This  Friday, June 25, is our  Parish Patronal Feast Day ~

Saint William of Vercelli (1085-1142)

He was born in 1085 in northern Italy. When he was an infant, both of his parents died and he was raised by extended family. He must have had an uncommon connection to the divine because at the age of 14 he left his home and family and set out on pilgrimage to the Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

St. William of Vercelli is honored as a saint who was a leader in monastic life—both because he established a number of monasteries and because his rigorous discipline, prayer, and fasting was an example for many monks.

Not much else of his youth is known. As an adult he returned to Italy and lived as a hermit on a mountainside where he became locally famous for healing a blind man. To escape the acclaim, he left the area and went to stay with another hermit, St. John of Matera, and the two became close friends.

William intended to continue on to Jerusalem as a poor pilgrim but John had a sense that God was calling William to something else. William departed but was mugged by robbers and took that event as a sign that his friend was right.

He went to live on a mountain named after the ancient poet Virgil and a number of priests and lay men joined him. He formed them into a community and built a church there, naming it after Mary in 1124. The mountain became known as Monte Vergine after that—and still is called that today. The monastery is still there as well, part of the Benedictine congregation.

A colorful legend tells of William building the church on Monte Vergine by himself with only a donkey to help him. One night a wolf killed and ate the donkey. William scolded the wolf and ordered it to take the donkey’s place. Sensing it had interfered with a divine plan the wolf obeyed and began hauling loads of stone for the saint.

After forming the community on Monte Vergine, William was appointed an abbot and left with a few followers and his friend, John. He established another monastery in a nearby region. Again, after it had taken root, he appointed an abbot and went on to found other communities.  Roger I of Naples took him under his patronage, and the saint founded many monasteries. So edified was the king with the saint’s sanctity of life and the wisdom of his counsels that in order to have him always near him, he built a monastery opposite his palace at Salerno. Knowing by special revelation that his end was at hand, William retired to his monastery of Gugieto where he died and was buried in the church.