ELZEARIUS OF ARIANO, St. — E. de Sabran, Baron of Ansouis, Count of Ariano (Benevento), Franciscan tertiary, b. c. 1285 at St. Jean de Robians in Provence. Educated and instructed by his paternal uncle William, Abbot of St. Victor in Marseilles, Delfina de Glandèves (v.) with whom he lived in chastity.
In 1309 he came to Italy to take possession of the County of Ariano; in 1312 he fought at Rome against the Ghibellines and Emperor Henry VII of Luxemburg. In 1317 he returned to Italy where he was chosen as minister by Charles, Duke of Calabria, son of King Robert. He died on 27 Sept. 1323 at Paris, whither he had gone to obtain the hand of Mary of Valois for the same Charles; he was buried, clothed in the Franciscan habit, in the church of the Friars Minor, later transferred to that of Apt in Provence. Canonized on 15 Apr. 1369 by Urban V (the bull of canonization was published by Gregory XI on 5 Jan. 1371), he is venerated at Apt, in other provinces of France, and in the Franciscan Order.