Monks, Kings, and the Transformation of Sanctity: Jonas of Bobbio and the End of the Holy Man

Medieval Academy of America

Monks, Kings, and the Transformation of Sanctity: Jonas of Bobbio and the End of the HolyManAuthor(s): Albrecht DiemSource: Speculum, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Jul., 2007), pp. 521-559Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20466000 .

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Monks, Kings, and the Transformation of Sanctity: Jonas of Bobbio and

the End of the Holy Man

By Albrecht Diem

When Peter Brown wrote his seminal article on the rise and function of the holy man in 1971,1 his observations were predominantly based on source material related to the world of late-antique Syria and Byzantium. His own later studies and those by scholars following him investigated to what extent his powerful model of the holy man could be applied in a modified form to other parts of the Christian late-antique world. Other studies have examined what happened to this model when the political and social circumstances supporting the holy man's rise changed-when the world of late antiquity was replaced by new worlds demand ing new models of sanctity.2 This article aims at providing another contribution to that question. It focuses on the transformation of sanctity in Merovingian Gaul and, more particularly, on the role this transformation played in the development of early-medieval monasticism.3 Within the monastic world of Gaul, a major turn ing point in this development can be identified quite precisely. As I will argue,

This article has been written as part of the Wittgenstein Project "Ethnische Identit?ten im fr?hmittel

alterlichen Europa" at the Institut f?r Mittelalterforschung of the ?sterreichische Akademie der Wis

senschaften, sponsored by the Fonds zur F?rderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. I would like to

thank Isabelle Cochelin, Maximilian Diesenberger, Bonnie Effros, Anne-Marie Helv?tius, Conrad Ley ser, Matthieu van der Meer, Mayke de Jong, Walter Pohl, Helmut Reimitz, Pavlina Richterova, and

above all Barbara Rosenwein for reading and commenting on various versions of this text, and espe

cially Marianne Pollheimer for checking my translations from Latin and Julian Hendrix and Bob

Newmark for turning this article into a publishable text. This article is dedicated to Dame Janet L.

Nelson for her sixty-fifth birthday. 1 Peter Brown, "The Rise and the Function of the Holy Man," Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971),

80-101, repr. (with a bibiographical update) in idem, Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London,

1982), pp. 103-52 (quoted here). 2 See the following works by Peter Brown: The World of Late Antiquity: From Marcus Aurelius to

Muhammad (London, 1971), pp. 96-112; The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin

Christianity, Haskell Lectures on History of Religions, n.s., 2 (Chicago, 1981); "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity," Representations 1/2 (1983), 1-25; Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Chris

tianisation of the Roman World (Cambridge, Eng., 1995), pp. 57-78; "The Rise and Function of the

Holy Man in Late Antiquity, 1971-1997," Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998), 353-76; and

"Enjoying the Saints in Late Antiquity," Early Medieval Europe 9 (2000), 1-24. See also the critical

assessment of Brown's work in The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on

the Contribution of Peter Brown, ed. James Howard-Johnston and Paul Antony Hayward (Oxford,

1999); and the Journal of Early Christian Studies 6/3 (1998), a special issue edited by Susanna Elm to

mark the twenty-fifth aniversary of Brown's 1971 article. 3 On the role of monasticism within the transformation of late-antique Christianity, see, e.g., Peter

Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd ed. (Oxford,

2003), pp. 219-66; and R. A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, Eng., 1990),

pp. 137-228.

Speculum 82 (2007) 521



522 Jonas of Bobbio Jonas of Bobbio's Vita Columbani, written between 639 and 643,4 formed the textual basis for a new and formative concept of a holy monastic institution. For the Frankish world this new monastic concept played a decisive role in the po litical developments of the following centuries. Much of what emerged in the time of Columbanus and Jonas received its final shape in the Carolingian monastic reforms.

Jonas of Bobbio combined the proclamation of this new monastic concept with a depiction of Columbanus (t 615) as a saint who brought a long and venerable tradition of great monastic fathers (Antony, Paul the Hermit, Hilarion, Martin) to a triumphant completion:5 Columbanus combined qualities of all of them, but there was no longer a need for him and his sort after his monastic foundations took over his function.6

4 Jonas of Bobbio, Vita Columbani, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Germ. [37] (Hannover, 1905),

pp. 144-294.1 refer to this edition, not to Krusch's previous edition, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4 (Hannover,

1902), pp. 61-112, which is different at some minor points. Partial translations are available in Monks,

Bishops, and Pagans: Christian Culture in Gaul and Italy, 500-700, ed. William G. McDermott and

Edward Peters (Philadelphia, 1975), pp. 75-113 (book 1); Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg, with E. Gordon Whatley, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages (Durham, N.C., 1992), pp. 161-75 (book

2.11-22); and by Ian N. Wood in Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology, ed. Thomas Head, Garland

Reference Library of the Humanities 1942 (New York, 2001), pp. 117-35 (preface, book 2.1-6 and

2.23-24). A complete French translation is provided by Adalbert de Vog??, Jonas de Bobbio: Vie de

Saint Colomban et de ses disciples, Aux Sources du Monachisme Colombanien 1 (B?grolles-en-Mauges, 1988). On the author and the structure of the life, see Clare Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life of Columbanus

and His Disciples," in Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. John Carey, M?ire Her

bert, and P?draig ? Riain (Dublin, 2001), pp. 189-220, at pp. 192-201; and Christian Rohr, "Ha

giographie als historische Quelle: Ereignisgeschichte und Wunderberichte in der Vita Columbani des

lonas von Bobbio," Mitteilungen des Instituts f?r Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung 103 (1995), 229-64.

5 Vita Columbani 1.1, p. 151. 6 A selection of literature on Jonas and the Columbanian monastic movement: Walter Berschin,

Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, 2, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur latei

nischen Philologie des Mittelalters 9 (Stuttgart, 1988), pp. 26-48; Brown, Rise of Western Christendom,

pp. 246-66; Donald A. Bullough, "The Career of Columbanus," in Columbanus: Studies on the Latin

Writings, ed. Michael Lapidge, Studies in Celtic History 17 (Woodbridge, Eng., 1997), pp. 1-28; Albrecht Diem, "Was bedeutet regula Columbani}" in Integration und Herrschaft: Ethnische Identi

t?ten und soziale Organisation im Fr?hmittelalter, ed. Walter Pohl and Maximilian Diesenberger, ?sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Denkschriften 301;

Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 3 (Vienna, 2002), pp. 63-89; Alain Dierkens, "Prol?go m?nes ? une histoire des relations culturelles entre les ?les Britanniques et le continent pendant le haut

moyen ?ge: La diffusion du monachisme dit colombanien ou iro-franc dans quelques monast?res de

la r?gion parisienne au Vile si?cle et la politique religieuse de la reine Bathilde," in La Neustrie: Les

pays au nord de la Loire de 650 ? 850, ed. Hartmut Atsma, 2, Beihefte der Francia 16/2 (Sigmaringen, 1989), pp. 371-94; Marilyn Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the

Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2000), pp. 158-90; Friedrich Prinz, "Columbanus, the Frankish Nobility and the Territories East of the Rhine," in Columbanus and Merovingian Monasticism, ed. H. B. Clarke

and Mary Brennan, BAR International Series 114 (Oxford, 1981), pp. 73-87; Friedrich Prinz, Fr?hes

M?nchtum im Frankenreich: Kultur und Gesellschaft in Gallien, den Rheinlanden und Bayern am

Beispiel der monastischen Entwicklung (4. bis 8. Jahrhundert), 2nd ed. (Munich, 1988), pp. 121-85; Knut Sch?ferdiek, "Columbans Wirken im Frankenreich (591-612)," in Die Iren und Europa im

fr?heren Mittelalter, ed. Heinz L?we, 1 (Stuttgart, 1982), pp. 171-201; Pierre Riche, "Columbanus, His Followers and the Merovingian Church," in Columbanus and Merovingian Monasticism, ed.

Clarke and Brennan, pp. 59-72; de Vog??, Vie de Saint Colomban, pp. 19-90 (introduction to his



Jonas of Bobbio 523

For the analysis of Jonas's concept of sanctity and his description of the rise of a new monastic concept, Peter Brown's model of the holy man will be comple mented by a second theoretical framework, which is both more general (in its claim of universal applicability) and more specific (in its focus): Max Weber's theories on charisma and its "routinization" (Veralltdglichung).7 Weber's models and especially his terminological repertoire form a widely accepted silent back ground for modern historical research,8 including Peter Brown's own work.9 Never theless, revisiting a long-established, but also often-modified, model that was de veloped eighty-five years ago, before historians learned to discern between the basically inaccessible "reality" and its textual representations,10 needs some jus tification. As much as Brown's ideas on the "holy man" help us to understand how Jonas of Bobbio in his Vita Columbani constructed Columbanus as a late antique saint, Weber's ideas on charisma and its transformations help us to analyze how Jonas transformed this concept of sanctity in the very same text. With regard to Weber's model, however, the Erkenntnisgewinn has two levels. In a first step

Weber provides a framework for understanding what happens in the Vita Co lumbani; in a second step, analyzing Jonas's text reveals some fundamental weak

French translation of the Vita Columbani); Adalbert de Vog??, "En lisant Jonas de Bobbio: Notes sur

la Vie de Saint Colomban," Studia mon?stica 30 (1988), 63-103; Ian N. Wood, "Jonas, the Mero

vingians, and Pope Honorius: Diplomata and the Vita Columbani," in After Rome's Fall: Narrators

and Sources of Early Medieval History. Essays Presented to Walter Goffart, ed. Alexander Callander

Murray (Toronto, 1998), pp. 99-120; idem, "The Vita Columbani and Merovingian Hagiography," Peritia 1 (1982), 63-80; and idem in Medieval Hagiography, ed. Head, pp. 111-15.

7 Weber's ideas on charisma are formulated at several places in his major work Wirtschaft und

Gesellschaft: Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie, 5th ed., rev. Johannes Winckelmann (T?bingen, 1972), esp. pp. 140-48, 268-75, and 654-87. See also idem, Gesammelte Aufs?tze zur Religionsso

ziologie, 1 (T?bingen, 1920), pp. 268-75. S. N. Eisenstadt's anthology Max Weber: On Charisma

and Institution Building (Chicago, 1968) is useful, though incomplete and lacking references to the

original text. Partial translations of the above-mentioned passages from Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft can be found on pp. 48-61, 253-67, and 18-42. A summary of Weber's theories is provided by

Winfried Gebhardt, Charisma als Lebensform: Zur Soziologie des alternativen Lebens, Schriften zur

Kultursoziologie 14 (Berlin, 1994), pp. 55-74. For Weber's specific views on monasticism (which are not discussed in this article), see Barbara H. Rosenwein, "Reformm?nchtum und der Aufstieg Clunys:

Webers Bedeutung f?r die Forschung heute," in Max Webers Sicht des okzidentalen Christentums:

Interpretation und Kritik, ed. Wolfgang Schluchter, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 730 (Frank furt am Main, 1988), pp. 276-311, at pp. 277-82; and Lutz Kaelber, Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organization in Medieval Religious Communities (University Park, Pa., 1998), pp. 59-99.

