Saint GEOFFROY ou GODEFROY d'AMIENS, moine bénédictin, évêque et confesseur

Saint Geoffroy ou Godefroy

Évêque d'Amiens

(1066-1115)

Saint Geoffroy ou Godefroy

Saint Geoffroy naquit à Moulincourt, au diocèse de Soissons, d'une famille encore plus distinguée par ses vertus et sa charité que par sa haute noblesse. Ses parents secouraient les églises et leur bonté rayonnait sur toutes les misères. Ces bons chrétiens n'étaient plus jeunes lorsqu'un troisième fils leur naquit. Ils consacrèrent leur benjamin à Dieu et le présentèrent à son oncle, évêque de Soissons. Celui-ci donna son propre nom au nouveau-né, Geoffroy, qui signifie: paix de Dieu. Lorsqu'il eut cinq ans, il conduisit l'enfant dans son monastère près de Péronne et se chargea de son éducation. Le nouveau Samuel grandit en âge et en sagesse à l'ombre des autels. A l'âge de vingt-cinq ans, Nathaud, évêque de Noyon, l'ordonna prêtre malgré les humbles protestations de l'élu qui se considérait indigne de ce trop grand honneur.

Bientôt un concile le nomma évêque d'Amiens. Désolé et effrayé de l'honneur, Geoffroy s'enfuit secrètement. Découvert au sein de sa retraite, il fut ramené à Amiens et investi de l'autorité épiscopale par l'archevêque de Reims. Le nouveau pasteur revêtit une robe de bure, entra pieds nus dans la cité et tint un langage tout surnaturel à la foule émue et émerveillée. Chaque jour, treize pauvres étaient admis à manger à la table du Saint qui leur lavait lui-même les pieds. Il secourait les veuves et les enfants abandonnés, portait de la nourriture aux lépreux qu'il comblait de soins particuliers.

Saint Geoffroy défendait les opprimés, sermonait ceux qui abusaient de leur pouvoir et qui vivaient dans la dépravation. Décidant d'en finir avec les gênantes admonitions de leur évêque, des seigneurs lui envoyèrent du vin empoisonné, mais Dieu avertit intérieurement saint Geoffroy du danger qui le menaçait. Guerre, pillage, débauche régnaient en maîtres dans la ville d'Amiens, navrant le coeur de saint Geoffroy qui se jugeait responsable des péchés de son peuple. Il résolut donc d'aller s'ensevelir à la Grande Chartreuse de Grenoble pour tâcher d'obtenir la conversion de ses ouailles par sa vie de pénitence.

Il quitta son diocèse après le concile national des évêques de France tenu à Vienne, pendant lequel il soutint brillamment les droits du souverain pontife. Sur la réclamation des habitants d'Amiens, les évêques réunis en concile à Soissons en 1115 intimèrent à saint Geoffroy l'ordre de réintégrer sa bergerie. Les exhortations, les réprimandes, les invectives, les supplications et les promesses s'avérèrent inutiles pour ramener son peuple dans les sentiers du bien. Le saint pasteur transmit les menaces du Ciel à ses brebis rebelles qui taxèrent ses prédictions de visions chimériques. Hélas! ces âmes sourdes aux avertissements de Dieu apprécièrent trop tard les discours prophétiques de leur évêque.

Avant de rendre son âme à Dieu, saint Geoffroy devait être témoin du désastre qui transforma la cité d'Amiens en un monceau de cendres et de ruines. Peu de temps après ces sinistres événements, il tomba gravement malade. À l'abbaye de St-Crépin, le vénéré pasteur reçut la communion des mains de Lisiard, évêque de Soissons, et rendit son âme à Dieu le 8 novembre 1115.

Résumé O.D.M.

SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_geoffroy_ou_godefroy.html

Saint Geoffroy d'Amiens

Evêque d'Amiens (+ 1115)

Son monastère dépérissait avec six moines quand ceux-ci le choisirent comme abbé. En peu d'années, le monastère de Nogent dans la Marne devient l'un des plus florissants. En réponse à l'insistance de l'évêque de Reims, il accepte de devenir évêque d'Amiens ce qui lui causa bien des soucis. La plupart des membres du clergé était à la solde des grands seigneurs qui eux-mêmes menaient une vie impossible aux marchands et aux braves gens de la "Commune d'Amiens". Saint Geoffroy, privé d'amis pour le soutenir, gagne la Grande Chartreuse pour vivre en paix. Mais forcé de revenir, il reprend ses fonctions un an après et il meurt au bout de quelques mois à l'abbaye de Saint Crépin de Soissons. Aucun membre du clergé d'Amiens ne se dérangera pour venir rechercher son corps.

