St. Bonitus
Feastday: January 15
623 - 710
St. Bonitus, Bishop of Auvergne, Confessor
Also known as Bonet, Bonitus was born in Auvergne, France. He became chancellor of Sigebert III of Austrasia, was appointed governor of Marseilles by Thierry III in 667, and was named Bishop of Clermont in 689. He resigned the See because of doubts about the validity of his election, led a life of holiness as a hermit at the Benedictine Abbey of Manglieu at Clermont, and died at Lyons while returning from his pilgrimage to Rome. His feast day is January 15th.
ST. BONET was referendary or chancellor to Sigebert III. the holy king of Austrasia; and by his zeal, religion, and justice, flourished in that kingdom under four kings. After the death of Dagobert II. Thierry III. made him governor of Marseilles and all Provence, in 680. His elder brother St. Avitus II. bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, having recommended him for his successor, died in 689, and Bonet was consecrated. But after having governed that see ten years, with the most exemplary piety, he had a scruple whether his election had been perfectly canonical; and having consulted St. Tilo, or Theau, then leading an eremitical life at Solignas, resigned his dignity, led for four years a most penitential life in the abbey of Manlieu, now of the order of St. Bennet, and after having made a pilgrimage to Rome, died of the gout at Lyons on the fifteenth of January in 710, being eighty-six years old. His relics were enshrined in the cathedral at Clermont; but some small portions are kept at Paris in the churches of St. Germain l’Auxerrois, and St. Bont. near that of St. Merry. See his life wrote by a monk of Sommon in Auvergne, in the same century, published by Bollandus; also le Cointe, an. 699. Gallia Christiana Nova, &c.
No comments:
Post a Comment