8 See, e.g., Arnold Angenendt, Heilige und Reliquien: Die Geschichte ihres Kultes vom fr?hen Chris

tentum bis zur Gegenwart (Munich, 1994), pp. 11 and 61; idem, Geschichte der Religiosit?t im Mittel

alter (Darmstadt, 1997), pp. 128, 224, and 267; Susanna Elm, Virgins of God: The Making of Asce

ticism in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 1994), p. 11; Albrecht Diem, Das monastische Experiment: Die

Rolle der Keuschheit bei der Entstehung des westlichen Klosterwesens, Vita Regularis, Abhandlungen 24 (M?nster, 2005), p. 21; and Jean S?guy, "Une sociologie des soci?t?s imagin?es: Monachisme et

utopie," Annales: Economies, soci?t?s, civilisations 26 (1971), 328-54. 9 See, e.g., Brown, "Enjoying the Saints," p. 11, or "The Saint as Exemplar," pp. 8-9 (with a slightly

different definition of charisma). 10 Unfortunately, some modern Weberian scholars still fail to add this (simply necessary) dimension

to their studies, which makes their products useless, at least for historical research. This is the case,

e.g., for Gebhardt, Charisma, esp. pp. 106-26 (on early monasticism); and Malte Lenze, Postmodernes

Charisma: Marken und Stars statt Religion und Vernunft (Wiesbaden, 2002).



524 Jonas of Bobbio nesses in Weber's model in a way that may suggest how Weber's insights might be modified to accord better with modern historical approaches.11

In Jonas's Vita Columbani the above-mentioned tension between "reality" and its textual representation becomes especially obvious.12 Confronting Columbanus as we know him from his own writings (his letters, sermons, treatises, poems, and-maybe-the two monastic rules and the penitential ascribed to him)13 with the saint we meet in Jonas's narrative shows how much Jonas's "Columbanus" has to be regarded as a careful and elaborate construction, although it certainly shares some biographical data with the "historical" Columbanus and takes shared knowledge of his public into account. Jonas's Vita Columbani is not a biography but at most a story based on Columbanus's life. This article focuses on the saint as created by Jonas of Bobbio rather than on the historical person.

As a textual construct, the vir Dei Columbanus pleases everybody who seeks an example confirming the models of both Brown's holy man and Weber's char ismatic person, especially in the latter's religious manifestation as a prophet.'4 Jonas explicitly places his description of Columbanus in the tradition of textual representations of great holy men written by Athanasius, Jerome, and Sulpicius with his friends.15 Columbanus, the peregrinus, is described as an outsider who refuses to become part of any social structure.16 Both his status as a stranger and his status as a strict ascetic determine his role as mediator between God and man

11 See, among the vast literature on Weber's concept of charisma, Max Webers Sicht des antiken

Christentums: Interpretation und Kritik, ed. Wolfgang Schluchter, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissen

schaft 548 (Frankfurt am Main, 1985); in that volume esp. Han J. W Drijvers, "Askese und M?nchtum

im fr?hen Christentum," pp. 444-65; Max Webers Sicht des okzidentalen Christentums, ed. Schluch

ter; Christoph R. Hatscher, Charisma und Res Publica: Max Webers Herrschaftssoziologie und die

R?mische Republik, Historia, Einzelschriften 136 (Stuttgart, 2000); and Charisma und religi?se Ge

meinschaften im Mittelalter, ed. Giancarlo Andenna, Mirko Breitenstein, and Gert Melville, Vita Re

gularis, Abhandlungen 26 (M?nster, 2005). 12

Brown, "Rise and Function," p. 120, formulated this tension similarly with regard to his main

source, the Historia religiosa of Theodoret: "It was written to validate and publicize the local traditions

surrounding the holy men of Syria, and so it reflects all the more faithfully what Theodoret and his

informants wanted from a holy man." 13

Columbanus, Opera, ed. and trans. G. S. M. Walker, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 2 (Dublin, 1957). See also the studies on Columbanus's works in Columbanus, ed. Lapidge.

14 Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 268-75 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 253-67). 15 Vita Columbani 1.1, p. 151: "Quorum beatus Athanasius Antonii, Hieronimus Pauli etHilarionis

vel ceterorum quos cultus bonae vitae laudabiles reddebat, Postumianus vero, Severus et Gallus Martini

egregiae nostris eorum memoriam dimisere saeclis." Jonas places his saint only indirectly in the tra

dition of the great monastic fathers by placing himself in the tradition of their biographers. See also

Wood, "Vita Columbani," pp. 72-73, who argues against the notion of Columbanus as a typical Irish

saint. Jonas's reference to the monastic founding fathers (or rather to their vitae) fits with one specific

aspect of the transformation of charisma as described in Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 662

(my translation): "The 'flowing-together' of two fundamentally alien and hostile powers: charisma

and tradition." On the role of tradition, see also Drijvers, "Askese," p. 457. 16 Vita Columbani 1.3, pp. 156-58; 1.4, pp. 159-60; 1.6, p. 163; 1.8, pp. 166-67; 1.9, pp. 167

68; and 1.21, p. 199. Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 118 and 120-29; and Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 141 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 50-52). See also below, pp. 546-49, on the motif of

the absent saint.



Jonas of Bobbio 525 kind but also his role in earthly matters:17 he is a powerful miracle worker,"8 a living representation of Christ,19 and a missionary by teaching and example;20 he is provided with prophetic gifts,21 the ability to evoke God's punishment,22 to heal and to save,23 to exorcise demons,24 and to perform intercessory prayer on behalf of others.25 He demands moral improvement;26 he is a charismatic public person, venerated but also despised,27 who frees prisoners,28 negotiates with the powerful on earth,29 and uses his authority as spokesman of popular grievances.'0 Fully depending on alms and gifts, he refuses to take part in the economic process," and he demands total obedience from his followers.'2

17 See Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 106, 114, and 130-32; and Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesell

schaft, p. 656 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 21-22). 18 Vita Columbani 1.9, p. 168; 1.13, pp. 173-74; 1.14, p. 175; 1.17, pp. 182-83; 1.19, pp. 192

93; and 1.27, pp. 214-15. On the role of miracles, see Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 121-22; and

Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 140 and 656 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 49 and 22). 19 Vita Columbani 1.7, p. 164 (cf. John 4.52-53); 1.11, p. 172 (cf. John 21.6); and 1.17, pp. 182-83

(cf. Matt. 14.21). For the saint as exemplar of Christ, see Brown, "The Saint as Exemplar," pp. 6-8. 20 Vita Columbani 1.5, p. 161; 1.27, pp. 211, 213-14, and 216-17; and 1.30, p. 221. Cf. Brown,

"The Saint as Exemplar," pp. 1-8; Kate Cooper, "Ventriloquism and the Miraculous: Conversion,

Preaching, and the Martyr Exemplum in Late Antiquity," in Signs, Wonders, Miracles: Representations

of Divine Power in the Life of the Church, ed. Cooper and Jeremy Gregory, Studies in Church History 41 (Woodbridge, Eng., 2005), pp. 22-45.

21 Vita Columbani 1.12, p. 172; 1.19, pp. 188-90; 1.20, p. 198; 1.22, p. 202; 1.24, pp. 207-8; 1.28,

p. 218; and 1.29, p. 219. In this respect, Columbanus is modeled in the tradition of biblical prophets. See also Wood, "Vita Columbani," p. 71. Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 134-35.

22 Vita Columbani 1.12, p. 173; 1.15, pp. 178-79; 1.20, p. 197; and 1.21, pp. 198-99. Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 122-23.

23 Vita Columbani 1.7, pp. 164 and 166; 1.12, p. 173; 1.14, pp. 174-75; 1.15, p. 177; and 1.21,

pp. 199-200. Cf. Brown, Cult of the Saints, pp. 112-18; and Joan M. Petersen, "Dead or Alive? The

Holy Man as Healer in East and West in the Late Sixth Century," Journal of Medieval History 9

(1983), 91-98, at pp. 92-94. 24 Vita Columbani 1.20, p. 197; 1.21, pp. 198 and 200; 1.22, p. 205; and 1.25, p. 208. Cf. Brown,

Cult of the Saints, pp. 106-12; "Rise and Function," pp. 123-26; World of Late Antiquity, pp. 102

3; and Albrecht Diem, "Encounters between Monks and Demons in Latin Texts of Late Antiquity and

the Early Middle Ages," in Miracles and the Miraculous in Medieval Germanic and Latin Literature, ed. K. E. Olsen, A. Harbus, and T. Hofstra, Germania Latina 5 (Groningen, 2004), pp. 51-67.

25 Vita Columbani 1.6, p. 163; 1.7, pp. 164 and 166; 1.14, p. 175; 1.17, pp. 184-85; 1.18, p. 186;

1.21, p. 200; and 1.22, p. 204. Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 136 and 142-48. 26 Vita Columbani 1.5, pp. 161-62; 1.12, p. 173; 1.18, pp. 186-87; 1.24, p. 207; and 1.29, p. 223.

Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 127-28; and Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 141 and

269 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 51 and 254). 27 Vita Columbani 1.18, p. 186; 1.19, pp. 189-90; 1.20, p. 193; 1.21, p. 200; and 1.26, p. 210. Cf.

Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 113-15; and Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 656-57 (trans.

Eisenstadt, pp. 23-24). 28 Vita Columbani 1.19, pp. 191-92. Cf. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 657 (trans. Eisen

stadt, p. 24). 29 This aspect will be discussed extensively below, pp. 529-46. See also Brown, "Rise and Function,"

pp. 105, 134, and 136-37; Authority and the Sacred, pp. 62-63; and Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesell

schaft, p. 271 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 259). 30 Vita Columbani 1.21, p. 198; and 1.22, pp. 203-4. Cf. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p.