Formé à la vie monastique dès l’âge de cinq ans, abbé de Nogent-sous-Coucy, devenu évêque d’Amiens, il eut beaucoup à souffrir pour établir la paix dans les luttes entre les seigneurs et le peuple de la cité, ainsi que pour réformer les mœurs du clergé et du peuple. Il mourut à Soissons, au retour d’un voyage à Reims.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/10/Saint-Geoffroy-d-Amiens.html

Geoffroy ou Godefroy naquit dans l'Aisne vers 1065. Son nom, d'origine germanique, signifie "paix de Dieu". Il fut placé à l'âge de 5 ans dans l'abbaye de Mont-Saint-Quentin, où il fit profession et reçut la prêtrise On rapporte que, mystique et réaliste, il fit preuve d'habileté dans les affaires et d'adresse pour échapper aux seigneurs qui convoitaient et pillaient les biens de l'Église.

Devenu, par obéissance au Pape, Évêque d'Amiens, le moine Godefroy s'intéressa à l'important Mouvement communal, courant déterminant dans l'évolution de cette époque pour se libérer des féodaux. Il prend ainsi le parti de la Commune d'Amiens, dans le souci de défendre et de protéger les humbles et les pauvres. Calomnié et persécuté, l'évêque sera obligé de s'exiler au désert de la Chartreuse. Il en reviendra pour reprendre vaillamment le fardeau pastoral mais mourra d'épuisement sur la route à Soissons le 8 novembre 1115, à peine âgé de 50 ans.

Rédacteur : Frère Bernard Pineau, OP

SOURCE : http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Saints/Geoffroy

***

Godefroi, né dans le territoire de Soissons, sortait d'une famille noble et vertueuse. Foulques son père, étant devenu veuf, prit l'habit monastique. Notre Saint n'avait encore que cinq ans lorsqu'on le mit sous la conduite de Godefroi, abbé du Mont-Saint-Quentin , qui l'avait tenu sur les fonts de baptême. Ce Godefroi était oncle de la B. Itte, comtesse de Boulogne et de Namur, mère de Godefroy et de Baudouin qui furent rois de Jérusalem.

Dès sa plus tendre jeunesse, le Saint se privait d'une grande partie de ce qu'on lui donnait pour sa nourriture, et le distribuait aux pauvres ; souvent même il ne paraissait point au réfectoire, et se renfermait dans quelque oratoire , pendant le temps qu'on y passait, pour s'entretenir avec Dieu. Il consacrait quelquefois la plus grande partie de la nuit à ce saint exercice. Les larmes abondantes qui coulaient de ses yeux, dans la prière , annonçaient sa tendre piété et la vivacité de sa componction. A l'âge de 25 ans, l'évêque de Noyon l'ordonna prêtre. Il parut digne de cet honneur , non seulement à cause de ses vertus, mais encore à cause des progrès qu'il faisait tous les jours dans l'étude de la religion. On n'écouta point son humilité, qui lui inspirait de l'éloignement pour le sacerdoce. Peu de temps après, on lui confia le gouvernement de l'abbaye de Nogent, en Champagne. Cette maison, sous sa conduite, devint bientôt célèbre par sa régularité. Deux abbés, touchés des merveilles qu'on en publiait, s'y retirèrent pour y vivre en simples religieux dans une plus grande perfection.

