Animals / Gerlac of Valkenburg, 1100–1172, Feast Day: January 5

A Dutch mercenary who led a wild life as a soldier and highwayman, Gerlac was devastated by news of his wife’s death. He converted to Christianity and spent the rest of his life doing penance. After caring for the sick in Jerusalem for seven years, he went back to his native Netherlands and returned to nature, living in a hollowed-out tree and communing with the denizens of the forest.