657 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 24). 31 Vita Columbani 1.6, p. 163; 1.7, p. 165; and 1.21-23, pp. 198-206. Cf. Weber, Wirtschaft und

Gesellschaft, pp. 142 and 269 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 52-53 and 255). 32 Vita Columbani 1.5, pp. 161-62; 1.11-12, pp. 170-73; and 1.16, pp. 179-81. Cf. Weber, Wirt



526 Jonas of Bobbio

This pleasant congruence between our theoretical models and a textual con struct, however, becomes somewhat more complex when we confront Weber's concepts of the "routinization" of charisma and the emergence of institutions with the rise of the Columbanian monastic movement as described in the Vita Co lumbani. Weber ingeniously put his finger on the tensions rising from a process of "routinization." On the one hand, "pure charisma" is incompatible with any form of continuity; on the other hand, everybody involved with charisma has the desire to create just this continuity.33 Therefore, to establish continuity, charisma not only has to be transferred; it also needs to be transformed in a way that inevitably changes its character profoundly. At first glance, the Vita Columbani could indeed be read as a story of transmitting and transforming charisma, starting with the "pure charisma" of Columbanus and ending with a well-institutionalized monastic network.

Weber provides a catalogue of possible forms of transferring charisma, includ ing, for example, ordeal, designation, appointment, or transmission via family lines.34 None of the options he offers, however, really fits with the processes we observe in Jonas's text. All of them are based on an assumption Weber formulated in the first sections of Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft where he describes charisma as strictly related to an individual person.35 Starting from this definition, his models of transformation and routinization of charisma mainly describe transformations from person to person or-in some cases-from an individual to an officeholder and to his office (Amtscharisma).36 Though in the later sections Weber acknowl edged that charisma may also be transmitted to the institution, he did not really elaborate on the possibility that the institution itself might become the carrier of a transformed charisma or that the rise of an institution could be entirely based on this transfer,37 which seems to be the case in the Vita Columbani.

schaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 140, 655, 681-82, and 679 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 48, 20, 28-30, and

39). 33 Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 143 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 54): "The following are the

principal motifs underlying this transformation: (a) The ideal and also the material interests of the

followers in the continuation and the continual reactivation of the community, (b) the still stronger ideal and also stronger material interests of the members of the administrative staff, the disciples or

other followers of the charismatic leader in continuing their relationship." See also p. 661 (my trans

lation): "It is usually the wish of the lord himself and always that of his disciples but particularly that

of his charismatically ruled followers to transform the charisma and the charismatic bliss of those

ruled from a single externally transitory gift of grace related to extraordinary moments and persons to a permanent possession of everyday life." See also pp. 679-80 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 39-40).

34 Ibid., pp. 143-44 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 54-56).

35 Ibid., pp. 140,142, and 268 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 48, 54, and 253). See also Gebhardt, Charisma,

pp. 36-38. 36 Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 143-44 and 674-75 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 54-57).

37 Ibid., p. 671 (my translation): "A strictly personal gift of grace turns into a quality that is (1)

transferable or (2) personally acquirable or (3) not linked to a person as such but to the holder of an

office or to an institutional form not regarding a person. In this case it is allowed to speak about

charisma only because it retains its extraordinary character, and it remains not generally accessible.

Its preeminent role with regard to those charismatically ruled and its social function remain the same."

It may be possibile to reconcile the rise of medieval monasticism with Weber's model by applying the

concept of charisma inherited by a household community {Hausgemeinschaft) or by a family to mo



Jonas of Bobbio 527

A second, more important point of criticism concerns the tension between "re ality" and its textual representation. The story of the holy man/charismatic saint Columbanus and the rise of his monastic network may indeed be read as describ ing just another option in Weber's catalogue of processes of routinization of cha risma. Weber, however, did not consider that the text itself may play a crucial role in these processes of establishing charisma. When Jonas of Bobbio wrote his Vita Columbani a generation after the saint's death at the request of the abbots of Columbanus's main foundations, Bobbio and Luxeuil,38 he was most likely com missioned to produce a text defending the formation of a monastic concept legit imized by the authority of Columbanus and his teachings.39 He provided this concept with a past and roots that Weber would probably have identified as "pure charisma." What seemingly stands at the beginning of the rise of a monastic in stitution-the charismatic saint or holy man-is much more a tool to promote and to legitimize a state of "institutionalized" charisma than its real "pure" ori gin.40

The fact that the text itself forms an integral part of the processes of transfor mation and the creation of different emanations of charisma was certainly not exceptional; it probably holds true for many of the examples used by Weber to support his model.41 The subsequent analysis of the Vita Columbani will show how the text worked as a tool within the process of institutionalization.

1. THE LIFE AS A RULE

Numerous seventh-century texts, saints' lives as much as charters, refer to a "Regula Columbani"-which is unusual since references to personalized monastic regulae in this period are very rare.42 The specific contexts in which a "Regula Columbani" appears-monastic foundations, intercessory prayer, protection of monastic space and possessions, and especially the connection with Columbanus's main foundation, Luxeuil-give reason to assume that this regula has little to do

nastic communities. Weber, ibid., p. 671, writes (my translation): "Hereditary charisma originally means to be attached to a household community or family, which will forever be regarded as magically

gifted in such a way that only this community could produce bearers of charisma." Weber obviously aims at the origins of noble families or royal dynasties; yet it is remarkable that monastic texts handle

family metaphors as well. 38 Vita Columbani, prologue, pp. 144-45. 39 See below, pp. 552-53. 40 On the role of "origin myths" in a wider context, see Walter Pohl, "Aux origines d'une Europe

ethnique: Transformations d'identit?s entre antiquit? et moyen ?ge," Annales: Histoire, sciences sociales

60 (2005), 183-208; idem, "Identit?t und Widerspruch: Gedanken zu einer Sinngeschichte des Fr?h

mittelalters," in Die Suche nach den Urspr?ngen: Von der Bedeutung des fr?hen Mittelalters, ed. Pohl, ?sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Denkschriften 322;

Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 8 (Vienna, 2004), pp. 23-35, at pp. 28-33. 41 A similar observation is made by Ian Wood, "Augustine and Aidan: Bureaucrat and Charismatic?"

in L'Eglise et la mission au Vie si?cle: La mission d'Augustin de Cantorb?ry et les ?glises de Gaule

sous l'impulsion de Gr?goire le Grand, ed. Christophe de Dreuille (Paris, 2000), pp. 148-79. He shows

that Augustine of Canterbury was constructed both as charismatic and as a bureaucrat, depending on

the specific intentions of the respective sources. 42 See Diem, Experiment, pp. 131-47.



528 Jonas of Bobbio

with the two monastic rules ascribed to Columbanus, the Regula coenobialis and the Regula monachorum.43 Both texts may express some aspects of the Colum banian ideal, but they could hardly have served as a program for the monastic network arising from Columbanus's foundations.

If we look for a written version of the Regula Columbani, the most likely such text is Jonas's Vita Columbani.4 In the course of the narrative the author teaches his audience how the network of Columbanian monasteries was established and organized. He describes its theological program and the legal position of Col umbanian monasteries but also the norms and standards expected of individual monks.45

This "regula," however, addresses not only monks but also kings, queens, and other powerful people. The "rule" they (and implicitly Jonas's audience) have to learn is how to treat a holy man and a holy monastic community appropriately. Jonas's description of the vir Dei Columbanus and the reverence he deserves is deeply rooted in the past and does not contain much that a reader could not find in other texts.46 Yet what Jonas says about the necessity to respect a monastic community was unheard of until then. Here we find essential aspects of the "Re gula Columbani" combined with what Weber would have identified as a trans formation of charisma. The fact that Jonas's innovations quickly entered main stream monasticism may indicate that Jonas's text played its role in this process of institutionalization quite successfully. My analysis of the monastic program expressed in Jonas's work and especially

the author's techniques of legitimating it and promoting Columbanian monasti cism follows mostly the composition of the Vita Columbani itself. Its first book (on the life of the saint) can be structured on the basis of Columbanus's encounters

with Frankish rulers. Each of these encounters teaches the reader an important lesson on how a ruler should or should not deal with a holy monk and his mon

43 Columbanus, Regula monachorum and Regula coenobialis, ed. and trans. Walker, Columbani

Opera, pp. 122-69. On these texts see Jane Barbara Stevenson, "The Monastic Rules of Columbanus," in Columbanus, ed. Lapidge, pp. 203-16; and Diem, Experiment, pp. 239-49.

44 Jonas states in his preface to the Vita Columbani, p. 145, that his Vita aims at preserving the

institu?a of Columbanus, as they were taught by Columbanus himself and preserved by his successors

Athala and Eustasius, "qui magistri instituta suis plebibus servanda tradiderunt." See also Diem, "Was

bedeutet regula Columbani}" with extensive source references on the use of "Regula Columbani." On

the use of hagiographie sources as regulae, see also Ian N. Wood, "A Prelude to Columbanus: The

Monastic Achievement in the Burgundian Territories," in Columbanus and Merovingian Monasticism, ed. Clarke and Brennan, pp. 3-32, at p. 4 (on the Vita patrum lurensium as a regula); and "Vita

Columbani," pp. 66-67. Another (rather unknown) hagiographie work crossing the boundaries be

tween vita and regula is the so-called Vita Posthumii (or Vita Pachomii iunioris), PL 73:429-38. 45 There are passages of the Vita Columbani that have the character of a regula addressed to monks.

See esp. Vita Columbani 1.5, pp. 161-62; 1.7, pp. 164-65; 1.11, pp. 171-72; 1.12, pp. 172-73; 1.17,

pp. 182-83, and in the second book especially the miracle stories related to Faremoutiers, which read

in part like a narrative version of the Columbanian Regula cuiusdam ad virgines, another monastic

rule written within the Columbanian monastic movement. See 2.11-22, pp. 257-79; and Regula cuiusdam ad virgines, PL 88:1051-70. I am preparing a new edition and a study of this text, which

is one of the most important documents of Columbanian monasticism. 46 See Vita Columbani 1.1, p. 152: "Quorum [the holy fathers'] nos exempla temerario conatu secuti,

qui nee meritorum supplimentum nee facundiae flore suffulti nee elucubrante scientiae fonte, tanti

patris nostris saeculis refulgentem Columbani adgredimur texere gesta."



Jonas of Bobbio 529 asteries. Therefore I will subdivide the first part of this article into three lessons on sanctity, though punctuated by two insertions on Jonas's sources and narrative techniques. The second part of this article deals with "the absent saint," that is, with Jonas's description of organizing sanctity without relying on the physical presence of the saint himself-a theme that already comes up in the first book but that is fully elaborated upon in the second book, where Jonas tells what happened to Columbanus's monastic foundations after the saint's death.

