Saint of the Day – 16 October – Saint Bertrand of Comminges (c1050-1123) Bishop

Saint of the Day – 16 October – Saint Bertrand of Comminges (c1050-1123) Bishop of Comminges, in the Archdiocese of Toulouse, France, Reformer – both religious and civil, Peace-maker, Miracle-worker. Born as Bertrand de l’Isle in c1050 in France and died on 16 October 1123 of natural causes. Patronage – of the Town named after him, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, France. He was Canonised in 1222 by Pope Alexander III.

Bertrand was born around 1050 at the Castle of L’Isle-Jourdain. Belonging to the high nobility, the young man initially devoted himself to the ideal of chivalry but, as an adult, he was Ordained a Priest and requested admission into the “Chapter of Canons” of Saint Stephen Cathedral.

In 1083, the Clergy and people of Comminges were looking for a new Bishop for thir City. They chose this young Canon who brought together the rare qualities of a respected southern Lord, capable of bringing back prosperity, since he was involved in the Reform of his time. To his gifts were added a gentle and kindly temperament and a quality of deep faith, whose richness the future would prove.

His effort focused on the reform of the Clergy by imposing community life upon the Canons – a life of poverty, prayer and study. He thus made the Chapter a radiant and exemplary home of evangelical life. He brought civil order to his Diocese, he administered justice but above all, he restored the Church.

He becomes a builder – to restore and rebuild this City which lived in poverty and great violence. With resolution, he enforced the peace of Christ throughout Comminges, as well as in the Hautes-Pyrénées, to ensure peace and security reigned there.

Many miracles are attributed to Bertrand who put himself at the service of liberating people, removing the handcuffs worn by everyone, liberating hearts as much as bodies. As well as the miraculous deliverance by Saint Bertrand, who was already in Heaven, of Sancho Parra, a minor Lord and a bandit, imprisoned in Barcelona.

Bertrand was very close to his faithful especially to the smallest and poor, constantly visiting them with attention and charity, both on a temporal and spiritual level. He set up land called “sauvétés” (which, having become villages and towns, took the name of “suveterre” or “salvetat”) to shelter the populations of the poor, the marginalised, the outlaws, fugitives so that they caouldfind refuge and security there.

From his death on 16 October 1123, Bertrand was considered a saint throughout the Pyrenees region and since his Canonisation in 1222, the village took the name and Partronage – “Saint-Bertrand de Comminges.”