Venerable William of Dijon (William of Volpiano)

Venerable William of Dijon, also known as William of Volpiano, was born in 962 in a castle on Lake Orta in Piedmont, northern Italy, the son of Count Robert of Volpiano; Emperor Otto I himself was his godfather. At age seven he was placed in the Benedictine monastery of San Michele di Lucedio. In 987 he joined the abbey of Cluny under Abbot Maiolus, who soon entrusted him with restoring the declining monastery of Saint-Saturnin near Avignon. In 990 Bishop Bruno of Langres appointed William abbot of the failing monastery of Saint-Bénigne in Dijon; under his leadership the house flourished remarkably, and he came to oversee more than forty monasteries with some twelve hundred monks, becoming one of the chief agents of the Cluniac reform in Burgundy. Around 1001 he founded Fruttuaria Abbey and composed for it a rule combining Cluniac and Benedictine strictness. He authored a theological treatise, "On the True Good and Divine Contemplation." He spent his final years at Fécamp Abbey in Normandy, which he had rebuilt, and died there on January 1, 1031.