The life of Gerlach van Houthem

‍DeVita Gerlaci

The Norbertinesstift (monastery) St. Gerlach was founded in 1202 over the grave of the pilgrim and hermit Gerlach of Houthem. This Gerlach lived between 1120 and 1165. His life story (Vita) was written down by a canon around 1227 in De Vita Gerlaci and is depicted on frescoes in the church in Houthem. This description of his life and miracles is partly based on memories of old people who still knew Gerlach. The Vita also provides information about the foundation of the monastery above St. Gerlach's tomb and teaches us about the political and ecclesiastical relations of the time.  

Knight-pelgrim-hermit

As a young knight from the Land of Valkenburg, Gerlach was faced with the news of his wife's sudden death during a tournament. This changed his life radically. He renounced his rights as a knight and began to live the life of a penitent. A poor pilgrim, he left his native land and, after wandering, arrived in Rome at Pope Eugenius III. The latter imposed on him as penance to go to the Holy Land to do work in the service of the Crusaders. It was the time of the Second Crusade, when Jerusalem was in the hands of Christian Crusaders. Gerlach was to spend seven years in Jerusalem herding pigs at the hospital of the Maltese knights. From this he owes his status as a saint of cattle. Farmers in the Houthem area still use sand from his grave in the church in Houthem as protection against livestock diseases and hang it in bags in their stables. Returning to Rome, Gerlach visited Pope Adrian IV, who discussed with him a life as a monk or canon. Gerlach, however, preferred to become a hermit. He received permission from the pope to live as a hermit in the Geul valley and received a bull (charter) from the pope, which recorded that permission. He then founded his hermitage near an oak tree in Houthem. He did not live a solitary life there, but received visitors from the surrounding area and pilgrims passing through on their way to Aachen or Maastricht. He gave them food and impressed them with his simple way of life. Visitors who wanted to speak to him had to take his daily schedule into account. Indeed, almost every day early in the morning he went via Berg to the tomb of St. Servaas in Maastricht to pray. Even on Saturdays he was not to be found in his hermitage. Then he travelled in the other direction (eastward) to pray in the Marian Church (today's Dom) in Aachen via Rolduc.

Holy

The Vita describes many miracles of St. Gerlach, such as the miracle of water drawn from a well for him turning into wine. This was a sign of holiness but also of an approaching end. Not much later St. Gerlach died at his hermitage, where he was buried in a simple manner in a wooden coffin. Since no priest was allocated to his hermitage, there was no one to minister the last sacrament to him. However, his last communion and anointment of the sick were miraculously administered to him by the saint he had so revered as a hermit, St. Servaas. His bones - relics - have been preserved and are in a shrine - coffin - at his mausoleum. Splinters of them have been donated to churches elsewhere where St. Gerlach is venerated. Finally, his skull was incorporated into a relic bust that can be seen in the treasury of the Shrine of St. Gerlach in Houthem. Recent examination of his bones makes it likely, based on age and length, that it is indeed St Gerlach who is preserved in the reliquary in Houthem.

Want to know more?

Those who want to know more about St. Gerlach and his miracles can visit the monastery church in which he is buried and its treasury in Houthem, where a copy of the edition of the Vita can be bought. The charter that the pope gave to St. Gerlach was also kept there for a while, but was lost in the course of time, so the first charter is about the monastery, which was founded over his grave in 1202.

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