Saint Elzéar of Sabran

Saint Elzéar of Sabran was a Provençal nobleman, count of Ariano in the Kingdom of Naples, and a counselor and diplomat at the Angevin court. Together with his wife, Blessed Delphine, he kept chastity throughout their marriage. The Church commemorates him on September 27, the day of his death.

He was born in 1285 or 1286 at Robians in Provence, near the castle of Ansouis, into the powerful Sabran family. He was brought up in the care of his uncle, William of Sabran, abbot of the monastery of Saint Victor in Marseille. By the will of King Charles II of Anjou he was betrothed while still a boy to Delphine of Glandèves, and the young couple married around 1300. Delphine wished to remain a virgin. In time Elzéar made this wish his own, and in 1316 they both made a vow of chastity before a Franciscan friar, while continuing to live together. The bull of canonization states, on the testimony of his wife and of his confessor, that he preserved his virginity.

After the death of his father, Ermengaud de Sabran, Elzéar inherited the county of Ariano. The people of the town resented Angevin rule and rebelled, and the new count won them over not by severity but by patience and gentleness. In 1312 he fought in Rome in the army of King Robert of Anjou against the troops of Emperor Henry VII. In his will of 1317 he asked to be buried in the Franciscan habit in the church of the Friars Minor at Apt. Franciscan tradition counts him, like Delphine, among the tertiaries, although the documents of his time, his will included, do not call him a tertiary.

Delphine joined her husband in Italy, and the couple lived mostly in Naples, at the court of King Robert and Queen Sancia. The king asked Elzéar to assist his son and heir, the young Charles, duke of Calabria, with his counsel. According to the bull of canonization, while Elzéar presided over the duke’s council he supported the petitions of the poor, so that everyone called him the advocate of the poor. The same bull describes him as a man generous in almsgiving who often served those in need himself, would not take revenge on any adversary, and fasted throughout Advent and on every Friday.

In 1323 he went to France as an envoy to negotiate the marriage of the widowed Duke Charles with Mary of Valois. In Paris he suddenly fell gravely ill, received the sacraments, and died on September 27, 1323. In accordance with his wishes he was buried in the church of the Franciscans at Apt, where miracles and healings were soon reported.

At the request of the bishops, nobles, and towns of Provence, Pope Clement VI ordered an inquiry into his life and miracles in 1351; Delphine also testified in the process. Urban V, who was Elzéar’s godson, enrolled him among the saints in Rome on April 15, 1369, and set his feast on September 27. The pope died before the bull was prepared, so it was issued only by his successor, Gregory XI, in Avignon on January 5, 1371. Blessed Delphine has her own memorial on November 26.