Sometimes the only thing someone wants is to be left alone. Such was the case with Walter, who lived in France during the 1000s. In fact, a millennium later, Walter is, according to the Roman Catholic church, “invoked against job-related stress”! He just wanted to do his job and, otherwise, keep to himself.

Walter faced the problem of being almost too good at his job at the head of an important monastery. He began getting favors from the king, and the pope took a personal interest in Walter. So Walter began to run away from the monastery on a semi-regular basis when he just couldn’t bear the attention any more. Yet, as Butler reports, Walter “was always found and brought back again, and, to prevent his escaping, the pope sent him a strict order not to leave his abbey.” Uggh. Yes, job-related stress without any good option.

So Walter did the next best thing: he found a very small cell within the abbey and stayed in that room–only leaving it to perform acts of charity or to excrete or to do some of the menial tasks needed to clean up the monastery facilities. That was it…almost. Walter did one other thing that made me much less the darling of bishops and popes–Walter called out the practice of the church taking money to look the other way when it came to the sins of the rich and powerful (“simony”). Butler believably writes of Walter that decrying this see-no-evil-if-you-pay-enough practice “drew on him grievous persecutions: all which he bore not only with patience, but even with joy.”

Hey–if you’re forced to be miserable in your job no matter what, why not at least call out the hypocrisy?! And, oh yeah: Walter is also the patron saint of prisoners and vintners–probably really enjoyed his wine while locked in his abbey room at night!