Gerald of Salles
Gerald of Sales[lower-alpha 1] (c.1055 or 1070 – 1120) was a French monastic reformer from Salles, Lot-et-Garonne near Bergerac, Dordogne in the south-west of France.[1] His feast day is on April 20.
Monastic reformer
Gerald of Salles was ruler of Salles near Bergerac in Dordogne, France.[2] According to a tradition going back to his Vita,[3] he became a canon regular of St. Avitus, from the diocese of Périgueux, and the monastery of Saint-Avit,[4]
A friend of Robert of Arbrissel, and follower of Vitalis of Savigny;[5] like Bernard of Thiron, Gerard set up Benedictine houses, or groups of hermits, mostly in the west of France, and was important in the later spread of the Cistercians, from their beginnings in Burgundy.[6] Following a spirituality very close to that of the Cistercians, Gerald of Salles monasteries progressively joined them.[7]
Foundations
Most of Gerald's foundations were south of the Loire;[8] all were founded under the Rule of St. Benedict. Among his attributed foundations, of which there are traditionally said to be nine,[9][10] were:
- Absie Abbey (1120)[11]
- Sainte-Marie d'Ardorel[6]
- Belleperche Abbey[12]
- Abbaye Notre-Dame de l'Assomption du Bournet (1113)[13]
- Cadouin Abbey (c.1115)[14][15]
- L’abbaye Notre-Dame des Châtelliers (1119)[16]
- Dalon Abbey (1114)[17][18]
- Fontdouce Abbey (1117)[19]
- Grandselve Abbey (1114)[20]
- Valmagne Abbey[6]
The Abbaye du Pin à Béruges is also attributed, in a chronicle.[21] Feuillant Abbey may have been started by a group of monks from Dalon.[22]
Loc-Dieu Abbey belonged to a series of monasteries reformed by Gerald of Salles.[7]
Like Grandselve, the monastery of Sainte-Marie d'Ardorel near Albi, and its daughter house, Valmagne Abbey, were established as independent Bendictine houses before being absorbed into the Cistercian system.
Veneration
He was beatified in 1249, and was reburied in a marble tomb,[23] south of the altar at Châtelliers Abbey.
Notes
- Also known as: Gerald of Salles, Gerard of Salles, Geraud of Salles, Gerald de Salles, Gérard de Salles, Géraud de Salles, Giraud de Salles, Gerald of Sales, Giraud de Sales, Gérald de Salis, Giraldus de Salis, and Giraud de Salis.
References
- Brenac, Jean-Claude (ed.). "Dictionnaire des Saints – Saints en G". Opéra Baroque (in French). Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- Odden, Per Einar. "Den salige Gerald av Salles ( -1120)", Den katolske kirke
- "Fonds Périgord - Tome 77". Guyenne.fr. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- Salvan, Adrien. Histoire générale de l'église de Toulouse (1857), p. 148.
- "Ivan Gobry, Le monachisme chrétien en Occident - Clio - Voyage Culturel". Clio.fr. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- Berman, Constance H., Medieval Agriculture, the Southern French Countryside, and the Early Cistercians: A Study of Forty-three Monasteries, American Philosophical Society, 2007, ISBN 9781422374498, p. 32
- "Loc-Dieu Abbey", Cister.net
- Thompson, Kathleen. The Monks of Tiron: A Monastic Community and Religious Reform in the Twelfth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN 9781316060834, p. 157
- "Bienheureux Giraud de Sales". Nominis.cef.fr. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- Benson, Robert L.;constable, Giles, and Lanham, Carol Dana. Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century (1991), pp. 57-8.
- "L'abbaye Notre-Dame de l'Absie". Cc-parthenay.fr. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- Berman, p. 127.
- fr:Abbaye Notre-Dame de l'Assomption du Bournet
- "L'Ordre de Tiron - Les Moines Artisans". tiron.blogg.org. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- de:Abtei Cadouin
- "CERAMIQUES, DESSINS ET OBJETS D'ART". Ph-michaud.com. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- "Archives départementales Corrèze - Consultation archives administratives judiciaires prives département Corrèze". Archives.cg19.fr. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- fr:Abbaye de Dalon
- "Flux". Culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- In the Vita of the saint, but disputed (Berman, p. 128 says 1117, and more likely Robert).
- "Drac Nouvelle-Aquitaine - Ministère de la Culture". Poitou-charentes.culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- "Mary Hernandez - abbayes.net - Trading und Börsen Ratgeber". Abbayes.net. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Histoire et mémoires de l'institut royal de France (1846), p. 488.
Sources
- Marie-Odile Lenglet, L'implantation cistercienne dans la Marche Limousine, de Géraud de Sales à saint Bernard, MSSNAC, vol. 46 (1997), p. 258-268
- Marie-Odile Lenglet, La biographie du bienheureux Géraud de Sales, in Cîteaux. Commentani Cisterciences, 29, 1978, p. 7-40
- Marie-Odile Lenglet, Un pauvre du Christ, Géraud de Sales dit Saint Giraud, Cîteaux Commentarii Cistercienses, t. XXIX, 1978, pp. 5–40
- Marie-Odile Lenglet, Géraud de Salles, ses fondations monastiques, leur évolution vers l’ordre cistercien à la fin de XIIème siècle, Bulletin de la Société Historique et Archéologique du Périgord, t. CXIV, 1987, pp. 33–50.
- (in French) Biography of Giraud de Salles