Blessed Folquet de Marseille

Folquet de Marselha (alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse; c. 1150 – 25 December 1231) came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He was a celebrated troubadour who, after a religious conversion, became a Cistercian monk and later the bishop of Toulouse. Initially famed as a troubadour, he began composing songs in the 1170s and was known to Barral of Marseille, Richard the Lionhearted, Alfonso VIII of Castille, Raimond-Roger of Foix, Alfonso II of Aragon and William VIII of Montpellier. Primarily famed for his love songs, which were lauded by Dante, he wrote 14 surviving cansos, one tenson, one lament, one invective, three crusading songs and possibly one religious song (although its authorship is disputed). Like many other troubadours, he was later credited by the Biographies des Troubadours with having conducted love affairs with the various noblewomen about whom he sang (allegedly causing William VIII to divorce his wife, Eudocia Comnena), but all evidence suggests that Folquet's early life was considerably more prosaic and in keeping with his status as a wealthy citizen. A contemporary, John of Garlande, later described him as "renowned on account of his spouse, his progeny, and his home," all marks of bourgeois respectability. Folquet's life and career abruptly changed around 1195 when he experienced a profound religious conversion and decided to renounce his former life. He joined the strict Cistercian Order, entering the monastery of Thoronet (Var, France), and appears to have placed his wife and two sons in monastic institutions as well. He soon was elected its abbot, which allowed him to help found the sister house of Géménos to house women, quite possibly including his wife. Folquet was elected Bishop of Toulouse in 1205, after two Cistercian Papal legates had been sent to the region to reform it.