Galle of Valence

About Galle of Valence

Galle of Valence belongs to the saints remembered in the Rhône valley. The Diocese of Valence places her life tentatively in the later sixth century and points to an eleventh-century manuscript in the Vatican Library that preserves her story. Its account describes her receiving the veil of a consecrated virgin at Valence in the presence of seven bishops.

The parish that bears her name also calls her Jalle, or Galla in Latin. Its tradition describes a woman who declined marriage and chose a life devoted to God. It remembers her prayer at Saint Peter’s church and her care for poor and sick people in Bourg-lès-Valence. This account presents her as a consecrated woman living among the townspeople, without identifying her as a member of a monastic order.

The diocesan version tells a different geographical story after her consecration: she returns to the country around Nyons, intercedes for a besieged population and is buried at Bagenum. The church and settlement subsequently bear the name Sainte-Jalle.

The parish version instead locates her protection of a besieged community at Valence and places her burial near its cathedral. These traditions preserve her reputation as a protector, but do not provide a single secure itinerary.

Her remembrance is also attached to a surviving medieval building. Guy Barruol identifies the church at Sainte-Jalle as a former Cluniac priory church, dating its fabric to the twelfth century. It received the name Notre-Dame de Beauvert after restoration in 1855.

The present parish of Sainte Jalle explicitly chose her as its patron and protector. The Diocese of Valence commemorates her on November 6.