Overview

Jonas of Bobbio, writing in the mid seventh century, was not only a major Latin monastic author, but also an historical figure in his own right. Born in the ancient Roman town of Susa in the foothills of the Italian Alps, he became a monk of Bobbio, the monastery founded by the Irish exile Columbanus, soon after his death in 615. He became the archivist and personal assistant to successive Bobbio abbots, travelled to Rome to obtain the first papal privilege of immunity, and served as a missionary priest on the northern borderlands of the Frankish kingdom. He spent the rest of his life in Merovingian Gaul as abbot of the double monastic community of Marchiennes-Hamage, where he wrote his Life of Columbanus, one of the most influential works of early medieval hagiography. This book, the first major study devoted to Jonas of Bobbio, his corpus of three saints' Lives, and the Columbanian familia, explores the development of the Columbanian monastic network and its relationship to its founder. The Life of Columbanus was written following a period of crisis within the Columbanian familia and it was in response to this crisis that the Bobbio community in Lombard Italy commissioned Jonas to write the work. Alexander O'Hara presents the Life of Columbanus as a subtle and clever critique of the changes and crises that had taken place in the monastic communities since Columbanus's death. It also considers the life of Jonas as reflecting many of the changing political, cultural, and religious circumstances of the seventh century, and his writings as instrumental in shaping new concepts of sanctity and community. The result of the study is a unique perspective on the early medieval Age of Saints and the monastic and political worlds of Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy in the seventh century.

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9780190858032

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Reviews

There is a great deal that is valuable in O Hara s book. It portrays the continuity of a type of monasticism and set of beliefs that reflects those of the earliest phase of Irish Christianity. These include the preference for an effort-based spirituality as opposed to the reliance on grace advocated by Augustine; a limited acceptance of miracles and relics; and an historically-based biblical exegesis. But most importantly, it portrays the strategies of a highly intelligent and resourceful hagiographer, who skillfully manages to preserve the legacy of a great spiritual figure despite attempts from within and without to destroy it. -- Michael Herren, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Rich with examples and insights, the book is scholarship of the highest order by an author in complete command of his subject ... The book will be valuable for those specializing in church history and medieval thought ... Highly recommended. --CHOICE An engaging study of a little-known figure, shedding new light on monasteries associated with Columbanus. In O'Hara's hands, Jonas of Bobbio emerges as a perceptive commentator on religion, politics, and culture in seventh-century Frankia, with particular interests in royal patronage and in the qualities necessary for effective monastic leadership. --Sarah Foot, University of Oxford

"""There is a great deal that is valuable in O�Hara�s book. It portrays the continuity of a type of monasticism and set of beliefs that reflects those of the earliest phase of Irish Christianity. These include the preference for an effort-based spirituality as opposed to the reliance on grace advocated by Augustine; a limited acceptance of miracles and relics; and an historically-based biblical exegesis. But most importantly, it portrays the strategies of a highly intelligent and resourceful hagiographer, who skillfully manages to preserve the legacy of a great spiritual figure despite attempts from within and without to destroy it."" -- Michael Herren, Bryn Mawr Classical Review ""Rich with examples and insights, the book is scholarship of the highest order by an author in complete command of his subject ... The book will be valuable for those specializing in church history and medieval thought ... Highly recommended."" --CHOICE ""An engaging study of a little-known figure, shedding new light on monasteries associated with Columbanus. In O'Hara's hands, Jonas of Bobbio emerges as a perceptive commentator on religion, politics, and culture in seventh-century Frankia, with particular interests in royal patronage and in the qualities necessary for effective monastic leadership."" --Sarah Foot, University of Oxford"

Author Information

Dr Alexander O'Hara is a Research Fellow of the Institut f�r Mittelalterforschung in the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna and an Honorary Research Fellow of the School of History in the University of St Andrews. He is editor of Columbanus and the Peoples of Post-Roman Europe.

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