Saint William of Bourges
![[Saint William of Bourges]](saintw32.jpg "Saint William of Bourges; from 'Pictorial Lives of the Saints', 1892, artist unknown; please do not write to ask about the image")
- Also known as
-
Guillaume de Bourges
William Berruyer
William de Don Jeon
William the Confessor
- Memorial
- 10 January
- Profile
- Member of the family of the Counts of Nevers, his father Baldwin planned a military life for William.
Educated by his maternal uncle Peter the Hermit, archdeacon of Soissons.
Drawn to religious life from an early age.
Priest; canon of Soissons, and canon of Paris.
Monk in the Order of Grandmont, noted for his austerities, his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and for the time spent praying at the altar.
Internal dissession in the Order caused him to leave Grandmont for the recently formed Cistercians, taking the habit at Pontigny.
Abbot at Fontaine-Jean in Sens, France.
Abbot at Chaalis near Senlis, France in 1187.
Reluctant archbishop of Bourges in 1200, accepting the position only after receiving orders from the general of his order, and from Pope Innocent III.
Lived an even more austere life, defended clerical rights against the state, cared personally for the poor, sick, imprisoned and debauched, and converted many Albigensians in his diocese to orthodox Christianity.
Witnesses claim he performed 18 miracles during his life, and another 18 after his death.
- Born
- 12th century in Nevers, France
- Died
- 10 January 1209 at Bourges, France of natural causes while in prayer
- Canonized
- 17 May 1217 by Pope Honorius III
- Additional Information
-
Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
Catholic Exchange, by Gail Buckley
For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
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