Guillaume, Saint (1)

a French regular canon, was born at St. Germain, near Crepy, about 1105. After having been educated under the care of his uncle, the abbot Hugues of St. Germain-des-Pres, he became canon of the collegiate church of St. Genevieve, but, on account of the laxity in discipline among the monks, accepted the provostship of Espinac. In the interval, reform and regularity were established in the Church of St. Genevieve by the monks of St. Victor. Guillaume then returned there, and was elected sub-prior of the house in 1148. About the same time Absalon, bishop of Roeskild, in Denmark, wished to reform a monastery of regular canons on the isle of Eskild. Guillaume was sent there with three other canons, who abandoned him. After his arrival in Denmark, in 1171, he was made abbot of St. Thomas of the Paraclete. He re-established the discipline of that house, and lived under the greatest austerities until 1203. There are known of St. William more than a hundred letters, which were published in 1786, in the Rerum Danicarum Scriptores. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.