Godefroi avait tellement acquis l'habitude de veiller sur lui-même, qu'il était absolument maître de tous ses sens. Jamais il ne prononçait une parole inutile ; jamais ses yeux ne s'arrêtaient sur aucun objet sans nécessité. Son silence et sa modestie étaient des preuves sensibles de la continuité de son recueillement. Un jour qu'on lui servait à table quelque chose qui paraissait mieux assaisonné qu'à l'ordinaire, il en fit des plaintes. « Est-ce que vous ne savez pas, dit-il, que la chair se révolte si on la flatte ? » Un concile entier le pressant de prendre le gouvernement de l'abbaye de Saint-Remi, de Reims, il s'avança au milieu de l'assemblée, et, après avoir cité les canons en sa faveur, il s'écria : « A Dieu ne plaise que je méprise une épouse pauvre, et que je lui en préfère une riche. » En 1103, on l'élut évêque d'Amiens ; mais il fallut lui faire violence pour qu'il acquiesçât à son élection. Il entra nu-pieds dans la ville. Lorsqu'il fut arrivé à l'église de Saint-Firmin, il adressa au peuple, qui était présent, un discours fort pathétique. On retrouvait dans son palais la maison d'un vrai disciple de Jésus-Christ. Chaque jour il lavait les pieds à treize pauvres, et les servait à table. Il s'opposait avec un zèle inflexible aux entreprises des grands, opiniâtrement attachés à leurs désordres. Il attaquait avec vigueur les abus qui régnaient dans son clergé ; et, après avoir éprouvé bien des difficultés, il rétablit la réforme dans le monastère de Saint-Valery. Célébrant les saints mystères le jour de Noël, en présence de Robert, comte d'Artois, qui tenait sa cour à Saint-Omer, il ne voulut point recevoir les offrandes, même des princes, parce que leur extérieur était trop mondain. Plusieurs sortirent de l'église, el y rentrèrent avec plus de simplicité, pour n'être pas privés de la bénédiction du saint évêque. Il fut arrêté par une fièvre violente, dans un voyage qu'il faisait à Reims, pour conférer avec son métropolitain sur des matières importantes. Il reçut les sacrements de l'Eglise avec beaucoup de ferveur, et mourut le 8 Novembre 1118, dans l'abbaye de Saint-Crépin de Soissons, où il fut enterré. Il est nommé dans le martyrologe romain.

Source : Alban Butler. Vie des Pères, Martyrs et autres principaux Saints. Traduction : Jean-François Godescard.

SOURCE : http://alexandrina.balasar.free.fr/geoffroid_damiens_butler.htm

Godfrey of Amiens, OSB B (RM)

(also known as Geoffrey, Gottfried)

Born near Soissons, France, c. 1066; died near Soissons, 1115. When he was 5 years old, Godfrey was placed in the care of the abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin. He became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest.

In 1096 he became the abbot of the decayed Nogent-sous-Coucy in Champagne, where the brethren had dwindled to six and the buildings and discipline were similarly dilapidated. Under his rule the monastery prospered, and as a result, he came to the notice of the archbishop of Rheims who asked him to take over the famous Abbey of Saint-Remi at Rheims. Godfrey refused. He made a disturbance and vehemently added during an assembly, "God forbid I should ever desert a poor bride by preferring a rich one!"

Despite his strong feelings, he was appointed bishop of Amiens in 1104, but he insisted upon continuing to live very simply. When he thought the cook was treating him too well, he took the best food from the kitchen and gave it away to the poor and the sick.

He was a zealous reformer, unrelentingly fought simony enforcing celibacy, and supported the organization of communes. But, because he was an excessively stern ruler, his life was threatened more than once, including by a disgruntled woman.

His scrupulousness caused great resentment among the laxer clergy. He became disheartened by their behavior and withdrew to the Carthusian monastery at Grande-Chartreuse. A council ordered him to return to his diocese--his people refused to allow him to retire. But on his way to visit his metropolitan, he died the following year at Saint Crispin's abbey in Soissons, where he was buried. His name was not found in calendars before the 16th century (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Walsh, White).

In art Saint Gottfried is a bishop with a dead hound at his feet. Sometimes he is shown serving the sick or embracing a leper (Roeder). 

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1108.shtml

November 8

St. Godfrey, Bishop of Amiens, Confessor

GODFREY was born in the territory of Soissons, of noble and pious parents: his father, Fulco, was no sooner a widower than he consecrated himself to God in the monastic habit. Our saint was educated from five years of age, when he was weaned, in the monastery of Mount St. Quintin’s, under the care of the holy abbot, Godfrey, who was his godfather, and uncle to B. Ida, countess of Boulogne and Namur, and mother to Godfrey and Baldwin, the kings and conquerors of Jerusalem. The saint, in his youth always gave the better part of his meals to the poor, and sometimes did not make his appearance at all in the refectory, spending his time in some private oratory; and he often watched great part of the night in prayer. The streams of tears which frequently watered his cheeks at his prayers were proofs of the tender compunction and devotion of his soul. At twenty-five years of age, having made good proficiency in the sacred studies, he was ordained priest by the bishop of Noyon, though only obedience could overcome his fears of approaching the holy altar. Soon after he was chosen abbot of Nogent, in Champagne. Under his direction this house flourished in such regularity of discipline, that two abbots resigned their dignities to learn to serve God there more perfectly.

