Guy was a really great guy! Living in the late 900s and the early 1ooos, Guy grew up poor and illiterate, with parents who encouraged him to love God and neighbor and to find joy in knowing that Jesus, too, never had any possessions and nonetheless changed everything.

As he grew into adulthood, Guy concluded within himself that he truly was blessed not to have money and nor any elevated status. Butler tells us:

He showed to the rich and the great ones of the world all possible respect, but never envied or coveted their fortunes, and sighed sincerely to see men in all states so eagerly wedded to the goods of the earth, which they so much over-rate. When he met with poor persons who grieved to see themselves such, he exhorted them not to lose by murmuring, impatience, and unprofitable inordinate desires the treasure which God had put into their hands.

This treasure given to the poor? The opportunity to find the liberated life that Jesus lived, and to discover personally the truth of Christ’s affirmation: “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20, KJV)

Guy embraced the sheer goodness of each moment he found himself in, and he ached for the dissatisfaction of those around them–both rich and poor. Guy celebrated the chance life had provided him to walk in the ways of Jesus. And the impact that Guy’s spirit–rather than his learning, his building projects, his administration of an archdioceses, his sitting on pillars and advising kings, or his creation of religious orders or monasteries–had on those around him in his own small orbit became so profound and so lasting that this uneducated laborer is himself numbered among the saints. Rightly so!