Blessed Geoffrey II of Loudon

Elected to govern the Church of Le Mans, Geoffrey of Loudon appeared even more humble than before; and all his virtues began to shine with a new brilliance. The year of his election and the following one were marked by a terrible famine in the diocese of Le Mans. To relieve the misery of the destitute, the clergy made heroic efforts and sold a portion of the sanctuary's ornaments. The chapter distributed to the poor the price of a magnificent silver baldachin that the archdeacon Payen had bequeathed to the tomb of Saint Jul saint Julien First bishop of Le Mans and uncle of Saint Romanus. ian. As these sums were still not enough for the needs, several canons proposed selling a portion of the ornaments of the head of Saint Julian; and their opinion was about to prevail; but the bishop gave one hundred and fifty pounds tournois from his own patrimony, and the canons sixty pounds tournois from the church's fabric fund; thus the precious reliquary was preserved for the city.

Geoffrey of Loudon applied himself with all his power to the maintenance or restoration of discipline, not only in his diocese but also throughout the kingdom. In the midst of these incessant occupations, he still found time to devote himself to works of charity. He was never found idle; he cherished contemplation as the nourishment of the soul, and he was drawn by a powerful attraction toward the study of the holy books. It is undoubtedly this assiduous reading that had made him one of the most eloquent preachers of his time. With this activity and zeal, Geoffrey made a large number of disciplinary regulations for the administration of the diocese; he strengthened the division of the territory into archdeaconries, and he obtained a bull from Gregor y IX to app Grégoire IX Pope who attested to the miracles of Bruno. rove it. Several churches consecrated by Geoffrey of Loudon are cited, among others that of Ségrie and that of Vivoin. In 1247, the church of the priory of Sainte-Catherine of Laval was consecrated by Michel de Villoiseau, Bishop of Angers, in the presence and with the consent of the Bishop of Le Mans, who himself dedicated the altar of the crypt.

In the month of June 1236, Marguerite, a noble lady of the Beaumont-le-Vicomte family, widow of a prince of the House of Stuart, Count of Fife in Scotland, laid the foundations of a Carthusian monastery in the parish of Saint-Denis-d'Orques. The site had been given the previous year to the pious widow by Raoul III of Beaumont, her uncle, for this foundation, and it was called the Parc-d'Orques; hence the charterhouse was named Notre-Dame du Parc-d'Orques. At the request of Raoul, King Saint Louis authorized the foundation in 1236, and in the month of February of the following year, Gregory IX issued a bull (February 4, 1237) for the same purpose. From the very first moments, Geoffroy of Loudon had encouraged this establishment; thus, he learned with great pain that the Carthusians were thinking of abandoning it, discouraged by the sterility of the place and the insufficiency of their initial income. He employed all his means to retain these religious, and pushed his sacrifices for them so far that he has always been regarded as the principal founder. He had a church built at his own expense that was more spacious than the first, and in a more convenient location; he erected cloisters, cells for the religious, various workshops, and a vast enclosure wall. He had water pipes installed, and to provide more healthfulness to the region and more fertility to the land, he had several ponds made, which have recently been drained. In order to meet such considerable expenses without cutting back on his customary good works, he found himself obliged to sell a portion of his patrimony. Furthermore, he secured twenty pounds of rent from the rectory of Marolles, tithes from the parishes of Meslay and Montahon, and several other spiritual and temporal benefits. Among other proofs of this prelate's solicitude for the monks, we note the care with which he guaranteed their privileges against the encroachments of the secular clergy. Several lords of the neighborhood protested against the establishment of the new monastery, under the ordinary pretext of their rights being infringed; they disturbed the religious with the hunts they conducted near their cloister, and vexed them in various ways: Geoffroy obtained a bull from Innoce Innocent IV 13th-century pope who testified to the saint's miracles. nt IV to guarantee the persons and property of the disciples of Saint Bruno against all violence and usurpation. Hervé of Chaources was one of the lords whose noisy packs of hounds most often threw the solitude of the Carthusians into disarray; upon the representations of Geoffroy of Loudon, he renounced his claims. Raoul of Thorigné-en-Charnie imitated this example. Sparing no sacrifice to solidly establish this pious community, our prelate purchased with his own funds the adjacent lands that had provided the pretext for these vexations. Having been called in 1252 by the monks of Évron to perform the dedication of the church they had just built, on the very day of the solemnity, he declared to the religious gathered in chapter that the Carthusians of Le Parc were about to be forced to abandon their house for lack of sufficient income to subsist. The monks of Évron hastened to come to their aid; they gave them in perpetuity the priory of Saint-Denis-d'Orques, with middle and low justice, reserving only the rights of suzerainty and patronage and a rent of eighteen pounds. Through these incessant cares, our pious bishop was able to perform the dedication of the Carthusian church on the day of Saint Denis in the year 1244, in the presence of a crowd of clergy, nobles, and common people. He consecrated it in honor of the Savior, Our Lady, and Saint John the Baptist, and he blessed the cemetery in the month of September of the following year.

