence we gather that he was born in 1060. Time of his life. But in the Acts he is said to have died in 1130, and therefore would have been born in 1050, and so more rightly began to inhabit the cell of Aureil in 1071, in which both the Acts and the verses agree.
LIFE
From a manuscript Legendary of Limoges.
Gaucherius, Prior of the Canons Regular of Aureil, in the territory of Limoges (St)
BHL Number: 3272
FROM A MANUSCRIPT
CHAPTER I.
Birth, studies, departure into Aquitaine. Eremitical life.
LESSON I.
Gaucherius, from the territory of Rouen, was a native of the town of Meulan, born of parents most illustrious in religion; Born in the diocese of Rouen, brought up in the village of Saint Peter, whose name is b Egosus. Whose life, while he was still enclosed in his mother's womb, the Lord, wishing as it were by a certain presage to make it known to the world, made manifest to his father in the silence of the night. For, as we heard from himself, on a certain night, when his mother was pregnant of him, in dreams he saw himself holding the rope of one bell, which seemed so long that it was stretched from earth all the way to heaven; and when he pulled the rope, hanging from the bell, with his hand, the bell rang in heaven. Whose future he will be is indicated to his mother This vision well fits God's servant Gaucherius, by a twofold vision; who, although led by the propagation of the flesh (which is signified by the rope), subduing
it beneath the light yoke of Christ, became a ringing bell: because just as, when bells ring, a certain voice of commotion arises, signifying that the people of Christ ought to hasten to the Church of God, so also God's servant Gaucherius was in a certain way a bell; because by the example of his life and the voice of his preaching he moved the people, lest they delay to come to their Creator. His mother also saw in dreams, when he was not yet brought forth into human sight, that she was holding up two horns of the moon with both hands: but the moon is put for the frailty of the flesh, because for a time it seems to grow and wane, but when it begins by failing to wane, its horns are accustomed to be thinned. All these things are well assigned to God's servant; because although he was oppressed with the burden of the flesh, which for a time fails, he then held the two horns in his hands: for he subdued by his hands the pride and lust of his flesh; that is, by the twin wings of virtue, namely by the two precepts of charity, namely the love of God and the love of neighbor, which love makes those fired with love stretch through the narrow path, and, looking down upon earthly things, makes them go upward to heavenly things. Fired with this love, God's servant Gaucherius, on this pilgrimage placed only in body, yet by thought and eagerness so dwelt in that eternal country, because he strove to keep through innocence of life the garment which he put on in baptism, which is to thin the horns of the moon, that is, to subdue the kindlings of the vices of the flesh even to the end of life; as the Evangelist testifies: "But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved." Matt. 10, 22
LESSON II.
Therefore, when the time of approaching childhood came, he is diligently handed over by his parents to liberal studies: in which the conferment of doctrine, agreeing with the richness of his talent, rendered him most learned by a doubled good, He makes splendid progress in studies: namely of nature and of industry. And that the perfection of letters might fully flow into him, the teachable boy, carefully shutting up in the little cabinet of his breast, as a treasure committed to him by tenacious memory, whatever he had heard, was in a brief space of time brought to the fork of the Pythagorean letter, and he avoided the left branch, He avoids lust: that is, the lust of this world, with which that age is wont to be occupied. For the right branch, from the first flower of his youth, God's servant Gaucherius followed: He loves virtue: for like a most prudent bee, gathering all good things with diligence, he stored them in the ark of his mind, which afterwards he would make into honey for God's people by the sweetness of his word: that, through the narrow way which leads to life, they might follow his example. He cleaves to Rainerius, a pious man, When he had become a youth, he clung to a certain man named Rainerius, very religious in life and fame, whom he served faithfully for many days, but rather in a familiar way for Christ: for from him he took especially the beginning of his life, and entered the apprenticeship of Christ and the dwelling-place of chastity. About the same time, the venerable Master Humbert, Canon of the See of Limoges, of whom he was a familiar disciple, then to Humbert the Canon of Limoges. was perhaps directing a school in those parts; to whom also he opened the desire of his soul: who, wondering at his youth and the constancy of his mind, thus addressed him with gentle words: "Dearest son Gaucherius, if what you confess to me in word remains in your mind, follow me in my country, which is very populous; and I hope in God, who always strengthens desire, that you will find some little place suited to your soul, in which you can serve the Lord, who will stretch out to you the hand of his love."
LESSON III.
