Feastday: October 11
Patron: of childless people, courtiers, cowherds, difficult marriages, glove makers, hernia sufferers, separated spouses, woodcutters
Birth: 717
Death: 774
Gummarus was a son of the lord of Emblem, near Lierre in Brabant. He grew up without learning to read or write, but served at the court of Pepin, where from a spirit of religion he was faithful in every duty and liberal in owrks of mercy. Pepin raised hinm to a high post, and proposed a match between him and a lady of good birth named Guinimaria, and the marriage was solemnized with their mutual consent. This marriage, which seemed unhappy in the eyes of the world, was directed by God to perfect the virtue of His servant and exalt him to the glory of saints: for Guinimaria was extravagant and perverse in her ways, cruel, capricious and altogether unteachable. Life became from that time a train of continual trials for Gummarus. St. Gummarus for several years endeavoured by all means which prudence and charity could suggest to encourage his wife to ways more agreeable to reason and religion. Then he was called upon by King Pepin to attend him in his wars, and he was absent eight years. Returning home, he found his wife had thrown all things into disorder, and that few among his servants, vassals or tenants had escaped her oppression. She was so mean that she even refused beer to the reapers at harvest. Gummarus made to every one of them full restitution and satisfaction; and Guinimaria was so far overcome by his patience and kindness as to be ashamed of her past conduct, and to seem penitent. This change, however, was only exterior, and her wilfulness broke out again worse than ever. Gummarus tried to reclaim her: but at length he gave up the attempt and lived a retired life. With St. Romuold he is said to have founded the abbey at Lierre which afterwards bore his name. His feast day is October 11th.
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Reliquary in Lier
Saint Gummarus of Lier (also known as Gommaire, Gommer or Gummery) is a Belgian saint. He was the son of the Lord of Emblem (near Lier, Belgium). An official in the court of his relative Pepin the Younger or Pepin of Herstal according to some other sources, after a number of years in military service he retired to live the life of a hermit. The town of Lier grew up around his hermitage.
Life
Gummarus was a native of Emblehem, referring to an area including Lier and not just the town of Emblem, in Brabant, and a relative of Pippin the Younger, who called him to his court and entrusted him with important offices. The king arranged a marriage between Gummarus and a wealthy noblewoman named Guinmarie, extravagant and haughty. His wife appears to have been shrewish as well as abusive to their household servants in his absence. They had no children.
Gummarus accompanied Pepin on a number of military campaigns, and spent eight years in the field, in Cardekho, Saxony, and the Aquitaine. Upon his return from the military, Gummarus tried to reconcile with his wife and remedy the injustices she had laid upon the people in their service. That he might have a place of quiet and retirement, and in order to attend his private devotions, he built a chapel called Nivesdunc.
Statu of Sint-Gummarus, inside the Sint-Gummaruschurch in Lier
Gummarus and his wife eventually separated. He became a hermit at Nivesdunc and the town of Lier, Belgium grew up around the site of the hermitage where he died in 774. Other sources place his time of death around 714. The latter is more likely the true time of death as Gummarus was said to have met saint Rumbold of Mechelen who has been determined to have died between 580 and 655. In 754 or 815 he was recognized as a saint
Veneration
Saint Rumbold meets Saint Gummarus, Cathedral of Mechelen
St. Gummarus is the patron saint of Lier. A number of miracles were attributed to his intercession. He is commemorated by the Roman Catholic Church, and the Western Rite Orthodox on 11 October.
The site of his hermitage is now St. Peter's chapel. The collegiate Church of St. Gummarus was built in Brabantine Gothic in 1378. Every year on the first Sunday after October 10th, the city holds the Sint-Gummarus Fair, which includes a procession in which the saint's relics are carried through the streets of Lier.
Brouwerij Cornelissen of Limburg, Belgium brews an award-winning Sint Gummarus Tripel.
Iconography
Gummarus was assumed to have been a close companion of the Christian missionary Rumbold of Mechelen, who worked in Brabant, and is sometimes credited with helping Rumbold found an abbey at Lier. For this reason they are often depicted together in paintings and stained glass windows. However a 2004 examination of relics believed to be those of Rumbold suggests that he likely died over fifty years before Gummarus was born, so they would not have been contemporaries.
