Elzéar of Sabran

Who was Elzéar of Sabran?

Saint Elzéar of Sabran, T.O.S.F., Baron of Ansouis, Count of Ariano, was born in the castle of Saint-Jean-de-Robians, near Cabrières-d'Aigues in Provence, southern France, in 1285. He died in Paris, France, on September 27, 1323. He was a tertiary of the Franciscan Order as well as a ruler, diplomat and military leader.

In his youth, Elzéar was given a thorough training in the Christian faith as well as in the sciences under the supervision of his uncle, William of Sabran, at the Abbey of St. Victor in Marseille, where his uncle ruled as the Abbot. When he had reached the appropriate age, he acceded to the wish of King Charles II of Naples and married Delphine of Glandèves. Upon their wedding night, Delphine advised her new husband that she had taken a private vow of celibacy. Even though he had the right in canon law to make her abandon this commitment, Elzéar chose to respect her desire to live in virginity and even copied her example in making the same vow. Together they joined the Third Order of St. Francis.

Elzéar and Delphine lived a married life in which they vied with one another in the practice of prayer, mortification of the flesh and in charity towards the unfortunate. At the age of twenty he moved with his wife from Ansouis to Puimichel for greater solitude, and formulated for his servants rules of conduct that made his household a model of Christian virtue.