Lesson 1. "Sigibert"; or, How to Treat a Holy Man and How to Found a Monastery

According to Jonas, the first king Columbanus met after his arrival from Ireland was Sigibert, "king of Austrasia and Burgundy."47 When Columbanus arrived at his court, his fama had already preceded him.48 In Jonas's narrative, king and court especially appreciated Columbanus's exceptional teaching ("egregiae doc trinae"). The king asks the saint and his twelve companions to stay within the boundaries of "the Gauls" ("intra terminos Galliarum") and especially requests him not to move to the neighboring peoples. To that end, he offers him all possible support.49 Columbanus receives permission to look for a place of appropriate

47 Sigibert I (f 575) was king of Austrasia, or rather of the kingdom of Reims. It is doubtful whether

Jonas refers here to the correct king. For chronological reasons it has been assumed that the saint met

Sigibert's brother Guntram, king of Burgundy (r. 575-92), or, more likely, Sigibert's son Childebert II, who was indeed king of Austrasia and Burgundy (r. 592-96). See Bullough, "Career" (above, n. 6),

pp. 10-11; Rohr, "Hagiographie" (above, n. 4), pp. 252-56; Barbara H. Rosenwein, Negotiating

Space: Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe (Ithaca, N.Y., 1999),

pp. 70-71; Sch?ferdiek, "Columbans Wirken" (above, n. 6), pp. 174-77; de Vog??, Vie de Saint

Colomban (above, n. 4), pp. 42-44; and Wood, "Jonas" (above, n. 6), pp. 105-12. Only James

O'Carroll, "The Chronology of Saint Columban," Irish Theological Quarterly 24 (1957), 76-95, defends Jonas's version. One branch of the manuscript tradition of the Vita Columbani and two later

hagiographie texts replace Sigibert with his son Childebert II. See Bruno Krusch in his commentary to

the edition of the Vita Columbani, pp. 97-100; Vita Agili 1.1, ed. Jean Mabillon, in Acta sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, 2 (Paris, 1669), pp. 316-17; and Vita Sadalbergae 1, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5 (Hannover, 1910), p. 51. Jonas is generally well informed and accurate about

political developments (see, e.g., Vita Columbani 1.18, pp. 186-87; and 1.28, pp. 217-19), which

supports Ian Wood's suggestion that Jonas suppressed the role of Childebert II in order to avoid giving the offspring of the infamous queen Brunhild any credit for Columbanian monastic foundations. I will

discuss another explanation in this study (below, pp. 541-42): Jonas may have inserted Sigibert to

link his Vita Columbani with Gregory of Tours's Life ofNicetius of Trier. 48 The fama of saint and community is a topic worth a more thorough investigation. For source

references, see Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 106 and 139; Authority and the Sacred, p. 62; Diem,

Experiment, pp. 285-89 and 312-21; Maud W. Gleason, "Visiting and News: Gossip and Reputation

Management in the Desert," Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1989), 501-21; and Wood, "Pre

lude," pp. 5-6. 49 Vita Columbani 1.6, pp. 162-63: "Pervenit ergo fama Columbani Sigiberti r?gis ad aulam, qui

eo tempore duobus regnis Austrasiorum Burgundionorumque inclitus regnabat Francis; quorum exi

mium nomen prae ceteris gentibus quae Gallias incolunt habetur. Ad quern cum vir sanctus cum suis

accessisset, gratus r?gis et aulicis ob egregiae doctrinae copiam redditus. Coepit tandem ab eo rex

querere, ut intra t?rminos Galliarum resederet nee eos ad alias gentes transiens se relinqueret; omnia

quae eius voluntas poposcisset se paraturum."



530 Jonas of Bobbio

quies in a deserted area, suitable for the founding of a monastic community.50 At this point the king makes his wish more specific: Columbanus should not cross over to the neighboring nationes-for his own benefit and for the king's salva tion.51 Subsequently Columbanus founds his first monastery, Annegray, and later his main foundation, Luxeuil.52

Jonas's depiction of his saint's first royal encounter already points to some of the central themes of the Vita Columbani. Despite his intentions to leave the world for the sake of peregrinatio, Columbanus proceeds to the local king and presents himself there as a vir Dei.53 For "Sigibert" and for all kings Columbanus met after him, there was no doubt about Columbanus's status as a holy man, even if at that stage it was based rather on his doctrina and fama than on the performance of miracles.54 The presence of a vir Dei was regarded as a great treasure, a source of power, wisdom, and prayer. For the same reason, a vir Dei in the neighboring kingdom was less appreciated.

Jonas depicts the king as somebody who willingly learns that an appropriate way of profiting from this vir Dei is to provide him with a "quiet" space for the foundation of a monastic community-which is the main theme of Lesson 1.55

50 The expression quies becomes an integral part of episcopal exemptions and royal immunities

granted to Columbanian monasteries and later foundations. See Diem, "Was bedeutet regula Co

lumbani}" pp. 84-88. Incidentally, it appears in earlier charters as well: Gregory the Great, Registrum

epistolarum 9.216, ed. Ludwig M. Hartmann, MGH Epp. 2 (Berlin, 1899; repr. 1957), p. 203, con

firmation of the rights of the Monastery of Saint Peter at Aries. The first Columbanian charter using

quies is a privilege for Rebais (637), ed. J. M. Pardessus, Diplomata, chartae, epistolae, leges aliaque instrumenta ad res Gallo-Francicas spectantia, 2 (Paris, 1849), no. 275, p. 40: ". . . quia nihil de

can?nica auctoritate convellitur, quidquid domesticis fidei pro quietis tranquillitate tribuitur." The idea

of the monastery as a place of quies might have been influenced by Caesarius of Aries. See Caesarius,

Regula ad virgines 73.2, ed. Adalbert de Vog?? and Jo?l Courreau, Sources Chr?tiennes 345 (Paris,

1988), p. 272, on fama and quies; and Regula ad monachos 26, ed. Jo?l Courreau and Adalbert de

Vog??, Sources Chr?tiennes 398 (Paris, 1994), p. 222, calling the monastery a portus quietis et reli

gionis. 51 Vita Columbani 1.6, p. 163: "Si Christi crucem tollere et ipsum sequi desideras, potions heremi

sectare quietem, tantum ne, nostrae ditionis solo relicto, ad vicinas pertranseas nationes, ut tui praemii augmentum et nostrae salutis provideas oportuna."

52 On Luxeuil see Vita Columbani 1.10, pp. 169-70. See also Brown, Authority and the Sacred,

pp. 62-63. 53 On the motif of encounters between holy monks and kings, see also Frantisek Graus, Volk,

Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merovinger: Studien zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeit

(Prague, 1965), pp. 357-64. 54 At that point in Jonas's narrative Columbanus has not yet performed any miracles. His first miracle

is described in Vita Columbani 1.7, p. 164. Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 121-22, on the

limited role of miracles for the recognition of a "holy man." On the legitimization of charisma, see

Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 140 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 48) and p. 655 (p. 20): "But he [the holder of charisma] does not derive his 'right' from their will, in the manner of an election. Rather, the reverse holds: it is the duty of those to whom he addresses his mission to recognize him as their

charismatically qualified leader." See also p. 269 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 254): "Unlike the magician, however, the prophet claims definite revelations, and the core of his mission is doctrine or command

ment, not magic. "

55 Julia M. H. Smith, "Aedificatio sancti loci: The Making of a Ninth-Century Holy Place," in

Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Mayke de Jong and Frans Theuws, with Carine van Rhijn, The Transformation of the Roman World 6 (Leiden, 2001), pp. 361-96, gives an excellent

parallel study on the establishment of a sacred monastic space: the foundation of the Breton monastery of Redon in the ninth century.



Jonas of Bobbio 531

But the king has to learn as well that he cannot keep the saint within his own sphere of power. Jonas describes Columbanus as reluctant to restrict his radius of action to "Sigibert's" kingdom. He spends the rest of his life wandering around, not caring about any political boundaries.56 A monastic community can be pinned down, but not a vir Dei. The link between the sanctity of the vir Dei and the status of the monastery is the topic of the second lesson.

Lesson 2. Theuderic and Brunhild: It Is Not Enough to Fear a Saint

Jonas's description of Columbanus's first appearance at a royal court is a friendly prelude to his second royal encounter, which is the dramatic climax of the first book of the Vita Columbani and retold in several later hagiographic works and in Fredegar's chronicle.58 My summary of Jonas's account of the confronta tion with Theuderic II, king of Burgundy (t 613, grandson of Sigibert I), and his grandmother Brunhild (t 614) focuses on those motifs to be discussed in this study, that is, on space, boundaries, the power of the saint and of the community, and the role of the monastery as a place of intercession. Columbanus had already spent several years on the Continent, building up a

fama "in universas Galliae vel Germaniae provincias" (thus crossing the borders of the Frankish kingdoms at least in terms of his reputation). Young King Theu deric II regularly asks him for the support of his prayer.59 Just like his grandfather (or father), Theuderic is happy to have Columbanus within the boundaries of his realm ("infra terminus [sic] regni sui"), and he treats the holy man with reverence and respect.60

The saint, however, does not restrict himself to intercessory prayer. He criticizes the king's habit of sharing his bed with concubines instead of producing legitimate offspring with a lawful wife.61 Criticizing a king's behavior was not an unusual act for a true holy man, and at first Theuderic obediently promises moral improve

56 For the location of Luxeuil on the border between Austrasia and Burgundy, see O'Carroll, "Chro

nology," p. 89. 57 Cf. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 269 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 255), and below, pp. 546

49, on the topic of the absent saint. 58 Vita Agili 1.6, p. 318; Vita Sadalbergae 2, p. 51; Wetti, Vita Galli 3, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS

rer. Merov. 4:258-59; Vita Walarici 9, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:163-64; and Fredegar, Libri chronicarum 4.36, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 2 (Hannover, 1888), pp. 134-38.

59 Vita Columbani 1.18, p. 186: "Creverat iam passim fama sancti viri in universas Galliae vel

Germaniae provincias, eratque omnium rumore laudabilis, omnium cultu venerabilis, in tantum ut

Theudericus rex, qui eo regnabat in tempore, ad eum saepe veniret et orationum suarum suffragio omni cum humilitate deposcerit."

60 Ibid. 1.18, p. 187. 61 Ibid.: "Ad quern saepissime cum veniret, coepit vir Dei eum increpare, quur concubinarum adul

teras misceretur et non potius legitimi coniugii solamina frueretur, ut regalis prolis ex honorabilem

reginam prodiret et non potius ex lupanaribus videretur emergi." According to Fredegar, Libri chroni

carum 4.30, p. 132, Theuderic was married to Ermenbera, daughter of the Visigothic king Witteric.

