Gaudericus de Vilavella

Who they were

Apart from the outward signs of his veneration, very little is known about Gauderico (Latin Gaudericus; French Galderic, Gauderic, Gaudry). He is thought to have lived in the second half of the ninth century and to have died around 900 in the village, now bearing his name, in the diocese of Mirepoix, today Carcassonne, where he worked as a peasant farmer.

In 1014 some of his relics were given to the monastery of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou and transferred in 1783 to the cathedral of Perpignan; in the twelfth century his body was still reported present in the church of Saint-Pierre. His veneration has been kept in some dioceses of southern France, where he was invoked in times of epidemic and drought. His feast is kept on 16 or 17 October, and the Roman Martyrology places it on 16 October.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Peasant farmer honoured as patron of ploughmen near Carcassonne and invoked against epidemic and drought; the Roman Martyrology keeps his feast on 16 October.