But when he was now about eighteen years old, and greatly feared to be contaminated by those things which grow in the human race, following the admonitions of his master Humbert, knowing himself that it has been foretold by the Lord: "Every one who has left home, or brothers, or sisters, or father for my sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life" Matt. 19: therefore the athlete of God, supported by this promise, putting on the breastplate of faith, about to leave his fatherland widowed, left father and mother, and pious parents, and sweet country; and having taken as companion Germund, a venerable man, his future Canon, having taken Germund as companion, but at that time ignorant of his secret, following the said teacher, he came into the parts of Aquitaine. With him, therefore, by God's providence he came into this province, and was a guest in the village of c Leonard, of whose great fame of miracles he had heard. He spends the night at the tomb of Saint Leonard, On that night he spent the night before the tomb of the blessed man, whose conversation and life he desired to imitate; begging from him with most humble prayers, that he might obtain with God the effect of his desire. When dawn rose, while the sacred solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, having received license from that man, his fellow-countryman, he continued the journey he had begun; and going around the woods, he came at length by the Lord's guidance to the place called d Chavaniacum: to which, by his inspiration, traversing so great spaces of places, He lives as a hermit in the wood of Chavaniacum for three years he directed his step, fulfilling in himself that saying of the prophet: "I have gone afar off, fleeing, and I dwelt in the wilderness": and there, though little known to men, yet not unknown to God, remaining with his companion for three years, he led an eremitical life. Psal. 54, 8 In which place, always intent on sacred contemplations and thoughts, he first instituted religion and the profession of religion. Here by clear and true prayer he showed that all temporal things are momentary and fleeting, and that nothing desirable or firm exists in them; far from the noise of the world: and he accused the human race of the greatest rashness, because it pursued these earthly things with so great skill and zeal, so often frustrated and deluded by a deceitful and empty hope. He said that the allurements of this world should be fled, as great impediments to virtues. Finally, he said that these lowly things, compared with heavenly ones, grow cheap, and are wrapped in many bitternesses. Here nothing is present but weaknesses, continual labors, and death: but for those who contemplate God, there remains good hope or quiet joy, and this eternal life awaits them.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Monastic life: death, miracles.
LESSON IV.
But it is not within our ability to relate how many and how great difficulties of hunger, cold, and thirst, and of vigils, how many assaults of demons God's servant Gaucherius bore for the Lord. At that same time, while he remained and stayed there, he kept pondering in thought, with a dove as if admonishing him that often a certain dove, coming, sometimes on his shoulders, sometimes on his head, would rest; and, as if rebuking him for disposing to prepare a dwelling in such a place, would strike his head with the sharpest blows of its beak: which the man of God driving away, marveling greatly with himself, silently considered the matter. But the dove, as if terrified by his threats, flying up, climbed to the peak of his roof; and with its feet scattering the straw with which that little cabin was thatched, it would carry the straws thither, where by divine providence his monastery now stands built, and there it deposited them; showing by this sign in what place he ought to build his cell. By which the man of God knew that it was not the will of God for him to remain there any longer. But the place in which the athlete of Christ was then staying And when other difficulties had been found, seemed at that time to belong to the rights of the monks of Saint Augustine and the nuns of Saint Mary de Regula; and he for long and much entreated both them and these, that they would grant him the place to serve God in perpetuity: but he suffered a refusal: for they would by no means acquiesce in his petition, except for as long as he himself lived. To whom, replying, he said: "I am concerned not only for myself, but also for those who will come after me." And when he had said this, he departed from them. Wherefore, leaving that place, he withdrew into another grove, to which antiquity had given the name b Salvator, and which is now called Aureil, he builds the monastery of Aureil in another grove, in the twenty-second year of his age: which grove seems to be about a stadium distant from the first place. In which grove, among the thickets, having found a place suited to his desire, and having learned that this wood was Saint Stephen's, he went to the Canons of the See of Limoges, asking that his desire might have its effect. They receiving him kindly, Having obtained the permission from the Canons of Limoges. and being informed of his sanctity by Master Humbert, at whose persuasion he had come to this province, promise themselves to be favorable supporters of his pious petition with ready mind. Knowing, therefore, that by the laudable providence of religious men very many monasteries would benefit the salvation of many, they willingly granted to Saint Gaucherius and to his men both present and future a place to build a monastery of Regular Canons; where, if any of their canons wished to leave the world and serve God in the monastery of Aureil, thereafter to follow the regular path in all things, they reserved the right of approach to him without contradiction, after petition made, to be received. Nevertheless, when the prior of the Aureil monastery should die, they allowed the canons of the same monastery free permission to choose a prior according to God, with some mutual dependence. but they wished the one elected to be brought into their Chapter, and making him their canon and brother, they would confirm him as Father and Prior of the monastery of Aureil; and that they themselves should in writing promise obedience to the general Chapter: that when he had been confirmed and placed in his seat in the choir, bidding farewell to all, he should return with joy to his own, and thereafter obtain the name and place of Prior. They also added that while he was at Limoges, their dispensers should provide refreshment to one canon who should be with him, as to themselves; and many other things they established, to be profitable for the souls of the brethren of both parties, which are kept written in the aforementioned church as a cartulary decree. Saint Father Gaucherius, agreeing to all these things, having obtained his vow, returned in haste to building a church carefully for the name of the Lord.
LESSON V.