Soon after the marriage Ermenberga was sent back to Spain at the instigation of Brunhild.



532 Jonas of Bobbio ment.62 His grandmother Brunhild (a great monastic benefactor according to Gregory the Great, a comparatively decent queen according to Gregory of Tours,63 but a second Jezebel according to Jonas)64 starts a campaign against Columbanus because she fears that the introduction of a lawful wife at court could undermine her position of power.65 The situation escalates when Columbanus refuses to bless Brunhild's illegitimate great-grandchildren and predicts that they will never gain royal power.66 At the moment the saint leaves the palace of the enraged queen, its walls are shaken by an earthquake showing that the predictions of the saint must be taken seriously.67

In her anger Brunhild commands that all monks of Columbanus's monasteries be locked up and cut off from all external supplies. Ignoring this embargo, Co lumbanus proceeds to the court of Theuderic but refuses to enter the palace. The king gives orders to treat the vir Dei with all reverence, fearing that offending a

62 On criticizing rulers, see Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 105-6, and Authority and the Sacred,

pp. 60 and 64. According to his own writings, the historical Columbanus was indeed a person who

did not avoid conflicts, especially with Frankish bishops. None of his works, however, refer to conflicts

with kings. See Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life" (above, n. 4), pp. 209-10.1 have not been able to see Sabine

Savoye, "Le roi dans les vies des saints m?rovingiens" (dissertation, Universit? de Paris X-Nanterre,

Paris, 2004). See also below, n. 103. 63 Brunhild's monastic foundations are confirmed by Gregory the Great, Registrum epistolarum

13.11-13, pp. 376-81. See also Janet L. Nelson, "Queens as Jezebels: Brunhild and Balthild in Mer

ovingian History," reprinted in her Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (London, 1986),

pp. 1-48, at p. 26; and Leo Ueding, Geschichte der Klostergr?ndungen der fr?hen Merowingerzeit, Historische Studien 261 (Berlin, 1935), pp. 222-30. Gregory refers to the queen as "excellentissima

filia nostra." In the original ten-book version of Gregory of Tours's Decem libri historiarum, Brunhild

is depicted rather positively. Later redactions follow the general trend toward a negative view of her.

See Martina Hartmann, "Die Darstellung der Frauen im Liber historiae Francorum und die Verfas

serfrage," Concilium medii aevi 7 (2004), 209-37, at pp. 229-30; Gerda Heydemann, "Zur Gestal

tung der Rolle Brunhildes in merowingischer Historiographie," in Texts and Identities in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Richard Corradini, Rob Meens, Christina P?ssel, and Philip Shaw, Forschungen zur

Geschichte des Mittelalters 12 (Vienna, 2006), pp. 73-85; and Helmut Reimitz, "Geschlechterrollen

und Genealogie in der fr?nkischen Historiographie," in Frauen und Geschlechter: Bilder-Rollen

Realit?ten in den Texten antiker Autoren zwischen Antike und Mittelalter, ed. Robert Rollinger and

Christoph Ulf (Vienna, 2006), pp. 335-54. 64 On Jezebel see 3 Kings 16.31,18.4, 18.19,19.1-3, and 21 and 4 Kings 9.30-37. Calling Brunhild

a second Jezebel is more than simply denigrating. Jonas inserts several aspects of the biblical story about Jezebel into his narrative, giving Columbanus qualities of Jezebel's antagonist Elias. See esp. 3

Kings 19.1-3 on Elias's exile; 3 Kings 21.19-29 and 4 Kings 9.6-10 with Elias's prophecies on the

death of Ahab and Jezebel; and 4 Kings 9.33-35 on the death of Jezebel. 65 Vita Columbani 1.18, p. 187: "Cumque iam ad viri Dei imperium regis sermo obtemperaret et

se omnibus inlicitis segregare responderet, mentem Brunichildis aviae, secundae ut erat Zezabelis,

antiquus anguis adiit eamque contra virum Dei stimulatam superbiae ac?leo excit?t, quia cerneret viro

Dei Theudericum oboedire. Verebatur enim, ne si, abiectis concubinis, reginam aulae praefecisset,

dignitates atque honoris suae modum amputasset." See also Nelson, "Queens," pp. 28-31. 66 Vita Columbani 1.19, p. 188. See Sch?ferdiek, "Columbans Wirken," pp. 186-88, and on the

refusal to bless royal bastard children, Wood, " Vita Columbani" (above, n. 6), p. 70. The biblical basis

is Matt. 19.13-14 and Mark 10.13-16. 67

Possibly inspired by Judg. 16.24-30: Samson destroys the palace of the Philistines. See also Greg ory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 1.5, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 1/2 (Hannover, 1885),

p. 667, on Lupicinus shaking the court of the Burgundian king Chilperic.



Jonas of Bobbio 533

servant of the Lord will cause God's anger.68 As an answer to Brunhild's blasphe mous conduct, Columbanus forcefully refuses the king's gifts, particularly a meal provided for him.69 Overwhelmed by fear, both Brunhild and Theuderic approach the saint, begging for pardon and promising to behave better in the future.70

Soon afterwards Columbanus realizes that Theuderic has continued to conduct himself as if nothing had happened. When the saint threatens to excommunicate the king-something a monk has never dared to do to a Merovingian ruler71 the queen starts to stir up the nobility, the court, and the bishops against the saint, arguing that his conduct and his rule are heretical. Finally, she convinces the king to expel Columbanus from his realm.72

So far, Jonas's narrative does not differ profoundly from hagiographic tradi tion-except maybe for the drastic measure of excommunication. In the following sequence, however, it does: Theuderic's formal reason for expelling Columbanus is that the saint excludes all people not living under the regula from the inner parts of his monastery, the septa secretiora. Guests and pilgrims, royals included, are allowed to visit the monastery, but they have to stay in a guest house separate from the monks' confines. Theuderic argues against this prohibition by stating that everybody supporting the monastery should have access to it. In Jonas's nar rative Columbanus reacts harshly by predicting that breaking the monastery's rule and boundaries would devastate the realm and lead to the extinction of the king's entire family:73 "'If you attempt to violate what until now has been built up under the bridle of the discipline of the rule, I shall no longer let you support me by your gifts and any other forms of sustenance. And if you came to this place for the purpose of destroying the communities of the servants of God and defiling the discipline of the rule, your realm will soon be ruined and it will perish with all the royal offspring.' Later that prediction came true because the king had already foolishly entered the refectory."74

68 Vita Columbani 1.19, p. 188: "Tune Theudericus ait, melius esse virum Dei oportunis subsidiis

honorare, quam Dominum ex servorum eius offensam ad iracundiam provocare. Iubet ergo regio cultu

oportuna parare Deique famol? dirig?." 69 Bonnie Effros, Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul (New York,

2002), pp. 32-34, places this episode in the context of expressing or dismissing amicitia between

monks and laymen by means of sharing or refusing a common meal. The motif of sharing, refusing, and excluding from meals and drinks plays a role in several confrontations between saints and kings.

See, e.g., Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 20.4-7, ed. Jacques Fontaine, Sources Chr?tiennes 133, 2nd ed. (Paris, 2004), pp. 296-98; and Vita Carileffi 9, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 3

(Hannover, 1896), p. 392. 70 Vita Columbani 1.19, p. 189: "Hie pavore perculsus, cum avia delucolo ad virum Dei properant,

precantur de commisso veniam; se inpostmodum emendare pollicentur." 71

Sch?ferdiek, "Columbans Wirken," p. 189, states that Columbanus is breaking ecclesiastical law. 72 Vita Columbani 1.19, pp. 189-90. Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life," pp. 201-4, suggests that Jonas's

depiction of this conflict may also have served to cover up Columbanus's conflicts with the Frankish

episcopacy. 73 This prophecy is repeated by the exiled Columbanus in Vita Columbani 1.22, p. 202, and 1.29,

p. 220. Gregory of Tours tells in his Decem libri historiarum 5.14, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer.

Merov. 1/1, 2nd ed. (Hannover, 1951), pp. 210-11, of having a prophetic dream about the extinction

of all the children of Chilperic I (t 584). 74 Vita Columbani 1.19, pp. 190-91: "'Si, quod nunc usque sub regularis disciplinae abenis con

strictum fuit, violare conaris, nee tuis muneribus nee quibusque subsidiis me fore a te sustentaturum.



534 Jonas of Bobbio

Overwhelmed by fear and anger but well aware that killing a vir Dei is no option at all,75 Theuderic orders Columbanus to be expelled and sent back to where he came from. Columbanus refuses to leave his community voluntarily and does not accept being imprisoned within the monastery. Jonas tells how the saint freely travels around while king and court prepare his exile. The saint shows his superiority to all secular powers by freeing, converting, and protecting prisoners, a task usually associated with bishops.76

Jonas then explains not only the superiority of the saint's power over the king's but also the miraculous power of the monastic space itself. When Theuderic and Brunhild send a group of soldiers into the monastery of Luxeuil to arrest Co lumbanus and send him back to Ireland, the saint appears to be invisible to any person entering the monastery illicitly. The captain of the soldiers, watching Co lumbanus through a window from outside the monastic confines, sees the saint quietly sitting and reading a book amidst the soldiers searching for him. The captain realizes that a miracle is happening and orders his soldiers back, telling the king that the saint could not be found.77 After that, the fearful king delegates the matter to a nobleman, Bertechar. Un

able to convince Columbanus to leave the monastery, Bertechar delegates the job to a group of low and rough soldiers. Even these soldiers are afraid of forcing the saint; they beg him to spare them from committing a most terrible crime by ful filling the king's orders. Obviously everyone knows that it is best to avoid troubles with a vir Dei.78 Finally, out of compassion for the soldiers, the saint agrees to leave Luxeuil and Theuderic's realm, not to return to Ireland, but to continue his tournee royale.79

In this second encounter the reader learns about numerous new aspects of the relationship between king and vir Dei. First, a holy man's power is not limited to

Et si hanc ob causam tu hoc in loco venisti, ut servorum Dei caenubia distruas et regul?rem disciplinam

macules, cito tuum regnum funditus ruiturum et cum omni propagine regia dimersurum'. Quod postea rei probavit eventus. Iam enim temerario conatu rex refecturium ingressus fuerat."

75 Brunhild and Theuderic seem to have more respect for a vir Dei like Columbanus than for a

bishop. They did not dare to touch Columbanus but pursued the assassination of Bishop Desiderius

of Vienne (f 608). See Sisebut, Vita Desiderii ep. Viennensis 15-22, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer.

