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Gaucher, Saint

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was born at Meulan, Normandy in 1060. At the age of eighteen, under the direction of Raigner, he resolved to devote himself to Draver and to the austerities of penitence in solitude. Upon the invitation of Humbert, canon of Limoges, he went to, Limousin, and there dwelt in a hermitage in the forest of Chavaignac. At the end of three years he obtained from the canons of St. Etienne of Limoges authority to build a monastery in a place known as Salvatius, later as Aureil, which was conducted according to the regulation of St. Augustine. Shortly after Gache established a monastery for women, near this. Aureil, becoming celebrated for its sanctity and for the miracles of St. Gaucher, became the retreat of, St. Stephen of Muret, St. Lambert (founder of the Abbey de la Couronne, afterwards bishop of Angouleme), and St. Faucher. Gaucher, at that time an octogenarian, returning from Limoges, where he had held an assembly concerning the affairs of his convent, a false step caused him to strike his head violently against a stone, which place-is still called Le Pas de St. Gaucher, and where a chapel was erected. 'This accident caused his death three days later at Aureil (1140), whither he had been carried. He was canonized by pope Celestin III, and his remains placed in a shrine by Sebrand, bishop of Limoges, September 18, 1194. In Limousin and Normandy his festival is celebrated April 9. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.