caption suppressed_date death_date death_place feast_day imagesize venerated_in patronage titles major_shrine image article_title name beatified_date
saint diocese of laoag . william in the cathedral of the roman catholic cross ; skull 10 february 1157 maleval 10 february 250px roman catholic church laoag city ; ilocos norte hermit laoag city saint william the hermit.jpg william of maleval
 william of maleval 1202
william of maleval

william of maleval -lrb- or william the great -rrb- -lrb- died 10 february 1157 -rrb- was the founder of the catholic congregation of williamites , a branch of the hermits of st. augustine .
he was beatified in 1202 .
the account of his life , written by his disciple albert , who lived with him during his last year at maleval , has been lost .
written accounts of his life by theodobald , or thibault , given by the bollandists , is unreliable because it has been interpolated with the lives of at least two other williams .
after a number of chapters in which he is confused with st. william of gellone , duke of aquitaine , we are told that he went to rome , where he had an interview with pope eugene iii , who ordered him to make a pilgrimage to jerusalem in penance for his sins .
though theodobald 's account of his interview with the pope does not carry conviction , the fact of this visit and his subsequent pilgrimage to jerusalem is supported by excerpts from the older life , which are preserved by responsories and antiphons in his liturgical feast office .
he seems to have remained at jerusalem for one or two years , not nine as theodobald relates .
about 1153 he returned to italy and led a hermit 's life in a wood near pisa , then on monte pruno , and finally in 1155 in the desert valley of `` stabulum rodis '' , later known as maleval , in the territory of castiglione della pescaia , diocese of grosseto , where he was joined by albert .
