24/04/2025
On May 28, 812 AD, Guilhem passed away. The chronicles tell us he fell ill and was carried to his personal cell, which held his relic of the cross. He died laid out on the ground with his arms crossed, lying on a bed of cinders. This somehow sounds like a “tradition” of the church so that Guilhem could be canonized. (St. Martin of Tours died the same way.)
Few of the books from Guilhem's impressive library have survived. Only twenty illuminated manuscripts exist, one of which is a book of church rituals called the Sacramentaire de Gellone.
The monks of St. Benedict meticulously painted it, and it is still in existence. It is a priceless piece of episcopal history. But what about all those academic papers written in Hebrew and Arabic? Demolishing them during Gellone's transformation into a monastery shouldn't be at all strange. The Roman Church valued people who publicly displayed their faith.
Guilhem was canonized about one hundred years later, and church histories about him describe him as a French warrior, a relative of Charlemagne, who gave up his worldly goods for God. His interest in Jewish and Muslim issues, not to mention A***nism, is never mentioned. Did they intend to conceal the fact that he was of Merovingian, Visigothic, and Jewish ancestry?
Many historical texts claim that Guilhem established a "community" at Gellone from the very beginning. All things holy, whether his studies at Toledo or his time spent living at the Château before the abbey was erected, are rarely mentioned in the chronicles. He could have built a chapel in the valley at that time for personal worship, as many did. The abbey would grow out of this expanded chapel. It has long been known that the abbey housed a Visigothic altar that dates to the beginning of the ninth century, is built of black and white marble, and is covered in colored glass.
A crypt was also present. More proof has just come to light. The tenth century saw the establishment of the Gellone Monastery, known for its Romanesque style. But in 1999, local archaeologists discovered three capitals that have been positively dated to the end of the 8th century, or roughly around 790 AD—exactly the time Guilhem erected the building—high up beneath and concealed by it! It now appears that Guilhem's residence, a beautiful structure with a study area and library, additionally included a place of worship that was later transformed into a monastery around the time Guilhem was canonized, roughly 100 years later.