Blessed Humbaud

The historian Frodon depicts the new bishop in a manner that deserves to be reported. He represents Humbaud as a gentle and peaceful man, of a penetrating mind, generous, hospitable, severe with himself, and firm in the maintenance of discipline and ecclesiastical immunities. He abstained from eating meat, contenting himself with vegetables and drinking only very little wine; but, on the other hand, he practiced hospitality sumptuously, always had some poor people who ate with him, and said that "a bishop is inhumane if he excludes anyone from his table."

One of the first acts of his episcopate was the renunciation made at his request, on August 31, 1096, by William, Count of Nevers, of the right claimed by his predecessors to the movable spoils of deceased bishops, which they regarded as belonging to them by right. The most famous establishment that took place during his episcopate was that of the Abbey of Ponti abbaye de Pontigny Cistercian abbey where the saint went into exile and where his body rests. gny, founded by Hildebert, a canon of the cathedral. At the request of this canon, Humbaud placed there Benedictine monks o f the Institute of Institut de Cîteaux Monastic order to which Bertrand and the Abbey of Grandselve belong. Cîteaux and gave them Hugh of Mâcon as their first abbot.

The reputation that Humbaud had acquired led to him being called to almost all the important assemblies held in his time. He attended the Council of Nîmes in 1096; he was also present at those of Rome on April 26, 1099, Étampes in the same year, Anse near Lyon in 1100, Troyes in 1104, and Paris held on December 2 of that same year. His name also appears in various acts: he was one of the prelates who attended the dedication of the priory church of Saint-Étienne de Nevers, performed on December 13, 1097, by Ivo of Chartres; he signed the act dated from Sens, by which Robert, Bishop of Langres, made a donation to the Abbey of Molesmes in 1101; he was at the monastery of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire on March 20, 1107, when the body of that Saint was transferred from one reliquary to another, and in the month of July 1108, when the funeral of King Philip I was held there; he likewise attended the coronation of Louis the Fat, which took pl Louis le Gros King of France, contemporary of Geoffrey. ace in the cathedral church of Sainte-Croix in Orléans on August 2 of the same year; he was also on the journey that this prince then made to Bourges, and there subscribed to a privilege granted by this monarch to the Abbey of Saint-Benoît, along with all the great men of the kingdom; finally, the History of Paris, reporting the foundation of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in 1113, informs us that the act bore the seal of Humbaud, Bishop of Auxerre.

Humbaud had been governing his diocese for nearly twenty-five years when he undertook the journey to Je rusalem. Jérusalem Holy city where the Cross was lost and subsequently recovered. It was with the deepest piety that he visited the Holy Places; upon his return, a storm broke out, the vessel carrying him was shipwrecked, and the bishop perished in the waves, along with all the other passengers, on October 20, 1115.

Excerpt from the Gallia Christiana nova.