GERARDO di FRACHET. — Dominican chronicler, b. at Châlus near Limoges in 1195, d. at Limoges on 4 October 1271. A Dominican from 1225 in Paris, prior at Limoges and Marseille (1233–45), provincial of Provence (1251–59), and prior of Montpellier (1260–63), G. wrote the Chronica Ord. Praed. (the Prior, up to 1258), later generally joined to the Vitae Fratrum, ed. B. M. Reichert in Mon. Ord. Praed. Hist., I, Rome 1896, pp. 321–23; the Vitae Fratrum, ed. Reichert in Mon. Ord. Praed. Hist., I, pp. 1–304; the Chronicon ab orbe condito (up to about 1268), partly ed. by M. Bouquet in Recueil des Hist. des Gaules, XXI (Paris 1855), p. 3 ff., XXIII (1904), p. 179 ff.
G.’s Vitae Fratrum are an exceedingly important source for the history of the first decades of the Dominican Order. Although enveloped in a legendary style and spirit, the information is valuable and, for certain contemporaries, highly accurate. The work is divided into 5 books, concerning the beginnings of the Order, s. Domenico, the b. Giordano di Sassonia, the friars’ progress in virtue and discipline, and the death of the friars. Whereas Mandonnet has the Vitae Fratrum presented by master Umberto di Romans to the general chapter of 1259, B. Altaner and H. C. Scheeben hold that the publication took place in 1260 or thereafter. An Italian version dates from the 15th century; a German one is by R. Stadtmüller (Dülmen 1921).