Geoffrey de Gorham

[[File:Stone making the 1978 reburial of Medieval monks at St Albans Cathedral, December 2021.jpg|thumb|right|Stone marking the 1978 reburial of the remains of Geoffrey de Gorham and other Abbots of St Albans at [[St Albans Cathedral]]]] '''Geoffrey de Gorham''' (Goreham, [[Gorron]]), sometimes called Geoffrey of Dunstable or of Le Mans (died at [[St Albans]], 26 February 1146), was a [[Normans|Norman]] scholar who became [[Abbot of St Albans Abbey]], 1119 to 1146.<ref name=Burton>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06427b.htm Burton, Edwin. "Geoffrey of Dunstable." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 28 August 2022 {{PD-notice}}</ref>

==Life== Geoffrey, born in the [[Maine (province)|province of Maine]], then annexed to the [[Dukedom of Normandy]], was from a noble family of Caen, Normandy. He was invited by Richard d'Aubeney, Abbot of St Albans, to become master of the [[St Albans School (Hertfordshire)|Abbey school]]. On his arrival, he found that, owing to his journey being delayed, another had been appointed, whereupon he opened a school at [[Dunstable]].<ref name=Burton/>

According to the ''Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani'' ("The Deeds of the Abbots of the Monastery of St Alban"), Geoffrey staged a [[miracle play]] on [[Catherine of Alexandria|St. Katherine]]. A chronicle relates how he had borrowed some [[cope]]s from [[St Albans Cathedral|St Albans Abbey]] for the performance, but had the misfortune to lose his books and the copes in a fire at his house in the night after the performance. To make up to God and the saint for the loss of the copes, he determined to become a monk of St Albans Abbey.<ref>Richard Axton, ''European Drama of the Early Middle Ages'' (1974), p. 161.</ref>

===Abbot=== Here he rose to be prior, and finally was elected abbot on the death of Richard, in 1119. He ruled for twenty-six years, and the abbey prospered. He built a fine guests' hall, and an infirmary with a chapel. Although he spent large sums on a new shrine of [[Saint Alban|St Alban]], he did not hesitate during a year of famine to remove the silver plates and use them to relieve the poor. He translated the body of the saint to the completed shrine on 2 August 1129. He also founded the hospital of St. Julian for lepers, on the London road.<ref name=Hunt>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Geoffrey of Gorham}}</ref>

During the wars of King [[Stephen of England|Stephen]]'s reign, he melted down other silver and gave it to [[William of Ypres]],<ref name=amt>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Amt|first=Emilie|title=The Accession of Henry II in England: Royal Government Restored, 1149-1159|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|year=1993|isbn=0851153488|pages=88}}</ref> and the [[William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel|Earl of Arundel]], as ransom for the town of St. Albans, which they threatened to burn.<ref name=Burton/><ref name=Hunt/>

[[File:Margate lg.jpg|thumb|[[St. Albans Psalter]]]] Geoffrey endowed the nunnery at [[Sopwell Priory|Sopwell]].<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol4/pp422-426 British History Online: Victoria County History, Hertfordshire - ''A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 4'': Houses of Benedictine nuns: Sopwell Priory]</ref> [[Markyate Priory]], in [[Hertfordshire]], was founded in 1145, in a wood which was then part of the parish of [[Caddington]], and belonged to the Dean and Chapter of [[St Paul's Cathedral]], London. The house was built under the patronage of Geoffrey, for his friend, the [[recluse]] [[Christina of Markyate]]. It has been suggested by Janet Geddes and other scholars that Geoffrey's esteem for the prioress was such that he had a [[St. Albans Psalter|psalter]] made as a gift for her; and in celebration of their friendship had an illuminated "C" placed at the beginning of Psalm 105.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.abdn.ac.uk/stalbanspsalter/english/translation/trans285.shtml |title=St Alban's Psalter translation and transcription |last=Geddes |first=Jane}}</ref>

Geoffrey de Gorham died at St Albans 26 February 1146. His nephew Robert de Gorham became the eighteenth Abbot in 1151.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=I2GFEIVDHwEC&dq=Geoffrey+de+Gorham&pg=PA18 Gorham, George Cornelius. ''Genealogical accounts of the Breton and Anglo-Breton families De Gorram, in the Maine, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries.'', vol 1, J.B. Nichols and Son, 1837, p. 18]</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

;Attribution *{{Catholic|wstitle=Geoffrey of Dunstable}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle=Geoffrey of Gorham}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geoffrey De Gorham}} [[Category:1146 deaths]] [[Category:Norman Benedictines]] [[Category:Abbots of St Albans]] [[Category:Anglo-Normans]] [[Category:Burials at St Albans Cathedral]] [[Category:Year of birth unknown]] [[Category:12th-century Christian abbots]]