St. Gerald of Sauve-Majeure

As a monk of Corbie, France, Gerald was stricken with head pains so acute that he found it virtually impossible to pray. Doctors were unable to do anything for him. Gerald thereupon devoted himself to the care of three paupers in honor of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. At length, the pains suddenly ended, a cure that Gerald attributed to the intercession of Saint Adelard. Afterward, he had a dream in which he witnessed a Mass celebrated by Christ himself, with angels serving as his acolytes and saints as choristers. On another occasion, while kneeling before a crucifix in a crowded church, Gerald experienced a vision of Christ coming down from the cross to place his hand on his head and tell him, “Son, be comforted…” After making a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Gerald founded a monastery in the woods at Sauve-Majeure, France, where he had experienced a dream of Christ Crucified on a cross stretching from heaven to earth. As abbot, he introduced the practice of having Masses and the Office of the Dead offered for thirty days for the soul of each monk who died at Sauve-Majeure.