Venerable William of Gellone

Venerable William of Gellone was born around 755 into a noble Frankish family, a relative of Charlemagne. He became renowned as an outstanding military commander: as Count of Toulouse he defended the southern borders of the Frankish kingdom against Arab raids from Spain for many years, and took part in Charlemagne's major campaigns, including the capture of Barcelona in 803. Around 804, weary of warfare and drawn to monastic life, he left his military career and received the tonsure from St. Benedict of Aniane himself, a leading reformer of Western monasticism. That same year, in the valley of Gellone near Lodève in southern France, he founded a monastery, where he placed a reliquary containing a fragment of the True Cross given to him by Charlemagne. He spent his final years at this monastery in strict fasting and prayer, gaining widespread veneration even in his lifetime. He died on May 28, 812. He became a hero of medieval French epic poetry (the "Chanson de Guillaume"), which fixed his image in popular memory as a warrior who exchanged the sword for the monastic habit.