The saint, by long habits of watchfulness over himself and mortification, was so perfectly master of his senses that no superfluous word or glance of an eye seemed ever to escape him, and his modesty and silence were the visible marks of his continual interior recollection. The cook having one day mixed a few crumbs of white bread with the herbs which he usually ate with only salt and water, he would by no means suffer that delicacy, saying: “Do not you know that the flesh rebels if it be not tamed?” When the Archbishop of Rheims and a whole council pressed the saint to take upon him the government of the great abbey of St. Remigius at Rheims, he started into the midst of the assembly, alleged the canons with great vehemence, and said: “God forbid I should ever contemn a poor spouse by preferring a rich one.” Some time after, in 1103, he was not able by his importunities to resist the violence with which he was installed bishop of Amiens. He entered that city barefoot, and, arriving at the church of St. Firminus, he first opened his mouth to his flock by a most pathetic sermon. His palace was truly the house of a disciple of Christ. Every day he served at his own table thirteen poor people, and washed their feet. To attend the most loathsome lepers seemed his greatest pleasure. He exerted an episcopal vigour and firmness in reproving obstinate and powerful sinners, and in reforming his clergy, and especially the monastery of St. Valery, though this work cost him a journey to Rheims, and another to Rome. When he celebrated the divine office at the court of Robert, count of Artois, held at St. Omers at Christmas, he refused to receive the offerings of all persons, though sovereign princes, who presented themselves with their hair effeminately curled; so that many were obliged to step out of the church to cut off their curled locks with a knife or sword, that they might not be deprived of the holy prelate’s blessing. As he was going to Rheims to confer with his metropolitan upon certain matters of importance, he was taken ill of a fever on the road; and, having received the holy sacraments, joyfully departed to our Lord on the 8th of November, in 1118, in the abbey of St. Crispin at Soissons, and was there interred. His name is honoured in the Roman Martyrology. See his life, written by Nicholas, a monk of Soissons, in the same century.

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume XI: November. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.

SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/11/083.html

Saint Godfrey or Geoffroy

Bishop of Amiens

(ca. 1066-1115)

Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey's father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.

Godfrey was given the charge of taking care of the sick, and exercised it with such great charity that he was also named hospitaller, to receive the poor at the gate. For assistance in that second duty he had his older brother Odon, who after many years in the military career had come to join him in the religious life. His brother would later die a holy death in the same abbey of Mount Saint Quentin.

When Saint Godfrey was 25 years old his abbot told him to prepare for the priesthood. He received the Sacrament of Holy Orders from the bishop of Noyon, in which diocese the abbey of Mount Saint Quentin is situated. Not long afterwards, the abbey of Our Lady of Nogent, whose abbot was incapacitated by illness, voted to obtain Godfrey in that office, and the abbot of Mount Saint Quentin consented to the sacrifice of his dear spiritual son for that purpose. The pleas of the disciple based on his youth and inexperience were not heeded, and in 1095 he became Abbot of Nogent, where the buildings were crumbling and only six monks and two young novices remained. He renovated the edifices and built a hostelry for pilgrims and the sick poor; and in this hostelry he himself continued to labor on their behalf. Soon the monastery filled up with vocations, drawing even two illustrious abbots from elsewhere, who desired to serve under this master.

When a severe drought was devastating the fields and flocks of the region, the bishop of Soissons, Hugh de Pierrefonds, went to Godfrey to ask his counsel; the holy abbot prescribed a fast in the manner of Ninevah — even the animals were to participate. On the first day of the fast, when the abbot rose to preach in the vast Church of Saint Steven, before the assembled people, the sky suddenly darkened, and so heavy a rain fell that the people were not a little inconvenienced on returning home.

When the aged bishop of Amiens died soon afterwards, its residents chose Godfrey to be their bishop, and went to a legate of the Holy See to ask him to intercede with the abbot to obtain his consent. When this decision was related to Godfrey he would have fled, but the order of the legate prevented his flight. Moreover, he had already had a vision of Saint Firmin, first Bishop of Amiens and martyr, advising him of this forthcoming new responsibility. He therefore submitted to the clear designs of Providence. After Saint Godfrey obtained a beautiful new reliquary for the relics of Amiens' first bishop, the confidence of the people in their patron Saint, Saint Firmin, redoubled. A prayer to him by Saint Godfrey, asking for sunshine on the day of the translation of the relics, was the occasion; a fog so heavy one could scarcely see, lifted, and the sun at once shone brilliantly in the sanctuary.

As bishop he did not cease to take care of the poor and the sick. When some lepers came to him he commanded his cook to prepare food for them; four hours later nothing had yet been done, and he himself went to the kitchen and found a large, prepared salmon which he took to the famished lepers. The cook remonstrated with him, and the Saint told him that it was injustice to allow the poor to die of hunger while unworthy bishops enjoyed food that was too succulent.

