Blessed Géraud de Sales-Cadouin

The pious cenobite visited his former master, the blessed Robert, several times, and when he felt he had reached the age of a mature man, pressed by the Spirit of God, he returned to him to embrace, following his example, a life more austere, more laborious, and more useful to souls. For he saw before him an abundant harvest and few laborers. He therefore exchanged the poor habit of a canon for the even poorer one of a hermit. A rough hairshirt and a coarse cloak for his only clothing; a little black bread and water and a few vegetables taken at sunset for his only meal, when the poor did not benefit from them; such was his new regimen. God compensated him for so many external rigors with heavenly raptures. How many nights he spent in tears or the delights of ecstasy!

Amidst so much acquired and infused light, Gerald suddenly felt inspired to go and preach the name of Jesus to the people. He therefore began to sow the holy word throughout the country with irresistible ardor and grace. The enthusiasm of the crowds carried the name and works of the Apostle to the ears of bishops and prelates. The eminent Bishop of Poitiers lavished his good graces upon him and even delegated his ordinary powers to him. His mission finished, Gerald, like a bird faithful to its nest, would return to his dear solitude.

At that time, many people brought back to God through the ministry of His servant came to offer him their goods to establish monasteries. Géraud founded seven monasteries for men and two for women. In the first rank is that of Cadouin (Péri gord), Cadouin Primary site for the preservation of the relic in Périgord. and in the second that of Grand-Selve . That of L Grand-Selve A Cistercian abbey of major importance originating from the foundations of Géraud. es Châteilliers (Deux-Sèvres) was the seventh and the poorest. It was there that Géraud, already ill, retired, and full of days and merits he rendered his soul to the Lord, while blessing his brothers, in the year of grace 1120, on April 20, the third day after Easter. During the funeral, while the people were gathered outside, three luminous crosses shone as if suspended above the oratory where the tomb was prepared, and they did not disappear until the final moment of the burial.

Let us add a few words on the Abbey of Grand-Selve, the most important foundation of Saint Géraud:

Around the year 1114, the Blessed Robert of Arbrissel, accompanied by his disciple, the Blessed Géraud of Sales, was sent on a mission to the County of Toulouse by Pope Paschal II. After preaching the faith to the people, the two Apostles occupied themselves with several foundations, according to the observance of Fontevraud. Hermits lived in the middle of the forest of Grand-Selve, to the west of the Toulouse region, not far from the left bank of the Garonne. Géraud spent some time with them in contemplation and prayer, then initiated them into the common life. An act from the year 1116 informs us that Olivier of Bessens and his wife Algarde granted in perpetuity and without reservation, to the Lord God and to the Blessed Mary of Grand-Selve, to Géraud of Sales and to his brothers of the said place, both future and present, a part of the forest of Grand-Selve. Shortly after, the Bishop of Toulouse, Amelius, confirmed this donation and encouraged the munificence of the faithful in favor of the new abbey.

In the year 1118, the Blessed Géraud moved away from Grand-Selve, leaving Étienne there as abbot, but under the dependence of the monastery of Cadouin. Following some dissensions that arose between the two abbeys, the Blessed Bertrand, successor to Abbot Étienne, t ook advantage saint Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux and spiritual master of Raoul. of Saint Bernard's stay in Toulouse to affi liate his religi Ordre de Cîteaux Monastic order to which Bertrand and the Abbey of Grandselve belong. ous with the Order of Cîteaux, under the immediate jurisdiction of Clairvaux. After the solemn affiliation of Grand-Selve, carried out at Clairvaux itself, Saint Bernard addressed to the people of Toulouse, dated the year 1147, and upon the return of the Blessed Bertrand, a letter (the 241st) extremely laudatory of the abbot and his brothers of Grand-Selve, whom he calls Saints.

The Abbey of Grand-Selve shone with the greatest brilliance through the number, renown, and virtue of its monks, and the important foundations it multiplied as far as Spain. The Counts of Toulouse, the Kings of France, and the Popes of the 13th century vied with one another in showering it with privileges. Its endowment became immense. But since the frequent and disastrous invasions of the English, the primitive fervor waned and the abuses of the commendam , introduced from th Révolution française Period during which the saint's relics were hidden and lost. e 15th century, aggravated the evil until the day when the French Revolution came to suppress it along with the abbey itself.

