Gilduin of Le Puiset (d. between 1130 and 1135) was the son of

Hugh I of Le Puiset Hugh I of Le Puiset (died 23 December 1096), son of Everard I of Breteuil and his wife Humberge. In 1067, taking advantage of the weakness of Philip I of France, he seized the royal castle of Puiset and settled there. In 1073, Theobald III, Count ...

and Alice of Montlhéry, daughter of

Guy I of Montlhéry Guy I (died 1095) was the second lord of Bray and the second lord of Montlhéry (Latin: ''Monte Leterico''). He was probably the son of Thibaud of Montmorency, but some sources say that his father was named Milo. Thibaud may instead have been his ...

. Monk at St. Martin-des-Champs, prior at

Cluny Abbey Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter. The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...

, prior at Lurey-le-Bourg, abbot of St. Mary of the Valley of Jehosaphat. It is unclear when Gilduin became abbot of St. Mary, but he was in this position when his cousin Baldwin II confirmed the privileges of the abbey, the chief Marian shrine in Jerusalem, on 31 January 1120. In that same year, Gilduin and Baldwin II travelled to

Edessa Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene ...

, joining with Gilduin’s brother Waleran. There they met Hugh, Archbishop of Edessa. Hugh, in possession of two sacred relics — a finger of

St. Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

and a tooth of John the Baptist - was concerned about keeping the relics in a place that could be overrun by Moslems. He gave the relics to Gilduin for transfer to Cluny, now under

Pons of Melgueil Pons of Melgueil (''c''. 1075 – 1126) was the seventh Abbot of Cluny from 1109 to 1122. Pons was the second child of Peter I of Melgueil and Almodis of Toulouse. He was descended from a noble lineage of Languedoc which had long supported the ...

, a mission which he completed. Gilduin may have been associated with Barisan the Old. '' Les Lignages d’Outremer'' identified Balian

arisan An ''arisan'' is a form of Rotating Savings and Credit Association in Indonesian culture, a form of Microfinance. Generally the ''arisan'' is a social gathering that takes place at a fixed interval (this being an informal social network this may ...

as the brother of a Count Guilduin of Chartres. Riley-Smith speculates that Barisan may have been the illegitimate brother or brother-in-law of Gilduin, but there is little evidence to support this. It is not known who succeeded Gilduin as abbot of St. Mary.

Bibliography

* Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ''The First Crusaders, 1095-1131'', Cambridge University Press, London, 1997 * Nielen, Marie-Adélaïde, ''Lignages d’Outremer''. Paris, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres 2003 * Morris, Paul N., ''Roasting the Pig: A Vision of Cluny, Cockaigne and the Treatise of García of Toled'', Dissertation, UCLA, 2001
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References

{{Authority control Christians of the First Crusade Christian relics