Ado of Vienne ( la, Ado Viennensis, french: Adon de Vienne; died 16 December 874) was

archbishop of Vienne The Archbishopric of Vienne, named after its episcopal seat in Vienne in the Isère département of southern France, was a metropolitan Roman Catholic archdiocese. It is now part of the Archdiocese of Lyon. History The legend according to whic ...

Lotharingia Lotharingia ( la, regnum Lotharii regnum Lothariense Lotharingia; french: Lotharingie; german: Reich des Lothar Lotharingien Mittelreich; nl, Lotharingen) was a short-lived medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. As a more durable ...

from 850 until his death and is venerated as a saint. He belonged to a prominent

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

family and spent much of his early adulthood in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Several of his letters are extant and reveal their writer as an energetic man of wide sympathies and considerable influence. Ado's principal works are a

martyrology A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by na ...

, and a chronicle, ''Chronicon sive Breviarium chronicorum de sex mundi aetatibus de Adamo usque ad annum 869''.

Early life

Born into a noble family, he was sent as a child for his education, first to Sigulfe, abbot of Ferrières, and then to Marcward, abbot of Prüm near

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

. After the death of Marcward in 853, Ado went to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

where he stayed for nearly five years, and then to

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

, after which Remy,

archbishop of Lyon The Archdiocese of Lyon (Latin: ''Archidiœcesis Lugdunensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Lyon''), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The Archbishops ...

, gave him the parish of Saint-Romain near Vienne. The following year he was elected archbishop of Vienne and dedicated in August or September 860, despite opposition from Girart de Roussillon,

Count of Paris Count of Paris () was a title for the local magnate of the district around Paris in Carolingian times. After Hugh Capet was elected King of France in 987, the title merged into the crown and fell into disuse. However, it was later revived by the ...

, and his wife Berthe.

Episcopal career

Ado participated in the

Council of Tousy A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

, near

Toul Toul () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, and the river Moselle and Canal de la Marne au Rhin. Climate Toul h ...

in Lorraine, on 22 October 860, and held a council at Vienne in 870. After his death on 16 December 876, his body was buried in the Church of the Apostles in Vienne, now called St. Peter's Church, the usual place of burial of the archbishops of Vienne. His feast day is celebrated on 16 December.

Writings

Ado's chronicle is based on that of

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

, with which he combines extracts from the ordinary sources, forming the whole into a consecutive narrative founded on the conception of the unity of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, which he traces in the succession of the emperors,

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

and his heirs following immediately after

Constantine VI Constantine VI ( gr, Κωνσταντῖνος, ''Kōnstantinos''; 14 January 771 – before 805Cutler & Hollingsworth (1991), pp. 501–502) was Byzantine emperor from 780 to 797. The only child of Emperor Leo IV, Constantine was named co-emp ...

and

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), the Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United Stat ...

. "It is," says

Wilhelm Wattenbach Wilhelm Wattenbach (22 September 181920 September 1897), was a German historian. He was born at Rantzau in Holstein. He studied philology at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, and in 1843 he began to work upon the ''Monumenta Ge ...

, "history from the point of view of authority and preconceived opinion, which exclude any independent judgment of events." Endnotes: * Wattenbach, W. ''Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen'', Vol. I. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1904). Ado wrote also a book on the

miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

s (''

Miracula ''Miracula'' is a genus of parasitic protists that parasite diatoms, containing the sole species ''Miracula helgolandica''. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Miraculaceae, of uncertain taxonomic position within the Oomycetes. They're ...

'') of Saint Bernard, archbishop of Vienne (9th century), published in the

Bollandist The Bollandist Society ( la, Societas Bollandistarum french: Société des Bollandistes) are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century h ...

Acta Sanctorum ''Acta Sanctorum'' (''Acts of the Saints'') is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. The project w ...

''; a life or ''martyrium'' of Saint Desiderius, bishop of Vienne (d. 608); and a life of Saint

Theuderius Saint Theuderius (or Theuderis, Theudar, Theodore, Cherf, Chef, french: Theudère de Vienne; died ) was a Christian monk, abbot and hermit. His feast day is 29 October. Life Saint Theuderius was born in the 6th century in Arcisse, near the mod ...

of Vienne, otherwise known as Theudericus of the Dauphinê, abbot of

Saint-Chef Saint-Chef () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. The commune is named after Saint Chef, who was born in the nearby hamlet of Arcisse. climate Saint-Chef has a semi-continental climate characterized by generally high ...

near Vienne (563).

Sources

The Royal Library of Copenhagen preserves an unedited

which dates back to the 11th century and comes from the Abbey of Santa Maria, Serrateix, with information on Ado of Vienne, the

Rule of Saint Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

and other abbots and monks of that time.

Notes

External links

Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes
Bishops in the Carolingian Empire 9th-century archbishops Archbishops of Vienne 874 deaths Year of birth unknown 9th-century Latin writers Saints from the Carolingian Empire Historians from the Carolingian Empire 9th-century Lotharingian people {{France-RC-bishop-stub