Gerald of Sales

Gerald of Sales (died 1120) was a French monastic reformer, from south-west France. Salles is near Bergerac, Dordogne.

He has a feast day on April 20.

He was a canon regular, from the diocese of Périgueux, and the monastery of Saint-Avit, as reported in a tradition going back to his Vita.

A follower of Robert of Arbrissel, also described as a disciple of Vital de Mortain; along with the work of Bernard of Tiron, this movement set up Benedictine houses, or groups of hermits, mostly in the west of France, and was important in the later spread of the Cistercians, from their beginnings in Burgundy.

Among his attributed foundations, of which there are traditionally said to be nine, were:

The Abbaye du Pin à Béruges is also attributed, in a chronicle.Feuillant Abbey may have been started by a group of monks from Dalon.

He was canonized (or beatified) in 1249, and was reburied in a marble tomb, south of the altar at Châtelliers Abbey.