JONAS, ABBOT - 28 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 28th of May

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JONAS, ABBOT 

Various authors call Jonas an abbot of Luxeuil in Burgundy, some state he was an Englishman, Scottish or Irishman, a few identify him as called a Swede by birth. But according to the Bollandists [hagiographers], his home was northern Italy (Piedmont) and Susa (Segusia) at the foot of Mont-Cenis his native city.

Incidentally, the Bollandists make frequent mention of Jonas in their work, since he composed various lives of the saints and revised other, older books about individual saints. Thus he wrote the life of Abbot Attalas of Bobbio (March 10). He also penned the life stories of the Abbots Columbanus, Bertulphus and Eustasius, and that of the Abbess Burgundosara. In the life of Attalas it says that Jonas himself lived under Abbot Attalas in Bobbio. This he did for five years; after that he lived under Attalas' successor, Bertulphus for a further 13 years. The life of Columbanus was written by him when St Bobulenus was abbot.  

In the life of St Walaricus (April 1) the Bollandists call this "Abbot Jonas" a great man, full of eloquence and adept at speaking. Since St Attalas died in A.D. 626, we can deduct that Jonas came to him in 617. [Jonas' date of death is not known, but] he must have reached a ripe old age. 

According to Burgener Jonas was the secretary of St Attalas and then also of St Bertulphus, whom he accompanied on a trip to Rome. He probably became abbot of Elnon later and was still alive in 665.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 Bobbio flask [pilgrimage flask with image of the Holy Sepulchre], Bobbio Abbey, VI c.)