Saint Gerlac of Valkenburg
![[]](saintg1t.jpg "34kb jpg detail from a German holy card of Saint Gerlach, artist unknown; if you have information on this image, please email me; please do not write to ask about the image")
- Also known as
- Gerlach of Valkenburg; Gerlach von Houthem
- Memorial
- 5 January
- Profile
- Soldier who led a wild and licentious life, part as a highwayman, until the death of his wife, after which he experienced a conversion.
Did penance the rest of his life, first by caring for the sick in Jerusalem for seven years, then giving away his property, living as a hermit in a hollow tree near his own estate.
Each week he travelled to Maastricht to venerate the relics of Saint Gervase, to Aachen to venerate Our Lady.
Much slandered because of his early life and his austerities.
Late in life he developed a dispute with some local monks who wanted him to join their monastery.
Friend of, and corresondent with Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
Had a vision of Saint Gervase on 5 January 1170.
- Born
- c.1100 at Valkenburg, Holland
- Died
- 1172-1177 at Houthem, Holland of natural causes
- Patronage
- domestic animals
- Representation
- hermit accompanied by an ass;
hermit wearing a Norbertine habit;
hermit with a thorn in his foot;
man living in a hollow tree
- Print References
-
Lives of the Saints II, by Father Thomas J Donaghy
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
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