St. Gontran
Name: St. Gontran
Date: 28 March
Saint Gontran was the son of King Clotaire and grandson of Clovis I and Saint Clotildis. WhenClotaire died in 561, his domains were divided among his four sons. While Gontran’s brotherCaribert reigned at Paris, Sigebert in Metz, and Chilperic in Soissons, he was crowned king ofOrleans and Burgundy in 561. He then made Chalons-sur-Saone his capital. When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers and the Lombards, he made no otheruse of his victories, gained under the conduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peaceto his dominions. The crimes in which the barbarous habits of his nation involved him, he effaced bytears of repentance. The prosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemns those whosuppose that human policy cannot be determined by the maxims of the Gospel, whereas the truth isjust the contrary: no others can render a government so efficacious and prosperous. Saint Gontran always treated the pastors of the Church with respect and veneration. He was theprotector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his subjects. He gave the greatest attention tothe care of the sick. He fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day as a victimready to be sacrificed on the altar of His justice, to avert His indignation, which Saint Gontranbelieved he himself provoked and drew down upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher ofcrimes in his officers and others, and by many wholesome regulations he restrained the barbarouslicentiousness of his troops; but no man was ever more ready to forgive offenses against his ownperson. With royal magnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries. This good king died on the 23rd of March in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, having reignedthirty-one years. |
