St Theobald healing oil

Description

The St Theobald healing oil is dedicated Theobald of Provins, O.S.B. (1033–1066). He was a French hermit and saint. He was born at Provins to the French nobility, his father being Arnoul, Count of Champagne.

As a youth, Theobald admired the lives of hermits. He would visit a local hermit named Burchard, who lived on an island in the Seine.

Theobald refused to get married or to begin a career either in the army or at court. When war broke out 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 Sussy in the Ardennes. They then traveled to Pettingen, where they worked as day laborers.

Theobald joins the Camaldolese

The two friends became pilgrims on the Way of St. James and afterwards returned to the Diocese of Trier. They then made a pilgrimage to Rome and planned to go to the Holy Land by way of Venice. However, Walter fell ill.. After Walter died, Theobald joined a group of hermits who had gathered in the area under the founder of the Camaldolese, St. Romuald. 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 to the prior of his Camaldolese community. He had been summoned for this purpose when it was realized how close Theobald was to death.

Theobald died in Sossano on June 30, now his feast day, in A.D. 1066. His relics were translated to a monastery nears Sens, and then to Auxerre.

Theobald was canonized in 1073 by Pope Alexander II. Numerous miracles, some occurring before and some after his death, are reported of him.