Saint William of Paris

In the year 11 47, Pope Eugene pape Eugène III Pope who transferred the relics of Saint Vannes in 1147. III, having come to Paris to find a secure asylum under the protection of Louis the Louis le Jeune King of France mediated by Peter. Younger against the persecutions of the Arnaldists, went to the church of Sainte-Geneviève, which was by that time independent of the Ordinary and subject immediately to the Holy See. He perceived that the life of the canons was not what it should have been: he even discovered grave disorders, conferred about it with the King, and they resolved together to replace these priests, unworthy of their sacred character, with a more ed ifying commu L'abbé Suger Abbot of Saint-Denis and royal advisor present at the Lateran. nity. Abbot Suger, charged with this task, established there canons re gular from the abbey Saint-Victor de Paris Abbey whose rule was imposed on Sainte-Geneviève. of Saint-Victor of Paris on August 23, 1148.

As the Pope and the King had ordered that the religious would give the former canons the income from their prebends during their lifetime, the new abbot, named Eudes, who was previously prior of Saint-Victor, sent word to our saintly William about what was happening and asked him to come to the abbey to confer with him on the payment of the income from his benefice; he came, and he was so powerfully touched by the words of life that this holy personage spoke to him that he embraced his institute and, from a secular canon, became a canon regular. The treasures of grace that he held within his soul were soon recognized; and, as he joined to an eminent piety an admirable prudence and discretion, it was not long before he was raised higher and made sub-prior.

In this office, he showed great zeal for regular observance, and, being the first and most fervent in all things, he would not suffer others to behave negligently, nor that the beauty of the house of God should lose its luster through the sloth of those under his charge. Several years later, a certain religious having obtained the dignity of prior by the authority of the king, against the ordinary practice of the Order, which forbade recourse to secular powers for conventual offices, the courageous servant of God opposed the taking of possession, and took the rope from his hand when he came to ring the community bell. It was the love of his Rule that led him to this action; nevertheless, it was not approved by Abbot Garin, who had succeeded Eudes; and, instead of receiving praise for it, he received only blame and a severe penance which he imposed upon him. But Pope Alexander III, having been informed of this, severely reprimanded this abbot, and, approving the pape Alexandre III Pope who proceeded with the canonization of Bertrand in Toulouse. zeal of William, ordered that an election for another prior be held, according to the canonical Rules.

The Saint also showed his distinguished piety when the shrine of Saint Genevieve was opened, following a rumor that had spread in Paris that her head had been s sainte Geneviève Patron saint of Paris, near whom Ceraunus was buried. tolen: he always maintained generously, as guardian of the abbey's relics, that it had not been touched at all; and, when upon the opening of the shrine the venerable head of the Saint was seen, he intoned, with incredible fervor, the hymn Te Deum laudamus, which was continued by an infinite number of people who had flocked to this ceremony. As a bishop objected that it could be another skull than that of Genevieve, William, consulting only his fervor, offered to enter a blazing furnace with the sacred relic, if the prelates would permit him.

While he was applying himself to adorning his soul with all kinds of virtues in this abbey, Our Lord appeared to him in the middle of the night in the form of a beautiful young man, and told him that he must go, for His service, to a distant island, where he would suffer great hardships; but that after having overcome them by His grace, he would come to reign with Him in heaven. He did not at first understand the meaning of this vision, but the event soon gave him a perfect understanding of it.

Indeed, Valdemar, King of Denmark, son of Saint Canute, king and martyr, having purged his kingdom of the incursions of the Wends, Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde, a prelate of eminent virtue who fulfilled all the duties of his office admirably well, wished to restore to its former luster a monastery of canons regular in his diocese, on the island of Eskilsø. To achieve this, he sent to Paris the provost of his church, who is said to have been the famous writer of the History of Denmark, called Saxo Grammaticus, in order to beg the Abbot of Sainte-Geneviève to send him Canon William, whose m erit he knew, havi chanoine Guillaume Abbot of Eskilsø in Denmark, originally from Paris. ng frequented him when he himself was studying at the University of Paris. The abbot could not refuse such a holy bishop such a just request, and, having persuaded William to undertake this journey, he gave him three other canons as companions. All four arrived safely in that country, and were received with much joy and veneration, both by the king and by the bishop. William was made Abbot of Eskilsø, and began to re-establish regular observance there, with the three religious he had brought, and with only four of the six who were there before, the other two having refused the reform.

One cannot believe the hardships he had to suffer, nor the battles that the devil waged against him in the execution of such a glorious enterprise. The violence of the cold that reigns in Denmark, the poverty of the convent of Eskilsø, the ignorance of the language of the country, and other motives so frightened the three canons who had come with him that they absolutely wanted to return. Those of the house, long accustomed to libertinage, rose up against him and employed all kinds of artifices, or rather wickedness, to force him to leave the place. The devil, for his part, spared nothing to discourage him. One day, having extinguished the dormitory lamp, he set fire to straw that was in his room, so that he might be consumed by it. Another time, he tempted him with impurity in a very violent manner, putting infamous thoughts and lascivious representations into his mind. But his humility, his patience, his gentleness, his submission to God, his devotion, his continual prayers, and the incredible austerities he practiced on his body made him victorious over all his enemies, and reduced his religious to living according to the spirit of their Order and to faithfully keeping the Rules of their original institute.