Towards the end of the year 1239, the Bishop of Le Mans made the journey to Rome. He assisted the Sovereign Pontiff in the solemn session where the latter excommunicated Emperor Frederick II, on March 28. In 1245, Geoffrey went to the Counci l of Lyon, Innocent IV 13th-century pope who testified to the saint's miracles. to which Innocent IV had summoned him. He attended all the sessions, among others the third, in which the entire council deposed Emperor Frederick II and declared his subjects released from their oath of fidelity. He stopped for some time at the Abbey of Tournus, where he assisted Abbot Bérard in his final moments. A fresco in this church still depicts him presiding over the funeral, accompanied by another bishop.

The monks of Évron applied all their efforts to the completion of the splendid church they were raising to the glory of the Mother of God. This sacred edifice, one of the most beautiful in the diocese of Le Mans after the cathedral, bears vivid traces of the faith that inspired its authors. The perfect unity of the plan, the complete harmony of the details, and the boldness of the execution gave the choir of the church of Évron a grandeur and beauty that many cathedral churches would envy. The dedication of this new sanctuary took place in the year 1252, by Geoffroy de Loudon, amidst a large gathering, and with the assembly of all the priors who were under the abbey.

After thirty-seven years of continuous work, the choir of the cathedral church of Le Mans was finally finished (1254). Seeing this sublime work even today, it is easy to understand the enthusiasm that transported our fathers, and which historians have depicted with such naive colors. The choir of Saint-Julien of Le Mans is the purest, most harmonious, and most suave product of the architectural system that has the ogive as its generator. The whole diocese aspired to see the inauguration of this magnificent temple, and Geoffroy de Loudon set it for the Monday of Quasimodo, a day already marked in the annals of the Church of Le Mans by two similar solemnities, under Hildebert in 1120, and under Guillaume de Passavant. As the building was still cluttered with debris and useless materials, at the bishop's call, all the inhabitants of the city hastened to prepare it for the feast. The neighboring bishops were invited to gather for the solemnity. The multitude of people who had flocked not only from the entire diocese, but even from the whole kingdom, to witness the translation of the r elics of Sai saint Julien First bishop of Le Mans and uncle of Saint Romanus. nt Julien, which were to be deposited in the new part of the church, prompted the clergy to perform this ceremony during the night to prevent tumult. All the bishops were present; but Geoffroy reserved for himself the happiness of carrying the sacred bones himself from the place where they had previously rested, to the altar where they were to remain exposed to the veneration of the faithful. During the fifteen days that the relics were exposed, the piety of the canons did not tire of watching day and night over their guard; the inhabitants of the city requested the favor of sharing these vigils; the Viscount of Beaumont, the Lord of Montfort-le-Rotrou, the barons, and the rest of the chivalry of the diocese vied for the honor of standing guard every night. The abbeys and convents of the city and the suburbs sang the vigils solemnly in turn, starting with the night; then the canons celebrated their offices; so that the praises of God did not cease for an instant to resound in the holy place. Geoffroy de Loudon did not set foot outside the city during all this time; every day he went to the church to attend the offices, to offer his prayers, and to bring his offerings.

Geoffroy de Loudon occupied himself with happiness in the care of adorning the church of Saint-Julien; he had several stained-glass windows executed at his own expense where his coat of arms can be seen, and bequeathed ornaments of great price and precious books. He founded five anniversaries, for his mother, his sister, and his two brothers, Foulques and the knight Eméry, and finally for himself. With the goal of giving the cult more splendor, he granted the chapter the church of Saint-Vincent des Prés. He secured for this body rights over the church of Ancinnes, and united to it that of Sargé which was vacant. Finally, he also united to the chapter the church of Charné, which his predecessor had already wanted to give to the canons; and these provisions were respected after him. Geoffroy de Loudon also bequeathed to the cathedral a large quantity of ornaments precious in material and workmanship. Among the number, many are noted in silk, and several enriched with precious stones or oriental pearls. He gave five complete pontifical ornaments, five miters, a crozier, two silver basins weighing eight marks, several tapestries and silk hangings with the arms of the King of France, and other objects of the same nature. To adorn the shrine of Saint Julien, he gave seventeen gold rings, adorned with stones of a very great price; there is even talk of a sapphire that was the size of an ox's eye. Finally, he left to the cathedral several books remarkable for the beauty and richness of their ornaments and vignettes: an antiphonary, three graduals, a troper, an epistolary, an evangeliary, a missal, and two ordinaries.