About the same time, many hearing of the sanctity of his life, fearing amidst the storms of this world to incur danger to their souls, [He receives many disciples, among them Saint Stephen the founder of the Order of Grandmont.] came to him, leaving secular affairs, and moved by his example, desiring to serve the Lord alone. Among whom came one of venerable memory, named c Stephen, a man of wondrous sanctity and abstinence: who, admiring the austerity of Gaucherius's life, imitating his ways,
and seeing an innumerable multitude of both sexes flocking to him (for the blessed man knew that neither sex was excluded from the kingdom of God; wherefore from both walls, of men and of women, he strove to build the heavenly Jerusalem, and had built a dwelling for the Sisters about a stone's throw from his own cell, distributing his poverty to men as well as to women), the aforesaid venerable Stephen came to him, knowing that human minds are often deceived through the proximity of women, asking the blessed man that some dwelling be prepared for him in that solitude near his own little cell. The pious father, granting his prayers, ordered an oratory to be built with urgent labor about as far as a bow can twice shoot an arrow, in a place which was called Muret; whence from that place Stephen was surnamed "of Muret," who became the Father of all the Grandmontines and founder of the Order of Grandmont; and from the aforesaid place, namely from Muret, the Grandmontines had their beginning.
LESSON VI.
But when it pleased God, the supreme Provider, to call his Saint to the heavenly nuptials, it happened that he went to Limoges on account of a certain business of his church, and returning thence when he was eighty years of age, after having taken up pastoral care in the wood of Aureil for about sixty years, weary with nightly vigils, having fallen from his horse, sleeping as he rode and worn with age (since, as we believe, God willed him to end his life by the triumph of martyrdom, that he might reward him with a double crown, namely of Confessor and Martyr), he fell before the feet of the animal on which he was riding, his head struck by a stone, at the place where this happened, shown to this day: in which place, through his intercession, innumerable benefits of healings are bestowed on those suffering from fever. Therefore, when he lay almost lifeless, and having lost his bodily strength could not raise himself, a great cry went up that Gaucherius the servant of God was lying half-dead in that place. half-dead he is carried to Festiacum, Those who were nearer, moved with vehement pain and anger, running up, carried him to a certain village called d Festiacum: and showing humanity toward him, hoping to receive from the Lord an eternal reward, the cloth with which a certain freeborn woman was accustomed to veil her head, with which they had wiped the wound of the most holy man, they kept for themselves as relics. Because of imminent dangers of death, lest he should pass away without viaticum, and having received there the sacred viaticum, he receives communion also there. When this was known at Aureil, the brothers who were present, with the greatest wailing and weeping, hastening thither with a swift course, brought him the next day to their monastery; He is carried to Aureil, on the third day, however, having lost the use of speech, those standing around counseled that the cross of Christ with the body of the Lord be brought. When these were brought, beholding the banner of the Lord's Cross He recovers speech: consoling his own, he dies: and feeling that the body of the Lord was present, filled with joy, he recovered the faculty of speech; and seeing his sons standing around him, weeping beyond what is credible and awaiting the departure of his soul, he said to them: "My little sons, do not weep, but rather rejoice; because my soul, about to go forth from the prison of the flesh, will be restored to liberty, happily to reign with Christ forever." Meanwhile, while these things were being done, Lord Gerald, Bishop of the See of Limoges, having learned of the death of the man of God Gaucherius, together with a great multitude of men of Limoges, He is famous for miracles: entered the church in which the holy body was lying on a bier; and after a prayer and absolution, when a great multitude of people of both sexes, with rejoicing souls, gave thanks to God for the frequent miracles happening there, the lame are healed, he inquired solicitously into the cause of such great joy. There was brought to him a young man restored to health, who had before been lame. A certain woman also, who had been lame for many years, as soon as she touched his bier, was immediately restored to health. This report being known, a certain blind man coming the blind man, many with fevers: received the light of his eyes by the suffrage of Gaucherius. Many suffering from fevers were also healed there, whom, because of the multitude, it would be long to enumerate. This man, Saint Gaucherius, flourished in the year of our Lord 1130. In following times, by divine revelation, he was canonized and inscribed in the Catalogue of the Saints, in the time of our Lord e Pope Celestine, with Lord f Sebrandus presiding over the See of Limoges; He is inscribed in the catalogue of Saints. who by the precept of the aforesaid Lord Pope placed this Saint's memorable and venerable bones in a shrine. In the revelation of which Saint, very many miracles by the suffrage of the holy man himself were wrought. Let us also give thanks to the Lord, to whom it pleased thus to glorify his Saint, praying the Lord that he may grant us to follow him by the path which he has shown us while present, who lives and reigns through endless ages of ages. Amen.
SOME VERSES
From an old book of the Priory of Aureil.
From the year thousand seventy [1071] the first, our cell took its beginning. In the year thousand ninety seventy, [1164] Four taken away, our dedication was made. A thousand, ten times ten completed, and twice g twenty years, Gaucherius ascends to the stars of heaven. [1140] In the year thousand hundred with ninety [1194] Fourth, a bright sum of the man's merits is revealed.