Gaudericus

Saint Gaudericus (Galderic) was a devout farmer of Roussillon and Catalonia, born around 820 at Vilavella (today Saint-⁠Gaudéric, in the county of Carcassonne) and dead in 900 at the monastery of Sant Martí del Canigó in Conflent. With his two brothers he cultivated the lands of a landowner and defended the rights of the peasants, protecting them from the abuses and ill treatment of the lords. He is invoked for rain, because he is said to have made a spring burst from the ground.

The name "Galderic" comes, by one explanation, from Old German: "Gaut", God, and "Eric", servant, thus "he who serves God". He died with a reputation for holiness and was buried in the monastery of Sant Martí del Canigó, whose monks then took his relics and placed them in their church. Many miracles are attributed to him; he is said to have been canonized in 990 at a council at Narbonne by Bishop Raymond II of Toulouse. He was patron of the Catalan peasants until the 17th or 18th century, when he was replaced by Saint Isidore the Farmer. He remains patron of Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir and Perpignan and is still venerated by peasants on both sides of the Pyrenees. In the time of the War of the Reapers, on 5 July 1654, the monks of Conflent carried the relics over mountain paths to the church of the monastery of Sant Pau del Camp in Barcelona. He is commemorated on 16 October. He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.