Gerald of Salles
French reformer
Gerald of Salles (c.1055 or 1070 – 1120) was a French monastic reformer from Salles, Lot-et-Garonne near Bergerac, Dordogne in the south-west of France. His feast day is on April 20.
Monastic reformer
Gerald of Salles was ruler of Salles near Bergerac in Dordogne, France. According to a tradition going back to his Vita, he became a canon regular of St. Avitus, from the diocese of Périgueux, and the monastery of Saint-Avit,
A friend of Robert of Arbrissel, and follower of Vitalis of Savigny; like Bernard of Thiron, Gerard set up Benedictine houses, or groups of hermits, mostly in the west of France, and was important in the later spread of the Cistercians, from their beginnings in Burgundy. Following a spirituality very close to that of the Cistercians, Gerald of Salles monasteries progressively joined them.
Foundations
Most of Gerald's foundations were south of the Loire; all were founded under the Rule of St. Benedict. Among his attributed foundations, of which there are traditionally said to be nine, were:
Absie Abbey (1120)
Sainte-Marie d'Ardorel
Belleperche Abbey
Abbaye Notre-Dame de l'Assomption du Bournet (1113)
Cadouin Abbey (c.1115)
L’abbaye Notre-Dame des Châtelliers (1119)
Dalon Abbey (1114)
Fontdouce Abbey (1117)
Grandselve Abbey (1114)
Valmagne Abbey
The Abbaye du Pin à Béruges is also attributed, in a chronicle. Feuillant Abbey may have been started by a group of monks from Dalon.
“Gerald of Salles” enters the record as french reformer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gerald, Salles and French can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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