Saint Guerin

Through his humility, his spirit of penance, and his vivid piety, he acquired enough influence over his monks to restore discipline, eliminate scattered cells, forbid women from entering the monastery, and finally adopt the reform of Saint Bernard of Clair vaux. It was following thi saint Bernard de Clairvaux Contemporary and admirer of Guigo. s change that Pope Callixtus II, former metropolitan of the Viennoise, declared the Abbey of Aulps independent from that of Molesmes in 1120. Saint Guérin may be considered its second founder. He had, in fact, given this house such an increase in vigor that the following year it was able to provide a swarm of monks to go and found a new house on the mountain of Cessens, called Haute-Combe, near Rumilly, in Savoy. The liberality of the Hous Haute-Combe Cistercian abbey founded by monks from Aulps, necropolis of the House of Savoy. e of Savoy attracted these monks to the shores of La ke Bourget, wher maison de Savoie Sovereign dynasty from which Boniface is descended. e they moved their monastery, along with its name of Haute-Combe, in 1125. It still exists today. It was one of the burial places of the House of Savoy.

The reputation of the house of Aulps, growing day by day, attracted significant donations to it. The holy abbot accepted them only for the service of God, and he sent, to every parish whose direction the bishops entrusted to him, priors who brought the spirit of the monastery with them. He also contributed to the liberality shown to the abbeys of Bonmont and Abondance, although they were of a different order, in the same diocese. His skill in business was hardly less than his piety. Thus it was that he was, in 1124, one of the arbiters of the dispute between Humbert, Bishop of Geneva, and Aymon, Count of Geneva, regarding their temporal rights.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Saint Bernard de Clairvaux Contemporary and admirer of Guigo. praises him in a letter from 1135 to Ardutius, Bishop of Geneva, to whom he recommends the abbeys of Aulps, Bonmont, and Haute-Combe. The following year, in a letter to the holy abbot of Aulps, the abbot of Clairvaux approves of his piety and his perseverance in maintaining the discipline of his monastery.

The Bishop o f Si Sion Episcopal see in Valais of which Guérin was bishop. on, in Valais, having died in 1138 while returning from Jerusalem, the wishes of the clergy and the people called for the Abbot of Aulps to succeed him, whose holiness and prudence were shining ever more brightly throughout the neighborhood. But it requir ed a repeat Innocent II Pope reigning during the saint's lifetime. ed order from Pope Innocent II to make him accept this charge. Promoted to the episcopacy, he changed nothing in his religious habits. He set to work with great activity in his new functions. He restored discipline and morals through his examples and his incessant preaching, despite his advanced age. From time to time, he would return to refresh himself in the spiritual exercises of the solitude of Aulps. During the last of these retreats, he fell ill and nevertheless wished to return to his diocese. But a short distance away, he felt weakened and was able to return to the monastery where he rendered his beautiful soul, full of merits, to God in 1150. An oratory, which has just been restored, still marks the place where he had been forced to turn back.

His body was kept at the monastery he had built for so long. At the time of the Revolution, the religious were dispersed, and the church and monastery were pillaged and devastated. But the precious remains of the Saint were hidden and saved, and later exposed to the veneration of the faithful on the left altar of the parish church of Saint-Jean d'Aulps, erected a short distance from the ruins of the monastery. He is the object of a pilgrimage for epizootic diseases in the dioceses of Annecy, Tarentaise, and Sion, where numerous chapels are erected in his honor in the mountains. The key to his hair shirt is kep t in the parish of clef de son cilice Devotional object used to heal sick animals. Armoy, in Chablais, which the religious formerly had animals affected by diseases touch. His feast is celebrated on September 1st in the diocese of Tarentaise.

Abbé Ducis, archivist of Haute-Savoie.