Saint Gens
Encyclopedia
Saint Gens also named Saint Gens du Beaucet, was a hermit.
, near Carpentras
, in today's southern France
at the beginning of the 12th century. When he was a teenager, he lived far from his family and his village, as a hermit, in a small valley around Le Beaucet
.
He lived in renouncement, praying, working and doing penitence. He is called upon to obtain rain during droughts. With his death, on May 16, 1127, he was buried close to a rock in the middle of the small valley where a Romance vault was high about the middle of the 12th century. Many miracles are attributed to his intervention, and his veneration
is approved by the Catholic Church.
Biography
He was born in MonteuxMonteux
Monteux is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-Geography:Monteux is near Carpentras, in middle of Comtat Venaissin, and around 20 km from Avignon, in the countryside between Mont Ventoux, the Rhône and the Durance.Its...
, near Carpentras
Carpentras
Carpentras is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It stands on the banks of the Auzon...
, in today's southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
at the beginning of the 12th century. When he was a teenager, he lived far from his family and his village, as a hermit, in a small valley around Le Beaucet
Le Beaucet
Le Beaucet is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Vaucluse departmentLe Beaucet is a small settlement located in the South of France....
.
He lived in renouncement, praying, working and doing penitence. He is called upon to obtain rain during droughts. With his death, on May 16, 1127, he was buried close to a rock in the middle of the small valley where a Romance vault was high about the middle of the 12th century. Many miracles are attributed to his intervention, and his veneration
Veneration
Veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. It is practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches...
is approved by the Catholic Church.
Legends and miracles
- Gens settled in the ruins of an old monastery, cultivating a plot of land for his subsistence with the help of the two cows which his father had given him on his departure. He prayed unceasingly for all sinners. One day, he was deeply absorbed by his prayer, a wolf rushed on one of his cows to slaughter it. Gens tamed the wolf, and forced it to plow with the cow which remained.
- His mother sought him to bring back him to Monteux. She asked him for a little water, because she was thirsty. At once, a source ran on her hand.
- Arriving at Monteux, Gens asked the priests of the place to organize a procession to obtain the end of the drought. The procession had not yet traversed the streets of the village when the rain started to fall.