When troubles occasioned by the contemporary quarrel over investitures devastated the city of Amiens, the holy bishop thought it well to resign his office and retire to the Grand Chartreuse, and did so. The archbishop of Rheims, however, could not approve such an action, and reproached the residents of Amiens when they brought up the question of a successor. The affair was referred to a Council to be held at Soissons in January of 1115. A letter was sent by the Council to the religious of Saint Bruno, begging them not to retain the bishop of Amiens, but to send him back to his see; and Godfrey with tears resigned himself to obeying the orders of the king and the Council. His declining years were not exempt from sufferings; the city of Amiens was decimated by a fire which spared only the church of Saint Firmin, the episcopal palace and a few houses of the poor. The people had not listened to the exhortations of their bishop when their prevarications enkindled the wrath of God. He died on November 8, 1115, in perfect serenity, having given his farewell blessing to the religious of the monastery of Soissons, where he had been taken, after falling ill during a journey there. His tomb was illustrated by many miracles.

Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13

SOURCE : https://magnificat.ca/cal/en/saints/saint_godfrey_or_geoffroy.html

San Goffredo di Amiens Vescovo

8 novembre

Etimologia: Goffredo = protetto da Dio, dall'antico tedesco

Emblema: Bastone pastorale

Martirologio Romano: A Soissons in Francia, deposizione di san Goffredo, vescovo di Amiens, che, formatosi per un quinquennio alla vita monastica, patì molto nel ricomporre i dissidi tra i signori e gli abitanti della città e riformare i costumi del clero e del popolo. 

Abbiamo parlato della prima Crociata, portata al successo dal più celebre Goffredo dell'età di mezzo: Goffredo conte di Buglione, conquistatore di Gerusalemme. Egli ebbe il titolo di " Difensore del Santo Sepolcro ", e più tardi venne reso particolarmente celebre da Torquato Tasso, che nella sua Gerusalemme Liberata (ma il nome originario del poema fu proprio Goffredo!) lo cantò quale " Capitano - che 'l gran Sepolcro liberò di Christo ". Goffredo di Buglione era francese, e francese fu il San Goffredo oggi festeggiato, uno dei rari Santi di questo nome pur celebre.

Egli era giovinetto al tempo della prima Crociata, e più tardi divenne monaco dell'abbazia di Monte San Quintino, dove fu ordinato sacerdote.

Divenne Abate di un altro monastero, a Nogent, e si distinse non soltanto per la sua preparazione dottrinale e spirituale, ma soprattutto per la sua integrità morale, rara in tempi in cui gran parte dell'alto clero era contaminata dalla simonia.

Per i suoi meriti e non - una volta tanto -per tornaconto politico, i feudatari e il Re lo elessero Vescovo di Amiens, dove entrò a piedi nudi, in abito da pellegrino, evitando ogni fasto.

Il nome di Goffredo proviene da una forma più antica, Gottifredo, ed è di origine germanica, composto da due parole che significano, l'una Dio, l'altra pace. Si può dunque tradurre come " pace di Dio ", ed è un nome di significato spirituale, insolito tra i personali germanici, quasi sempre di origine guerresca.

Il Vescovo San Goffredo fu veramente degno del suo nome, perché cercò senza riposo di ristabilire nella diocesi quella pace di Dio a cui il suo nome accennava. E poiché erano molti i nemici della pace di Dio - tra i potenti e tra il popolo, tra i feudatari e tra gli stessi religiosi - la sua vita fu difficile e la sua attività di riformatore pacifico ostacolata e denigrata. Si tentò perfino di avvelenarlo, ma il veleno fece morire, al suo posto, un povero cane!

In quel tempo la città di Amiens cercava di organizzarsi in libero Comune, scrollando il giogo dei feudatari. In molte città, i Vescovi, eletti dai feudatari e gelosi dei propri privilegi temporali, contrastavano le tendenze comunali del popolo, appoggiando invece chi aveva in mano il denaro e le armi. San Goffredo, al contrario, fu con i propri cittadini, alleato dell'iniziativa comunale, che però fallì. Quando i feudatari ripresero il controllo della città, la vita del Vescovo amante della giustizia divenne ancor più difficile.

Era ancora giovane quando si ammalò, fuori di Amiens, durante un pellegrinaggio alla chiesa dei Santi Crispino e Crispiniano, di cui era devoto. Morì l'8 novembre del 1115, in una abbazia dedicata ai due Santi calzolai. E lì fu sepolto, lontano dalla sua bella cattedrale, presso la quale si era consumata la sua vicenda di pastore giusto e Vescovo contrastato.

Fonte:

Archivio Parrocchia

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/76750