Merov. 3:634-37. On the role of violence, see Paul Fouracre, "Attitudes towards Violence in Seventh

and Eighth-Century Francia," in Violence and Society in the Early Medieval West, ed. Guy Halsall

(Woodbridge, Eng., 1998), pp. 60-75. 76 Vita Columbani 1.19, pp. 191-92. On the motif of freeing prisoners, see Frantisek Graus, "Die

Gewalt bei den Anf?ngen des Feudalismus und die 'Gefangenenbefreiungen' der merowingischen Ha

giographie," Jahrbuch f?r Wirtschaftsgeschichte 1 (1961), 61-156, at pp. 88-99 and 112-14; and

Annette Wiesheu, "Bischof und Gef?ngnis: Zur Interpretation der Kerkerbefreiungswunder in der

merowingischen Hagiographie," Historisches Jahrbuch 121 (2001), 1-23. Giving Columbanus this

ability, Jonas may have intended to provide him with a status at least equal to episcopal dignity. See

also below, p. 541. 77 Vita Columbani 1.20, p. 194. This passage may be inspired by Gen. 19.9-11 on the blinded

Sodomites who cannot find the entrance to Lot's house. 78 Vita Columbani 1.20, p. 193: "Post haec vir Dei cernens, quod nullis custodiis angeretur a nul

loque molestiam ferret,?videbant enim omnes in eum Dei virtutem flagrare, ideoque omnes ab eius

iniuriis segregabantur, ne socii culparum forent. ..." 79 Ibid. 1.20, pp. 194-95. A similar motif appears in Vita Rusticulae 10, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH

SS rer. Merov. 4:344-45.



Jonas of Bobbio 535

intercession for the benefit of the faithful. Both his moral superiority and his ability to predict the future make him a moral and political adviser-and his advice is binding.80 At first, Theuderic seems to give Columbanus the necessary respect. Even after the first conflict he at least knew and fully acknowledged that physically attacking a holy man would immediately lead to God's punishment.81 In this sense he still rendered Columbanus the respect due to a traditional vir Dei. New to poor Theuderic, and possibly new to the readers of the Vita Columbani as well, was the idea that the monastic space, especially the inner part (septa secretiora) of the monastery, deserved a similar deference. This space could serve for the benefit of the king as a place of intercessory prayer, but violating its boundaries would cause divine punishment, just as attacking a vir Dei would do.82

In his depiction of Columbanus's foundations Jonas brings three elements together: the monastery founded for the benefit of rulers, the monastery as a place of intercessory prayer, and the monastery as an inaccessible space. These elements already played a role in earlier monasteries in Gaul, yet without such prominence and without being combined into a single monastic program. There were some "pre-Columbanian" monasteries founded or supported by kings and queens, such as the Monastery of Saint Peter at Arles, founded by Childe bert I (t 558), Radegunde's (t 587) monastery at Poitiers, the basilicas of Saint Marcellus and Saint Symphorian at Chalons, supported by King Guntram (t 592), and Brunhild's foundations at Autun.83 We have some sources refer ring to monastic communities performing intercessory prayer, such as the Vita Caesarii, Caesarius of Arles's (t 542) rule for nuns and other rules from the sixth century.84 The concept of the monastery as a closed, inaccessible space appears, with one single exception, only in female communities.85 The nunnery

80 Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," p. 128. 81 There are numerous examples of saints (or monks and nuns) saved by divine protection. See, e.g.,

Vita Columbani 2.24, pp. 288-89, and 2.25, p. 290; Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 15, pp. 284-86;

Baudonivia, Vita Radegundis 4 and 7, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 2:381-82; and Gregory of Tours, Decem libri historiarum 6.6, p. 273.

82 Jonas repeats this lesson by punishing the nobleman Ega for violating the boundaries of Fare

moutiers in Vita Columbani 2.17, p. 269. It is not only those who harm the monastery from outside

who have to expect divine punishment. God's vengeance is also caused by violating the septa monasterii

in an attempt to escape from the monastery or by causing discord. See ibid. 2.1, p. 232; 2.10, pp. 253

54; and 2.19, pp. 271-75. 83 See Ueding, Klostergr?ndungen, pp. 165-244; Prinz, Fr?hes M?nchtum (above, n. 6), pp. 152

63; and Wood, "Vita Columbani" (above, n. 6), pp. 76-77. 84 Vita Caesarii 1.28, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 3:467; Caesarius, Regula ad virgines

1.4-6, p. 172; 40.1-2, p. 222; and 72.1-6, p. 270. See also Regula Ferrioli, pref. 4, ed. Vincent

Desprez, "La Regula Ferrioli: Text critique," Revue Mabillon 60 (1982), 117-48, at pp. 125-26; and

Aurelian, Regula ad monachos 55, ed. Albert Schmidt, in "Zur Komposition der M?nchsregel des

Heiligen Aurelian von Arles I," Studia mon?stica 17 (1975), 237-56, at p. 256. Gisela Muschiol, F?mula Dei: Zur Liturgie in merowingischen Frauenkl?stern, Beitr?ge zur Geschichte des alten M?nch

tums und des Benediktinertums 41 (M?nster, 1994), pp. 178-91, gives more examples. See also Al

brecht Diem, "Was the First Medieval Monk a Woman?" forthcoming in Early Medieval Europe. 85 The Vita patrum lurensium (written probably before 515) shows how "gendered" the notion of

inaccessibility actually was. All Jura monasteries for men were described as open to guests, pilgrims, and visitors. The only Jura community for women, La Balme, was established in a setting of natural

enclosure, a valley reachable by only one narrow path; this access was closed with a church building.



536 Jonas of Bobbio of Saint John at Arles founded by Caesarius seems to have served as a trend setter. 86 There is only one older monastery that may have brought some of these ele

ments together in a way comparable to Columbanus's foundation: Saint-Maurice d'Agaune, which was refounded in 515 by King Sigismund of Burgundy (t 523) at the site of an old shrine of the Theban martyrs.87 The process of refoundation included both an intensive liturgical reform to optimize prayers for the king and the removal of all nonmonastic people from the site of the monastery.88 There are, however, no signs that Saint-Maurice d'Agaune used a similarly strict system of inaccessible septa secretiora as we find in Jonas's description of Luxeuil.

It is possible that the Columbanian model described by Jonas took its inspira tion both from the model of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune and from Caesarius's ideal of total enclosure as it was formulated in his rule for the nunnery of Saint John at Arles. Saint-Maurice d'Agaune had contacts with Luxeuil,89 and Caesarius's rule was known to the authors of the two preserved Columbanian rules for nuns.90 For Theuderic, the idea of being excluded from the monastic confines still counted as a provocation and, as Jonas explains it, an offense to the local habits ("con

See Vita patrum Iurensium 25-26, ed. Fran?ois Martine, Sources Chr?tiennes 142 (Paris, 1968),

pp. 264-68. See also Barbara H. Rosenwein, "Inaccessible Cloisters: Gregory of Tours and Episcopal

Exemption," in The World of Gregory of Tours, ed. Kathleen Mitchell and Ian Wood, Cultures, Beliefs

and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples 8 (Leiden, 2002), pp. 181-97, at pp. 187-95.

The only known "enclosed" community of monks, Saint Peter at Aries, was founded around 550 by Childebert I and Bishop Aurelian of Aries. He wrote a rule for the community that was mainly based

on Caesarius's Regula ad virgines: Aurelian, Regula ad monachos, ed. Schmidt, "Zur Komposition,"

pp. 239-56. See Diem, Experiment, pp. 203-28 (with further references). 86 On Caesarius's foundation and his concept of enclosure, see Diem, Experiment, pp. 154-202.

There I argue that Caesarius's concept of enclosure did not aim at creating a sacred space but rather

a protective distance between the holy community and the sinful and polluting world. Nevertheless, Caesarian enclosure may certainly have served as a source of inspiration for the creation of the locus

sanctus. 87 On Saint-Maurice d'Agaune, see Barbara H. Rosenwein, "Perennial Prayer at Agaune," in Monks

and Nuns, Saints and Outcasts: Religion in Medieval Society, ed. Sharon Farmer and Rosenwein

(Ithaca, N.Y., 2000), pp. 37-56; eadem, "One Site, Many Meanings: Saint-Maurice d'Agaune as a

Place of Power in the Early Middle Ages," in Topographies of Power, ed. de Jong et al. (above, n. 55),

pp. 271-90; Frederick S. Paxton, "Power and the Power to Heal: The Cult of St Sigismund of Bur

gundy," Early Medieval Europe 2 (1993), 95-110; Ueding, Klostergr?ndungen, pp. 168-78; and

Wood, "Prelude" (above, n. 44), pp. 3 and 15-19. 88 Vita abbatum Acaunensium 3, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 7 (Hannover, 1919-20),

pp. 331-32. 89 On the contacts between Luxeuil and Saint-Maurice, see, e.g., Vita Amati 5, ed. Bruno Krusch,

MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:217. Jonas himself makes no reference to Saint-Maurice d'Agaune. It is possible that he wanted to conceal the influence of the Burgundian royal monastery for the same reason that

he replaced Childebert II with Sigibert I as a supporter of the foundation of Luxeuil: to exclude

Brunhild's clan from having had any positive influence on Columbanian foundations. See also Wood,

"Jonas" (above, n. 6), pp. 105-12, on Jonas's damnatio memoriae of Brunhild. 90 Two rules for nuns are closely related to Columbanian monasticism, the Regula cuiusdam ad

virgines and the Regula Donati, ed. Adalbert de Vog??, "La r?gle de Donat pour l'abbesse Gauths

trude," Benedictina 25 (1978), 219-313. Both rules draw in different ways on Caesarius's Regula ad

virgines: the Regula Donati incorporates large parts of the rule; the Regula cuiusdam ad virgines was

probably composed as a supplement to Caesarius's rule. See Diem, Experiment, pp. 249-66.



