Guy de Montpellier

Who they were

Guido of Montpellier, born in the second half of the twelfth century to a well-off family, founded a hospital for the poor and needy on the edge of Montpellier before 1190, entrusting the work to the Holy Spirit; a community of men and women, lay and clergy, soon gathered around him. Pope Innocent III, who had known of Guido's works from his student days in France, took the Montpellier hospital under papal protection in 1198 and confirmed the rule Guido had written for his community, whose ideal was to serve the whole person, body and soul, especially through caring for abandoned infants: the hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia at Rome, given to Guido's care in 1201, built one of the first foundling wheels where infants could be left anonymously.

In 1204 Innocent III made the Roman hospital by Santa Maria in Saxia the motherhouse of the whole new Order. Guido died at Rome in the early months of 1208, and his memory was quietly kept for four centuries in the monasteries and hospitals that lived by his rule; later writers record that he was held dear by Innocent III for his outstanding holiness and "earned the name of Blessed."

The miracles

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

Why that counted as sanctity

Founded the hospital and Order of the Holy Spirit at Montpellier, later established at Rome by Innocent III; feast 7 February.

The cause