Jonas of Bobbio (also known as Jonas of Susa) (Sigusia, now
Susa, Italy, 600 – after 659 AD) was a Columbanian monk and a major Latin monastic author of
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
. His ''Life of Saint
Columbanus'' is "one of the most influential works of early medieval hagiography."
[O'Hara, Alexander. ''Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus'', Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity (New York)](_blank)
Biography
![Abbazia di Bobbio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Abbazia_di_Bobbio.jpg)
Jonas was born in
Susa, Piedmont
Susa ( lat, Segusio, french: Suse, frp, Suisa) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy. In the middle of Susa Valley, it is situated on at the confluence of the Cenischia with the Dora Riparia, a tributary of ...
. In 618, Jonas arrived at the
Abbey of St. Columbanus at
Bobbio
Bobbio ( Bobbiese: ; lij, Bêubbi; la, Bobium) is a small town and commune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a di ...
in the province of
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
. He was soon appointed archivist and personal secretary to the abbot
Attala (died 627) and later, to his successor Bertulf. In 628, the
Bishop of Tortona
The Diocese of Tortona ( la, Dioecesis Derthonensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Italy, spanning parts of three regions of Piedmont (Province of Alessandria), Lombardy (Province of Pav ...
attempted to bring Bobbio under his own jurisdiction. Jonas accompanied Bertulf on a journey to Rome to persuade
Pope Honorius I
Pope Honorius I (died 12 October 638) was the bishop of Rome from 27 October 625 to his death. He was active in spreading Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and attempted to convince the Celts to calculate Easter in the Roman fashion. He is chief ...
to exempt Bobbio from episcopal jurisdiction, and make the abbey immediately subject to the Holy See.
[ Jonas relates that, while returning to the monastery, Bertulf suffered a deadly fever, but was miraculously cured by St. Peter.
Immediately after his return, Jonas moved to ]Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
, and his biography of Eustace of Luxeuil
Eustace of Luxeuil (c. 560 – c. 626), also known as Eustasius, was the second abbot of Luxeuil from 611. He succeeded his teacher Columbanus, to whom he had been a favorite disciple and monk. He had been the head of the monastic school.
Life ...
, reflects personal acquaintance.[Weber, Nicholas. "Jonas of Bobbio." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 31 August 2022 Saint Amand
Amandus ( 584 – 679), commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the great Christian missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium.
Life
The chief source of details ...
asked Jonas for assistance in his missionary work among the pagans of what is now Belgium and northern France, which occasioned his ''vita
Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to:
* ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography
* Vit ...
'' of Saint Vedast
Vedast or Vedastus, also known as Saint Vaast (in Flemish, Norman and Picard) or Saint Waast (also in Picard and Walloon), Saint Gaston in French, and Foster in English (died ) was an early bishop in the Frankish realm. After the victory of ...
, the first Frankish Bishop of Arras
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras (–Boulogne–Saint-Omer) (Latin: ''Dioecesis Atrebatensis (–Bononiena–Audomarensis)''; French: ''Diocèse d'Arras (–Boulogne–Saint-Omer)'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church i ...
. In fulfillment of a promise made to the monks of Bobbio during a short return visit to the monastery in 639, he wrote between 640 and 643 his principal work, the ''Life of St. Columbanus''. Jonas asserted that he had based his account on the testimony of persons who had known him personally, such as the saint's companions. As almost all accounts of the Irish missionaries in Gaul have been lost, the biography of Columban is of great value.
In 659, Jonas was sent by the Queen-Regent Balthild
Balthild (; ang, Bealdhild, 'bold sword' or 'bold spear; around 626 – 30 January 680), also spelled Bathilda, Bauthieult or Baudour, was queen consort of Neustria and Burgundy by marriage to Clovis II, the King of Neustria and Burgundy (639 ...
as abbot to a monastery in Chalon-sur-Saône. He has sometimes been identified with Jonatus
Jonatus or Jonath (died ) was a Christian monk. He was a monk at the monastery of Elnone under Abbot Amandus. He served as the first abbot of the monastery of Marchiennes from 641, according to the '' Annals of Marchiennes''.. This monastery ha ...
, recorded as abbot of Marchiennes
Marchiennes () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
It was fictionally portrayed in Émile Zola's Germinal.
Heraldry
See also
*Communes of the Nord department
The following is a list of the 648 communes of the Nord dep ...
around the same time, although no medieval source identifies the two or equates their names. During this journey he sojourned for a few days at the monastery of Réôme (Reomans, now Moutiers-Saint-Jean
Moutiers-Saint-Jean () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France. It is named after the monastery of Saint John of Réôme.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Côte-d'Or department
The following is a list of the 698 c ...
) in the diocese of Langres
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Langres (Latin: ''Dioecesis Lingonensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Langres'') is a Roman Catholic diocese comprising the ''département'' of Haute-Marne in France.
The diocese is now a suffragan in ecclesiastical pr ...
. To comply with a request made by the monks on this occasion he wrote the life of their founder, Jean de Réôme.
The other works of Jonas are lives of the abbots Attala and Bertulf of Bobbio and of the abbess Burgundofara
Burgundofara (died 643 or 655), also Saint Fara or Fare, was the founder and first Abbess of the Abbey of Faremoutiers.
Life
Her family is knowns as the Faronids, named after her brother Saint Faro. Her name may mean: 'She who moves the Burgundi ...
of Evoriac (modern Faremoutiers
Faremoutiers () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.
History
Originally named ''Evoriacum'', Faremoutiers was renamed in honour of Saint Fara, who founded the Abbey of Faremoutiers ...
). 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 ...
incorporated the lives of Eustace, Attala, and Bertulf into his ''Ecclesiastical History
__NOTOC__
Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception.
Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritua ...
'', while Flodoard
Flodoard of Reims (; 893/4 – 28 March 966) was a Frankish chronicler and priest of the cathedral church of Reims in the West Frankish kingdom during the decades following the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. His historical writings are m ...
turned that of Columbanus into hexameter verse. The "Life of St. Fara" is chiefly an account of miraculous events alleged to have occurred during this saint's rule at Evoriac, but Jonas' elaborate and fantastically miraculous account contains nuggets of historical information that throw light upon a poorly documented time.[
The works of Jonas, exclusive of the "Life of St. Vaast", are printed in '' Patrologia Latina'' LXXXVII, 1011–88.][
]
Veneration
Jonas is venerated in Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
:
* 28 May – commemoration, (Bollandists
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 ...
),
* 28 June – commemoration, Menologium Scotorum by Thomas Dempster
Thomas Dempster (23 August 1579 – 6 September 1625) was a Scottish scholar and historian. Born into the aristocracy in Aberdeenshire, which comprises regions of both the Scottish highlands and the Scottish lowlands, he was sent abroad as a yo ...
,
References
External links
*Works:
*
*
600 births
7th-century deaths
People from the Province of Turin
Italian Benedictines
7th-century Latin writers
Christian hagiographers
7th-century Italian writers
{{RC-bio-stub
Irish literature
7th-century Christian saints
Italian Roman Catholic saints
Colombanian saints
Italian abbots