Gebizo, St.
GEBIZO, ST.
Monk; d. Oct. 21, 1078 or 1087. About 1060 he left Cologne and made a pilgrimage to monte cassino with the advice and assistance of the Empress Agnes (d. 1077). Abbot Desiderius, later Pope victor iii, received him into the benedictine Order. Gebizo was a lover of prayer and silence, and he practiced great self–denial, taking no foods with oil or animal fat. He was confused with the future bishop of Cesena and thus falsely reported to have been sent in 1076 as the legate of gregory vii to crown the Croatian king, Demetrius Zvonimir (d. 1089). At the end of his life Gebizo suffered great pain from an abscess on his chest, but he continued to beg God for additional sufferings. The bishop of Venafro treated him but could not help him. He was always called a saint, even in his earliest biographies, but there is no trace of any liturgical veneration. He is mentioned in the monastic martyrology, but not in the Roman, although his cult has been approved. His picture may be seen in Cesena in the church of S. Maria del Monte.
Feast: Oct. 21.
Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum, Oct. 9:397–405. j. p. migne, Patrologia latina, 173:1107–10. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige 3:205–207.
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