Jonas of Bobbio 537 provincialibus moribus" ).91 Yet within a generation it became generally accepted to regard monasteries as holy places with inaccessible septa secreta.92 The very novelty of this concept may have been the reason why Jonas empha

sized the necessity of respecting the monastic space in the most drastic way pos sible: disrespect of the monastic boundaries (by the king and by his soldiers) did not just cause ordinary miraculous punishments such as deadly lightning, a heart attack, or a rafter falling on the offender's head;93 Jonas described this transgres sion as the reason for the fall and extinction of an entire branch of the Merovingian family and the rise of another branch.94 He ingeniously exploited one of the most dramatic political events of the century, which was certainly still present in the collective memory of his audience, as proof of the absolute necessity of respecting the sacred space of the monastery just as much as the holy man himself. When the same episode was recycled about 150 years later in the Vita Agili,

such dramatic narrative means were no longer needed. Agilus is described as hav ing a similar conflict with the same Brunhild, but he needs only to have a good talk with the queen to convince her of the necessity of staying out of the monastery. Unlike Columbanus, Agilus is described as leaving the royal court peacefully and with a pile of charters confirming the rights of his monastery.95

My reading of Jonas's use of history builds upon the interpretations of Ian Wood, Mayke de Jong, and Barbara Rosenwein. Ian Wood emphasized the crucial role of kings even for the earliest Columbanian foundations.96 Barbara Rosenwein analyzed the conflict between Theuderic/Brunhild and Columbanus as a central statement for establishing a notion of monasteries as sacred off-limit spaces in a way that determined the position of monasteries throughout the entire Middle

91 Vita Columbani 1.19, p. 190: "Abactus itaque rex ad virum Dei Luxovium venit; conquestusque cum eo, cur ab conprovincialibus moribus discisceret, et intra septa secretiora omnibus christianis

aditus non pateret." 92 The expression septa s?cr?tai secretiora appears for the first time in Jonas's Vita Columbani. Later

it returns in numerous episcopal privileges for monasteries. The expression septa monasterii appears before Columbanus (once in Cassiodorus's Institutiones, twice in Gregory of Tours's Decem libri

historiarum, twice in the acts of episcopal councils, once in Venantius Fortunatus's Vita Albini) but

regularly after. Locus sanctus is a common expression in patristic texts, usually referring to churches

but not to monasteries. Later, especially in charters, monasteries are regularly described as "loci sancti." 93 For acts of divine punishments related to the violation of (usually female) enclosure, see, e.g., Vita

Anstrudis 11-13, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 6 (Hannover, 1913), pp. 71-72; Miracula

Austrigisili 6, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:203; Vita Carileffi 33-35, ed. Johannes B.

Solierais, in Acta sanctorum, July, 1 (Venice, 1756), p. 98 (passage omitted in Krusch's edition); and

Vita Pardulfi 15, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 7:33-34. See also Diem, Experiment,

pp. 314-16. 94 For a survey of the events, see Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 (London, 1993),

pp. 134-44; and Eugen Ewig, Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich, 3rd ed., Urban-Taschenb?cher

392 (Stuttgart, 1997), pp. 117-21. 95 Vita Agili 1.7-8, pp. 318-19. See also Diem, "Was bedeutet regula Columbani}" p. 76. A similar,

rather peacefully resolved conflict about kings and queens respecting monastic space is described in

the Vita Carileffi 7-9, ed. Krusch, pp. 391-93 (the text is probably early Carolingian as well). 96 Wood, "Jonas," pp. 102-14. In "Vita Columbani," pp. 70-71, Wood shows how Jonas's depic

tion of Brunhild and Theuderic was inspired by Sisebut's Vita Desiderii, another powerful piece of " anti-Brunhildian

" hagiography.



538 Jonas of Bobbio

Ages.97 Mayke de Jong interpreted the entire conflict between Theuderic/Brunhild and Columbanus as a conflict about space and boundaries in which both the monastic septa secreta and the royal palace were at stake.98 Crossing boundaries and the refusal to cross them (e.g., Columbanus's refusal to be the king's guest) are the causes of conflict and serve at the same time as weapons in the struggle between monk and king. Jonas leaves no doubt who comes out as the winner.

It is unlikely that Jonas invented the entire story since there were probably people among his audience who had witnessed or heard of these events.99 Instead he used historical (and biographical) knowledge for his own purposes, to propa gate a new concept of politically integrated monasticism closely tied to the winning branch of the Merovingian family, that is, King Clothar IL (t 629) and his son Dagobert I (t 639). In doing so, he combined what his audience knew with pow erful hagiographic topoi and biblical motifs, producing a mixture sufficiently fa miliar and plausible to disguise the fact that many of the ideas expressed in the work were actually new. One important source of Jonas's narrative will be dis cussed more thoroughly in the following excursus: Gregory of Tours's Liber vitae patrum.

First Excursus: Jonas and Gregory of Tours

For an educated audience many elements of the description of the great con frontation between Columbanus and Theuderic/Brunhild must have sounded strangely familiar. Besides general references to the hagiographic repertoire out lined in the prologue of the Vita and his creative use of biblical motifs (e.g., Jezebel and Elijah), Jonas ingeniously integrated material from a source he did not men tion explicitly: the Life of Nicetius, bishop of Trier (t 566), as told two generations previously in Gregory of Tours's Liber vitae patrum.100 Gregory of Tours's influ ence on Jonas has never been thoroughly investigated despite the fact that it sheds new light on the early reception of Gregory's work and gives us a deeper under

standing of how Jonas both used and invented tradition. The Life of Nicetius, in particular, helped Jonas to place Columbanus's deeds and behavior-especially his disrespect and claim of moral superiority toward rulers and his demand that the monastery be respected as a sacred space-in a line of well-accepted exempla from the past. Despite Jonas's remarkably broad literary knowledge, one would not expect to

identify Gregory of Tours as an important source of inspiration since he clearly belongs to the "other party," emphasizing in his work the decisive role and au

97 Rosenwein, Negotiating Space, pp. 70-73. See also generally on the development of a Christian

notion of sacralized space Markus, End of Ancient Christianity (above, n. 3), pp. 137-55; and idem, "How on Earth Could Places Become Holy? Origins of the Christian Idea of Holy Places," Journal of

Early Christian Studies 2 (1994), 257-71. 98 Mayke de Jong, "Monastic Prisoners or Opting Out? Political Coercion and Honor in the Frankish

Kingdoms," in Topographies of Power, ed. de Jong et al., pp. 291-328, at pp. 307-12. 99 Even in the first book of the Vita Columbani, Jonas refers several times to people who are still

alive, e.g., 1.11, pp. 170-71, the monk Autiernus; 1.14, p. 176, Donatus, bishop of Besan?on; 1.15,

p. 177, the monk Theudegisil; and 1.21, p. 200, Potentinus. 100

Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 17, pp. 727-33.



Jonas of Bobbio 539 thority of bishops and assigning monasteries only a marginal role within the Frankish world. It was perhaps just this fact combined with Gregory's authority that incited Jonas to tell his story partly with elements from Gregory's work, ingeniously turning his "antagonist" into a crown witness for his new ideas. More obviously than in the Vita Columbani, Jonas does this in his second monastic saint's life, the Vita Iohannis, which is for a huge part a patchwork of elements and motifs from Gregory's works.10' In the Vita Columbani there are also several places that may be inspired by Gregory,102 but the most obvious parallels appear by comparing the story of Columbanus's great confrontation with Brunhild and Theuderic (and his encounters with other kings) with Nicetius's various dramatic encounters with Merovingian kings.

Both Jonas's story of the conflict between Brunhild/Theuderic and Columbanus and Gregory's Life of Nicetius describe a long-standing and escalating conflict between a saint and several rulers. In itself, this would not be proof of dependency since there are numerous other descriptions of confrontations between saintly monks or bishops and rulers in hagiographic texts, including the Vita Antonii and Sulpicius Severus's works, which are both listed as sources of inspiration by Jonas himself.103 Gregory's and Jonas's narratives, however, show correspondences both in structure and in content that cannot be based on coincidence. The most re

markable similarities are those in which Jonas propagates his ideas as variations and modifications of themes outlined by Gregory: Still a monk, Nicetius becomes a well-respected spiritual adviser to King Theuderic I (t 533), whom he reproaches for his evil deeds104-just as Columbanus does with Theuderic II and Clothar II. Shortly before his consecration as bishop of Trier (by appointment of Theuderic), the saint threatens a group of supporters of the king with excommunication be cause they allowed their horses to destroy the land of the poor ("segites pau perum" )-land that is under the control of the church.'05 When he threatens to ex

101 Jonas, Vita lohannis, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Germ. [37], pp. 326-44. For an analysis

of the text and its allusions to Gregory of Tours's work, see Albrecht Diem, "An Iro-Egyptian Monk

in Gaul," forthcoming in Revue Mabillon. 102 See above, nn. 67, 73, and 92, and below, nn. 121,145,146, and 151. 103 See above, n. 15. Athanasius, Vita Antonii 50, PL 73:162 A-C; original Greek text 81, ed.

G. J. M. Bartelink, Sources Chr?tiennes 400 (Paris, 1994), pp. 340-44; Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini

20, pp. 294-98; and idem, Dialogi 2.5-6, ed. Carolus Halm, CSEL 1 (Vienna, 1866), pp. 186-88.

For other examples, see Vita patrum Iurensium 92-95, pp. 336-40; Gregory the Great, Dialogi 2.14

15, ed. Adalbert de Vog??, Sources Chr?tiennes 260 (Paris, 1979), pp. 180-84; and Passio prima

Leudegarii 9, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:291. 104

Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 17A, p. 728: "Venerabatur autem eum et rex Theodoricus

magno honore, eo quod saepius vitia eius nudaret, ac crimina castigatus emendatior redderetur. ..."

See also 17.2, p. 729. 105 The expression segites pauperum points to ecclesiastical land given to the poor. In his Decem

libri historiarum 7. 22, pp. 340-43, Gregory of Tours uses the same expression in a similar context, his description of the crimes of Chilperic's treasurer Eberulf. Here as well it forms part of a long list

of disrespect and abuse of ecclesiastical spaces and property. On Eberulf see Rob Meens, "The Sanctity of the Basilica of St. Martin: Gregory of Tours and the Practice of Sanctuary in the Merovingian

Period," in Texts and Identities, ed. Corradini et al. (above, n. 63), pp. 277-87, at pp. 281-82. A

vaguely similar story is told in Gregory's Decem libri historiarum 4.2, p. 136: Bishop Iniuriosus of

Tours refuses to pay a third of his revenues as tax to the king, announcing that taking away goods from the church and the poor would result in God's taking away his kingdom. The king renounces

his claim out of fear of the patron, St. Martin.



