William of Volpiano

Saint William of Volpiano was a monastic reformer and builder of monasteries, born in Piedmont in northern Italy and reposed on 1 January 1031 at Fécamp in Normandy. The Church remembers him as abbot of the monastery of Saint-⁠Bénigne at Dijon.

He was the son of a count of Volpiano and was born on the island of San Giulio in Lake Orta. From the age of seven he was educated at a Benedictine monastery at Vercelli, where he became a monk, and in 987 he entered Cluny under Saint Majolus, zealous for the renewal of monastic life. Ordained in 990, he served as abbot of Saint-⁠Bénigne at Dijon, which he made a centre of prayer, learning and culture and the mother house of some forty other monasteries in Burgundy, Lorraine, Normandy and northern Italy.

In 1001 Duke Richard II of Normandy called him to restore the abbey of Fécamp; he then founded other houses in Normandy and brought reform to Jumièges. Tradition also credits him with work on the abbey of Mont-⁠Saint-⁠Michel. He founded the monastery of Fruttuaria in Piedmont, was gentle with the poor and firm with the powerful, and left a collection of chant. His life was written by his disciple, the monk Rodulfus Glaber.

He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 1 January (new style).