January 1
William of Dijon (962–1031)
Abbot
Roman Martyrology
At the monastery of Fécamp in Normandy (now France), the death of Saint William, abbot of Saint-Bénigne of Dijon, who toward the end of his life governed with firmness and prudence many monks distributed among forty monasteries.
Practical advice
Unite firmness of purpose with attentive listening when making a decision.
Biography
(French: Guillaume de Cluny).
He was born on the island of San Giulio in Lake Orta, near Novara, and was the son of the Count of Volpiano, from a Swabian family. Like other younger sons, he was educated at the monastery of San Genuario in Lucedio. He became a Benedictine at Lucedio, near Vercelli, and completed his studies at Vercelli and Pavia. After coming into conflict with the bishop of Vercelli because he had refused the priesthood, which would have entailed an oath of allegiance to the bishop, William stayed briefly at Sacra di San Michele on Mount Pirchiriano.
In 987 he moved to Cluny, when Saint Majolus was abbot, and became his favored disciple. A year later Saint Majolus sent him as prior of the monastery of Saint-Saturnin-sur-Rhône, now Pont-Saint-Esprit. In 990 he was sent by the bishop to reform the Abbey of Saint-Bénigne at Dijon. He made it the center from which the Cluniac reform spread throughout Burgundy, Normandy, Lorraine and northern Italy, especially to the Norman abbeys of Jumièges and Saint-Ouen in Rouen, though independently of Cluny. He persuaded Saint Odilo to become a monk at Cluny.
He was gentle with the poor, while showing notable firmness in his dealings with the powerful. He made two journeys to Italy, visiting Rome, Benevento, Monte Sant’Angelo and Parma. On his return to Lazio, he contracted malaria and had to stop at the monastery of Santa Cristina of Cortolona, and later at Vercelli. Toward the end of his life he founded the Abbey of Fruttuaria in Piedmont and rebuilt Fécamp, giving it rules that were original for their time. He died there. The monks tried unsuccessfully to obtain his canonization, although he is venerated as a saint among Benedictines; in 1808 his cult was approved in the Diocese of Ivrea.