Galgano Guidotti (1148–1181)

Biography

After a libertine youth, Galgano retired to do penance on Mount Siepi, not far from Chiusdino, Italy, his hometown. The day after his death, a chapel was erected there that still exists. Forty years later, the Cistercians built, at the foot of Mount Siepi, an abbey that bore the name of Galgano and which was very prosperous in its time. As a consequence, San Galgano became so popular that Cistercians and Augustinians claimed him, each in their own way, as one of their own.