Gerald of Aurillac

Saint Gerald of Aurillac was a lay nobleman of ninth-⁠century France who lived in the world as a hidden monk and fell asleep around 909. He is honoured in the Western Church as a model of the unmarried, devout nobleman, and as patron of counts, of bachelors and of those with bodily infirmities. He is commemorated on 13 October.

He was born around 855 into the Gallo-⁠Roman nobility of Auvergne, among his forebears being Saint Caesarius of Arles. The title of Count of Aurillac was not held by his father but taken by him later. His life is known chiefly from the Life of Saint Gerald of Aurillac, written around 930 to 931 by Odo of Cluny. According to Odo, he was ill for a long time in childhood, and later he went blind. Duke William of Aquitaine asked him to give up royal service and pay homage to himself, but Gerald refused, preferring to remain loyal to the king in Paris.

He seriously considered entering a monastery, but his friend Bishop Geusbert of Rodez advised him that with his social position he could do more good by staying in the world. Still, secretly tonsured under his usual cap, he consecrated his life to God, gave away part of his wealth, took a vow of chastity and prayed the hours each day. He founded a church and abbey on his estate at Aurillac, which became an important religious centre and influenced the abbey of Cluny, founded a little later. He died on a Friday, 13 October, probably in 909, at a place called Cezeinac, perhaps Cézens or Saint-⁠Cirgues today, and was buried at Aurillac. From his death he was venerated as a saint by the people of the region, and Odo of Cluny's confirmation of his veneration made it more widely known. He is also patron of Upper Auvergne.