09 April - Saint Gautier de Pontoise (sometimes also: Gauthier, Gaultier, Gaucher), born in Andainville around 1030 and died in 1099 in Pontoise, is a French religious of the 11th century.
First a professor of philosophy and rhetoric, he joined the Benedictines at Rebais in the diocese of Meaux. According to tradition, he was still only a novice when, feeling pity for a brother who had been put in the dungeon in the monastery, he helped him to escape.
Philip I made him the abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Pontoise, which he had just founded in Pontoise, despite his protests. This foundation was at that time dedicated to Germain de Paris. Discipline was very relaxed there, because Gautier did not miss an opportunity to distance himself from the abbey, to shirk his responsibilities.
He eventually resigned from his office in Pontoise to join the reformer Hugues in Cluny but, soon caught up, he was forced to go to Pontoise. He managed to escape once again, reaching Touraine where he found refuge on an island in the Loire, but was caught again; he escaped again from an oratory dedicated to Como and Damien near Tours but was recognized by a pilgrim.
Gautier then decided to leave for Rome and appealed directly to Pope Gregory VII, to whom he submitted his written resignation, but the Supreme Pontiff enjoined him to respect his first vows, to resume his duties in Pontoise and never to fail there again.
On his return, he never ceased to denounce the abuses and corruption of morals of his Benedictine brothers. Beaten and thrown into the dungeon, he resumed his harangues as soon as he was released. In 1094, he founded a convent of women at Berteaucourt-les-Dames near Amiens, with the help of two faithful, the ladies Godelinde and Elvige. But the owner of the land, who had authorized him to settle there, was worried about his crops, which were in danger of being trampled by the crowd, and asked him to leave. Gautier therefore returned to the monastery of Pontoise, where he died on 8 April 1099.
Gautier was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Pontoise. In 1153, he was canonised by the Archbishop of Rouen, Hugues de Boves: he was the last saint in Western Europe to be canonised by a subordinate authority.