He also performed great miracles to support his doctrine and the reform he had come to establish in this monastery: the remains from his table healed several sick people, among others a man afflicted with dysentery, and a young girl who had been held for dead for the space of three days; and water, which he sent to a languishing person, restored them to perfect health. He was also himself a subject of a miracle: a sickness had befallen him that made his life despaired of; Saint Genevie ve, to whom he h sainte Geneviève Patron saint of Paris, near whom Ceraunus was buried. ad a singular devotion, honored him with a visit, and, with a single word, healed him so perfectly that he rose from his bed to give thanks to Our Lord, the source of all goods, and who knows how to succor one Saint through another Saint.

Seven years before his death, a venerable old man appeared to him and said: "You will live for seven more days." The Saint, believing that it was a warning from heaven and that his death was very near, prepared himself for it as best he could; but seeing that at the end of the seven days it did not appear, he waited for seven weeks, and then seven months, until he finally understood that these days signified years. Seeing himself thus assured of his end and the number of his days, he redoubled his initial fervors, chastising and mistreating his body with such rigor that his past life seemed to have been only delights compared to the one he was leading. During all that time, he was never seen in prayer without tears in his eyes, and when he was at the altar, he entered into such a rapture of spirit that he seemed to see his amiable Savior exposed to the blows and insults that He suffered for us in His Passion. The inventions he found each day to afflict himself made his whole body but one ulcer; and these pains, giving exercise to his patience, put his virtue to the test and raised his soul to a very high degree of perfection, so that he might merit the crown all covered with pearls and precious stones, which God, twelve years before, had shown to a good religious, his friend, named Gerard, telling him that He was preparing it for Abbot William, when he would have merited it by his virtues and his sufferings.

Finally, the seven years having passed, on the Wednesday of Holy Week, as the Saint was conferring with his religious, the prior said that the night had been very bad for him. The Saint replied that he, on the contrary, did not remember ever having spent a better one, because he had seen Our Lord Jesus Christ, assisted by two other persons, and that he had conversed with them most pleasantly. — "Doubtless, my Father," the prior replied, "Our Lord Jesus Christ is calling you to his kingdom through this visit." The holy Abbot replied, with a sigh of love: "May it be done to me according to your word!" On Holy Thursday he celebrated the Holy Mass for the last time, gave communion to all the brothers with his own hands, and, after the sacrifice, having washed the feet of the poor, he took his meal with the other religious, who already saw appearing on his face I know not what signs of the glory he was soon to possess. The meal finished, he rose from the table to wash the feet of his brothers; but he was prevented by a pain in his side, which tormented him extremely for the rest of the day and half of the following night. There remained to him, nevertheless, only a slight fever. On Easter night, the holy Abbot, feeling his hour approach, called his infirmarian and said to him: "You know well, my son, that this new feast must be celebrated with great solemnity by all Christians; bring me therefore the new habit that you have in your room": it was a brand new hair shirt that he wanted to put on, instead of his old one. As they were singing at Matins these words of the second responsory: "Having come to anoint Jesus!", he cried out that it was time to bring him Extreme Unction; so that the prior only had time to bring the holy oils to give him this last Sacrament; after which he exhaled his beautiful soul, when the dawn was beginning to break, that is to say at about the hour when the Son of Man, triumphing over hell, rose from the dead. This was the 6th of April in the year of grace 1202, and in his ninety-eighth year: he had spent forty of them in the office of abbot.

God honored him, after his death, with several miracles which attracted a great concourse of people to his tomb: a torch lit itself there spontaneously to attest to his holiness: it had descended from heaven by passing through the roof of the church. Thus, the possessed were delivered there, the paralyzed, the deaf, the mute, and the blind were healed, and generally all those who went to visit his holy relics felt his power in heaven sensibly. Pope Honorius III deputed the Cardinal of Saint-Theodore, named Gregory, his legate in Denma rk, Sweden, and B pape Honorius III Pope who instructed the canonization cause. ohemia, to inquire into it on the spot. He was finally solemnly canonized on February 12, 1224. His cult has no longer existed in Denmark since the Reformation; before our revolution of 1789, it continued in France and especially in the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève.

Today our country, like Denmark, seems to have forgotten a personage who was one of its glories, a Saint who counts among its protectors.

Saint William of Denmark has been represented: 1st praying before a crucifix and telling it of the hardships he endures from the wicked canons of Sainte-Geneviève; 2nd Saint Genevieve appears to him in a dream while he is sick and heals him.

The life of this holy Abbot is found in the second volume of the *Lives of the Saints* by Surius, composed by one of his disciples; and the continuators of Hollandus have given it to us in its original style, and without any abridgment. Regarding modern sources, consult *Saints de Franche-Comté*, vol. IV, p. 297.