In the month of May 1790, the municipali ty of Bo Bouillac Current location of the Grand-Selve treasure. uillac had an inventory drawn up of all the movable property of the convent. On February 13, 1791, a commissioner, escorted by gendarmes, arrived to proceed with the sale of said furniture. The religious closed their doors, threatening to call the peasants to their aid by the ringing of the bells. The commissioner, intimidated, withdrew. But the following month the sale took place by public auction and the monks were dispersed. Several neighboring churches managed to acquire several lots of great value. Souvèze obtained the high altar; Bouillac retained the reliquaries, as precious for their importance as for the number of relics they contain: they are also distinguished by the perfection of their forms, engravings, and sculptures in the purest Romano-Byzantine style. These treasures, preserved in an undisputed state of integrity, are exposed for public veneration in the church of Bouillac. Mgr Doney, Bishop of Montauban, verified their authenticity and authorized their veneration: this is confirmed by the official report of May 25, 1865.

The treasure of Bouillac, which came from Grand-Selve, consists of a tower-shaped reliquary in chiseled gilded copper, and four reliquary chests made of gilded oak and adorned with sculptures, bas-reliefs, moldings, etc. These chests have the shape of a church with aisles, transepts, etc. The exterior decorations of all these reliquaries are admirable works of the purest Romano-Byzantine style, and offer inestimable interest for the authenticity of the relics they contain and the state of the arts of drawing, goldsmithing, etc., in the 13th and 14th centuries.

We can only indicate some of the most remarkable relics, according to the official report of 1865, deposited at Bouillac.

De vestimentis Domini; — de spinis coronae Domini; — de tabula et pane Cœnæ Domini; — de terra ubi pes Crucis positus erat, quando Christus fuit Crucifixus; — de velo, cingulo, vestimentis et lacte B. Mariæ; — de sanguine et vestimentis SS. Innocentium; — de vestimento B. Joannis; — S. Petri; — una uncia digiti B. Pauli, sp., et duo dentes ejusdem; — S. Thomæ, ap.; — S. Barnabæ, ap.; — S. Timothæi, discipuli B. Pauli; — S. Stephani, proto-martyris;

— S. Laurentii, m.; — SS. Marci et Marcellini; — S. Sixti, papæ, mart.; — S. Cæcilia; — S. Luciae; — S. Dorotheæ, vv. mm., etc., etc. These relics number one hundred and eleven.

There is a notice printed by the care of the parish council of Bouillac regarding these reliquaries.

The abbey's buildings were sold for the price of one hundred thousand francs, in assignats, no doubt, to a judge from Toulouse who later sat on the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris. This purchaser was named, it is said, Selves, and had as a son the colonel of engineers who, in the time of King Louis-Philippe, took charge of training the troops of Mehemet-Ali in the European manner, under the name of Soliman-Bey. Almost all the buildings of Grand-Selves remained intact until 1799. It was then that the monastery, the cloister, and the chapter house were demolished. The church, after having been profaned by the Cult of Reason, suffered the same fate in 1802. Since then, everything has been razed to the ground. There remains, however, as if to indicate the place of what once was, the arched portal (17th century) of the guesthouse, to which adhere a few sections of chipped walls. One could trace the perimeter of the church by following the hollowed lines from which enormous bricks, which served for the foundations, are still extracted. A committee of archaeologists recently had some tombstones unearthed from the thickness of a nearby mill's dam; the flow of the water had so well licked or polished the side of the sepulchral inscriptions that no trace of them remained. Various wrecks from the great shipwreck of the illustrious abbey have come to be grouped, one after another, at the Museum of Antiquities in Toulouse.

Ex vita B. Giraldi de Salis, scripta ab auctore anonymo, castellariensi, ut videtur, monacho, circa finem saeculi xiii, ex Ms. Castellariensi, ap. Edm. Martène; Bolland., t. xviii, p. 254, édit. Palmé.

We owe the preceding to the kindness of M. Peujade, canon at Montauban, and to that of the Rev. Fr. Carles, missionary at the Calvary of Toulouse.