s of this day, Sithride, or Sedredo, an English
virgin, and second abbess of Farmoutiers. Bede tells us (l. 3, c. 8)
that she was daughter of St. Hereswide, by a former husband, before
she married Annas, king of the East Angles, and that going to the
monastery of Brie, (now Farmoutiers,) she was second abbess between
St. Fara and St. Aubierge, King Annas's own daughter. But though St.
Aubierge be honored at Farmoutiers in July, with great solemnity,
and St. Arthongate in February, the name of Sedredo is not found in
the calendar of any church, nor are any of her relics enshrined like
the others, unless she be the same with St. Sissetrudis, who in some
calendars is named on the 6th, in others on the 7th of May. But St.
Sissetrude is called by Jonas of Bobio, cellerer, not abbess. See
Chatelain, &c. 3.

{120}

JANUARY X.

SAINT WILLIAM, CONFESSOR,

ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.

From his life written by a faithful acquaintance at Bourges, (abridged
by Surius,) and again by Peter, a monk of Chaalis, both soon after his
death: collected by Dom le Nain, in his history of the Cistercians, t.
7. See also the notes of Bollandus, with a fragment of a third life, and
Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2. p. 63.

A.D. 1209.

WILLIAM BERRUYER, of the illustrious family of the ancient counts of
Nevers, was educated by Peter the Hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his
uncle by the mother's side. He learned from his infancy to despise the
folly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur of the world, to abhor
its pleasures, and to tremble at its dangers. His only delight was in
exercises of piety and in his studies, in which he employed his whole
time with indefatigable application. He was made canon, first of
Soissons, and afterwards of Paris; but he soon took the resolution of
abandoning all commerce with the world, and retired into the solitude of
Grandmont, where he lived with great regularity in that austere order,
till seeing its peace disturbed by a contest which arose between the
fathers and lay-brothers, he passed into the Cistercian, then in
wonderful odor of sanctity. He took the habit in the abbey of Pontigny,
and shining as a perfect model of monastic perfection, was after some
time chosen prior of that house, and afterwards abbot, first of
Fountaine-Jean, in the diocese of Sens, (a filiation of Pontigny,
founded in 1124, by Peter de Courtenay, son of king Louis the Fat,) and
some time a