Directing his solicitude toward all the interests entrusted to him, Geoffrey of Loudon brought the most regular order to the affairs of the bishopric. He incurred great expenses to repair, enlarge, and rebuild the castles of Touvoye, Yvre-l'Évêque, and others. He purchased in Paris, with his own funds, a vast and magnificent mansion, located on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, and he bequeathed it to the bishopric of Le Mans. At his death, the various episcopal residences were found to be provided with all suitable furnishings, even approaching sumptuousness.

Of all the benefits of Geoffrey of Loudon toward his Church, the most notable was perhaps the establishment of the Confraternity of Saint-Julien and the pardons and indulgences he obtained from the Holy See. With the goal of exciting the piety of the faithful, and to encourage them to contribute to the construction and decoration of the cathedral church, Geoffrey formed an association of prayers and good works, which subsisted until 1791, under the name of the Confraternity of Saint-Julien. It was very numerous, and was divided into three sections, the ecclesiastics, the laity, and the women, each comprising several subdivisions. They attended in their order the general processions and the particular solemnities of the confraternity. There was a fine for the benefit of the treasury for anyone who happened to voluntarily infringe upon certain points of the statutes. The indulgences with which the sovereign Pontiffs enriched it were very abundant. The first for which a certain title is possessed is Innocent IV, who, in 1254, granted one hundred days of pardon and indulgence to those who would visit the church of Saint-Julien and give some alms there. In 1460, Pius II; in 1483, Sixtus IV, and especially Julius II, in the time of Cardinal Philippe de Luxembourg, granted more considerable favors to this association. At the same time that Geoffrey of Loudon was pursuing the establishment of this work, he had to sustain painful struggles with Count Charles I. The gentleness, which was the salient trait of our prelate's character, could not sway this lord, who caused him several embarrassments; the most serious of all concerned the oath of fidelity that they wished to exact from the bishop. Geoffrey resisted courageously and showed himself inflexible. He left for Rome after the month of June 1255, in the hope of finding near the successor of Saint Peter the light and support h e need Anagni City of origin of the saint in Italy. ed. He went to Anagni, where the Roman court was located, and received a very favorable welcome from Alexander IV and the cardinals; but he could not finish the affair that led him to the apostolic chair; for he was struck by a disease so dangerous that he succumbed in a short time, and was buried on the seventh day following his arrival, at Anagni, on August 3 of the year 1255. He had governed the diocese of Le Mans for twenty-one years, ten months, and a few days.

## CULT AND RELICS. He was given a magnificent funeral in the church of the Friars Minor of Anagni, where his remains stayed for quite some time. Later, they were brought to France and buried in the church of the Chartreuse du Parc of Saint-Denis, just as he had ordered. This sanctuary immediately became the theater of the miraculous power of our holy bishop: the people went there in crowds to obtain the healing of their illnesses; and it was observed that those afflicted with fever, in particular, received relief there. When they could not go to the Chartreuse, they sent an undergarment that the religious would have touched, either to the tomb or to a chalice that the Blessed one had used and had given to them; almost always their prayers were answered when they used this garment. The examples of these wonders were innumerable; one can even say that they have not ceased in our time, since the inquiries made by Mgr J.-B. Bouvier have confirmed recent facts. The monument of the blessed bishop was placed in the wall on the left side of the choir. It was rebuilt in the 15th century, as demonstrated by the tombstone that today serves as a covering for an altar in the church of Saint-Denis d'Orques. Four figures of angels, a book in hand, occupied the four corners of the monument. Two other angels above supported the coat of arms, which was repeated in several places. The tombstone, the arched monument under which it rested, the tympanum, and the whole ensemble were adorned with paintings. On both sides, tablets had been placed containing prayers for the use of pilgrims. As early as the 16th century, Dom Pierre Cousturier, to whom science and virtue ensured a distinguished rank in his Order, affirmed that, while he governed the Chartreuse du Parc as prior, the influx of pilgrims was so great that, several times, the religious deliberated whether they should transport the holy relics out of their church to ensure the calm of their solitude. The cult of our Blessed one ceased in 1790 with the destruction of the religious Orders; some of his relics are still venerated today at Saint-Denis-de-Parc and at Loudun (Vienne). Excerpt from the History of the Church of Le Mans, by D. Plotin. — Cf. Acta Sanctorum, ad diem III Augusti.