Theobald of Provins, O.S.B. Cam. (french: Saint Thibaut, Thibault, Thiébaut) (1033–1066) was a French hermit and
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
. He was born at Provins to the French nobility, his father being Arnoul, Count of Champagne.François Verdier, ''Saints de Provins et comtes de Champagne. Essai sur l'imaginaire médiéval'', Guéniot, Langres 2007. He was named after his uncle, Theobald of Vienne, also considered a saint.H. Pomeroy Brewster, ''Saints and festivals of the Christian Church'', F.A. Stokes, 1904, pp. 314-315.
As a youth, Theobald admired the lives of hermits such as John the Baptist, Paul the First Hermit,
Anthony the Abbot
Anthony the Great ( grc-gre, Ἀντώνιος ''Antṓnios''; ar, القديس أنطونيوس الكبير; la, Antonius; ; c. 12 January 251 – 17 January 356), was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is d ...
and Arsenius the Great. He would visit a local hermit named Burchard, who lived on an island in the
.
Theobald refused to get married or to begin a career either in the army or at court. When war broke out between his cousin
Odo II, Count of Blois
Odo II () (983 – 15 November 1037) was the count of Blois, Chartres, Châteaudun, Beauvais and Tours from 1004 and count of Troyes (as Odo IV) and Meaux (as Odo I) from 1022. He twice tried to make himself a king: first in Italy after 1024 and t ...
, and
Conrad the Salic
Conrad II ( – 4 June 1039), also known as and , was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms ...
over the Burgundian crown, Theobald refused to lead troops to help his cousin and convinced his father to let him become a hermit.
Theobald left home with a friend named Walter to become a hermit at
Suxy
Chiny (; wa, Tchini) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
On 1 January 2018 the municipality, which covers , had 5,175 inhabitants, giving a population density of 46 inhabitants per km2.
The m ...
Way of St. James
The Camino de Santiago ( la, Peregrinatio Compostellana, "Pilgrimage of Compostela"; gl, O Camiño de Santiago), known in English as the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the Twelve Apostle ...
and afterwards returned to the Diocese of Trier. They then made a pilgrimage to Rome and planned to go to the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
by way of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. However, Walter fell ill near Salanigo, near Vicenza, where they decided to settle. After Walter died, Theobald joined a group of hermits who had gathered in the area under the guidance of the founder of the Camaldolese, St.
Romuald
Romuald ( la, Romualdus; 951 – traditionally 19 June, c. 1025/27 AD) was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century "Renaissance of eremitical asceticism".John Howe, "The Awesome Hermit: The Symbolic ...
. The Bishop of Vicenza eventually ordained Theobald a priest. His background, however, was soon discovered and his parents came to visit him.
Theobald's mother, Gisela, received the permission of her husband to stay with their son and became a hermit herself near this place of retreat. Theobald died from an illness in which the skin of every limb was covered over in blotches and ulcers.
Shortly before he died, Theobald made his profession of
religious vows
Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views.
In the Buddhism tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition, many different kinds of re ...
to the
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
of his Camaldolese community, who had been summoned for this purpose when it was realized how close Theobald was to death.
Veneration
Theobald died in
Sossano
Sossano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, north-easternItaly. Via Circonvallazione goes through the town.
The ''comune'' of Sossano borders on Agugliaro, Albettone, Campiglia dei Berici, Noventa Vicentina, Orgiano, ...
on June 30, now his
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
, in A.D. 1066. His relics were
translated
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
to a monastery nears
Sens
Sens () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France, 120 km from Paris.
Sens is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture and the second city of the d ...
Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or (; literally, "Golden Slope") is a département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 534,124.canonized in 1073 by
Pope Alexander II
Pope Alexander II (1010/1015 – 21 April 1073), born Anselm of Baggio, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1061 to his death in 1073. Born in Milan, Anselm was deeply involved in the Pataria refor ...
. Numerous miracles, some occurring before and some after his death, are reported of him. His
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
is centered on Provins and Saint-Thibault-en-Auxois, where the Cluniac priory had some of his relics. He is the patron saint of charcoal-burners.