n's first task is to honor God perfectly in his
own soul. He redoubled all his austerities, saying, it was now incumbent
on him to do penance for others, as well as for himself. He always wore
a hair-shirt under his religious habit, and never added, nor diminished,
any thing in his clothes, either winter or summer. He never ate any
flesh-meat, though he had it at his table for strangers. His attention
to feed his flock was no less remarkable, especially in assisting the
poor both spiritually and corporally, saying, that he was chiefly sent
for them. He was most mild to penitent sinners; but inflexible towards
the impenitent, though he refused to have recourse to the civil power
against them, the usual remedy of that age. Many such he at last
reclaimed by his sweetness and charity. Certain great men, abusing his
lenity, usurped the rights of his church; but the saint strenuously
defended them even against the king himself, notwithstanding his threats
to confiscate his lands. By humility and resolution he overcame several
contradictions of his chapter and other clergy. By his zeal he converted
many of the Albigenses, contemporary heretics, and was preparing himself
for a mission among them, at the time he was seized with his last
illness. He would, notwithstanding, preach a farewell sermon to his
people, which increased his fever to such a degree that he was obliged
to set aside his journey, and take to his bed. Drawing near his end, he
received first extreme unction, according to the discipline of that
age;[1] then, in order to receive the viaticum, he rose out of bed, fell
on his knees melting in tears, and prayed long prostrate with his arms
stretched out in the form of a cross. The night following, perceiving
his last hour approach, he desired to anticipate the nocturns, which are
said at midnight; but having made the sign of the cross on his lips and
breast, was able to pronounce no more than the two first words. Then,
according to a sign made by him, he was laid on ashes in the hair-cloth
which he always privately wore. In this posture he soon after expired, a
little past midnight, on the morning of the 10th of January, in 1209.
His body was interred in his cathedral; and being honored by many
miracles, was taken up in 1217; and in the year following he was
canonized by pope Honorius III. His relics were kept with great
veneration till 1562, when they were burnt, and scattered in the winds
by the Huguenots, on occasio