540 Jonas of Bobbio

communicate the king's men, they turn around and rebuke him for claiming the power of a bishop even before his consecration. Nicetius responds with a remark able statement: despite his appointment by a king, he will actively resist every evil act the king may commit.106

Jonas's Vita Columbani contains a series of parallels with this sequence. First, both texts combine a conflict about the king's personal behavior with a conflict about respecting space-in Gregory's case the segites pauperum, in Jonas's case the septa secreta (this pattern will appear a second time in Gregory's text). The threat of excommunication (repeated and executed later in the Life of Nicetius)107 finds its parallel in Columbanus's threat to excommunicate Theuderic II for not improving his behavior.108 In both cases the saint's authority is challenged. The courtiers state that Nicetius is not yet bishop; Brunhild stirs up her bishops and accuses Columbanus of heresy. Gregory of Tours's Life of Nicetius is the only likely text that could have served here as a model for Jonas since there are no other extant Merovingian texts describing the excommunication of a king.109 Fi nally, Nicetius's statement that being appointed by a king gives him the right and the duty not to tolerate his evil acts may have served as a model for Columbanus's statement that founding a monastery does not give a king the right to violate a monastic rule and boundaries.110

In the second chapter of Gregory's narrative the saint predicts the imminent death of anybody who does not follow divine commands. Therefore it is a part of priestly duties to instruct the populus and to correct kings.1"' Moral instruction that included improvement of rulers was something Jonas clearly put on Colum banus's agenda as well.

Nicetius's next antagonist is Theuderic's successor, Theudebert I (t 548). Just as in the previous chapter, a conflict about general evil deeds (including adultery) culminates in a conflict over space and authority. When Theudebert enters the church in the company of a group of excommunicated adulterers and murderers

106 Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 17.1, p. 729: "'Ver?', inquid, 'dico vobis, quia distinavit

rex, ut me evulsum a monasterio huic oneri consecrari iuberet. Fiet quidem voluntas Dei, nam Regis voluntas in omnibus malis, me obsistente, non adimplebitur.

"

107 Ibid. 17.2, p. 730. 108 Vita Columbani 1.19, p. 189: "Quae audita, beatus Columbanus litteras ad eum verberibus plenas

direxit comminaturque excommunicationem, si emendare dilatando non vellit." 109 In Gregory's hagiographie works, Nicetius of Trier figures as almost the only saint who imposes

excommunication. The one exception is Liber vitae patrum 8.11, p. 701, about a layman who is

threatened with excommunication for not attending the vigils he had commissioned. In his Decem libri

historiarum most of the people facing excommunication are insubordinate clerics or nuns, but no

rulers?with one single exception: Merovech (| 578), son of Chilperic I, is threatened with excom

munication because he left the priesthood after having been ordained. See Decem libri historiarum

5.14, p. 208. 110 Vita Columbani 19, p. 190: "Ad haec rex: 'Si', inquid, 'largitatis nostrae mu?era et solaminis

supplimentum capere cupis, omnibus in locis omnium patebit introitus'. Vir Dei respondit: 'Si, quod nunc usque sub regularis disciplinae abenis constrictum fuit, violare conaris, nee tuis muneribus nee

quibusque subsidiis me fore a te sustentaturum.' "

111 Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 17.2, p. 729: "Adsumpto vero episcopatu, tarn terribilem

se praebuit omnibus, si Dei mandata non servarent, inminere mortem proximam, voce praeconia testaretur. Quibus de causis pauca loqui placet ad roborandam sacerdotum censuram vel ad instruc

tionem populi sive etiam ad ipsorum regum praesentium emendationem."



Jonas of Bobbio 541 belonging to his entourage, Nicetius refuses to complete Mass and demands that all excommunicated people leave the church."12 Suddenly a person seized by a demon cries out all the adulterous deeds of the king but also the sanctity and purity of the bishop and predicts that Theudebert will die as a result of his own crimes.'13 Nicetius stops the possessed person's performance only after the king gives in. After this incident Theudebert behaves better, but his courtiers persecute the saint because he does not stop revealing their sinful acts. Just like Columbanus, Nicetius is willing to become a martyr. Not daring to lay hands on a saint, his enemies try to exile him rather than to kill him.

In the following chapter Nicetius has trouble with a third king, Clothar I (t 561). Nicetius excommunicates Clothar several times until the king decides to send the bishop into exile-with the support of the other bishops, who all appear to be adulators of the king, just like the bishops in Theuderic II's realm, who willingly support Columbanus's exile. In both cases, however, the saints' enemies do not succeed. Nicetius has a vision of Clothar's death and receives the message of his reinstallation by his successor, Sigibert I, on the day he was to leave;"14 Columbanus leaves Theuderic's kingdom, though not to go back to his homeland but to continue his peregrinatio.

In Gregory's narrative the noncompliant holy bishop Nicetius defends the moral purity and legal status of his church and the authority of his episcopal office and claims at the same time moral superiority over the king. In Jonas's narrative an insubordinate holy monk defends the status, the boundaries, and the purity of his monastery, and he claims the right both to accuse his king of immoral behavior and to demand respect for the boundaries of his monastery. Implicitly Jonas gives his holy monk the same authority as a bishop' 1 and demands for his monastery a status similar to that of a church. A strange genealogical coincidence strengthens the impression that Jonas mod

eled Columbanus's conflict after Nicetius's: the kings in Gregory's text have ex actly the same names as in Jonas's works. Theuderic I, Theudebert I, and Clo thar I come back as Theuderic II, Theudebert II, and Clothar II; Sigibert I appears in both texts: as a good king recalling Nicetius from exile in Gregory's Life of

112 Ibid. 17.2, pp. 729-30. The defense of a church as an off-limit sacred space and a place of asylum is an important topic for Gregory, especially in the ninth book of his Decem libri historiarum. On

church asylum see Meens, "Sanctity." 113

Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 17.2, p. 729: "Dicebatque episcopum castum, regem adul

terum; hune timor? Christi humilem, ilium gloria regni superbum; istum sacerdotio inpollutum a Deo in posterum praeferendum, hunc ab auctore sceleris sui velociter elidendum." Jonas uses this motif later in his Vita Columbani 2.24, p. 288: an Arian who tried to kill the priest Blidulf is seized by a

similar demon and predicts God's vengeance on all Arians and especially those harming the monks of

Bobbio, including the Lombard duke Arioald. 114

Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 17.3, p. 730; the deposed bishop predicts, "Cras enim in

hac hora et honorem recipio et ecclesiae meae restituor. . . . Inluciscente autem die crastina, subito

advenit legatus Sigiberti regis cum litteris, nuntians, regem Chlotharium esse defunctum, seque regnum debitum cum episcopi caritate deber? percipere."

115 There are several moments in which Jonas gives Columbanus a status similar to bishpps. See

above, pp. 533-34. The relationship between charismatic prophet and well-institutionalized priest (or

bishop) is discussed in Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 268-69 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 253

54).



542 Jonas of Bobbio

Nicetius and as a supporter of Jonas's first monastic foundation in Jonas's Vita Columbani. If we assume that the Life of Nicetius indeed served as a blueprint for the Vita Columbani, Jonas might deliberately have inserted Sigibert I into his narrative in order to link both stories.

Second Excursus: Teaching Animals

Making his narrative recognizable by using motifs from Gregory is not the only way Jonas tried to convince his readers that a well-"regulated" monastic space contains the same saintly power and deserves the same respect as a vir Dei. Before and after the Theuderic-Brunhild episode, Jonas inserts a series of miracle stories related to animals. These have been mostly overlooked by historians, but I think they form an essential part of Jonas's narrative.116 As miracle stories they remind the reader that this text is not a "historical" record but a monastic and moral program transmitted in a narrative form. Telling animal miracles follows well established hagiographical models. In Sulpicius Severus's Dialogi, for example, animals play as prominent a role as they do in the Vita Columbani, although not with the same message.117

Soon after the foundation of Annegray, Columbanus retreats into the wilder ness and meditates on the question of whether he prefers the company of wicked people or wild wolves. He comes to the conclusion that wolves are preferable. Suddenly he finds himself within a pack of wolves, but the beasts do not do more than touch his coat with their noses.118 Another time Columbanus takes posses sion of a cave inhabited by a bear. This animal willingly gives his space to the saint.119 A third miracle occurs within the monastic confines: A raven steals Co lumbanus's glove. The saint announces that he will no longer feed the raven's children if it does not immediately return his property. The raven returns with the glove and patiently submits to the saint's punishment.120 On another occa sion Columbanus finds a dead deer and decides to use its skin for producing shoes for the community. He forbids a bear to feed on the cadaver. When Co lumbanus's monks arrive to retrieve the deer, they find it not only untouched but surrounded by a circle of vultures waiting at a safe distance-"acsi mortiferum aliquid ac loetale deviare et celeri fuga omittere"-until the monks have done

116 On the animal miracles in the Vita Columbani, see Rohr, "Hagiographie" (above, n. 4), p. 259; and Wood,

" Vita Columbani," p. 67 (reading them as exempla of obedience).

117 See, e.g., Sulpicius Severus, Dialogi 1.13-15, pp. 164-68. Other examples: Eugippius, VitaSeve

rini 29, ed. Philippe R?gerat, Sources Chr?tiennes 374 (Paris, 1991), pp. 252-54; Baudonivia, Vita

Radegundis 18-19, pp. 390-91; Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 10.1, p. 706; and Gregory the

Great, Dialogi 1.2.2-4, pp. 24-26. On animal miracles in general, see Heinrich G?nter, Psychologie der Legende: Studien zu einer wissenschaftlichen Heiligen-Geschichte (Freiburg, 1949), pp. 144-45

and 178-87; and Helen Waddell, Beasts and Saints (New York, 1934). 118 Vita Columbani 1.8, pp. 166-67. 119

Ibid., p. 167. De Vog??, "En lisant" (above, n. 6), p. 74, sees a parallel with Jerome, Vita Malchi

9, PL 23:58B-59B. 120 Vita Columbani 1.15, pp. 178-79.



Jonas of Bobbio 543

their work.121 Jonas's last animal miracle happens after the Theuderic-Brunhild episode; it involves another bear (obviously the saint's favorite pet) peacefully sharing a fruit harvest with the monastic community. Here the saint himself does not even interact with the bear. He simply asks a monk to order the bear to leave the monks' share of the harvest untouched.122 Reading these animal stories as a series, we discover both their common themes

and a significant development that reflects the same transformation of sanctity described in the main narrative. All the miracles deal with the natural respect of animals for the vir Dei. Animals seem to have a better understanding of sanctity than many people. The first miracle (the wolves) illustrates respect for the vir Dei himself and the boundaries of his own body.123 The second miracle defines the space (the bear's cave) claimed by the vir Dei as a forbidden area. The third miracle (the stealing raven) deals with the saint's possessions as objects under divine pro tection.124 Columbanus's threat to cease his support for the raven's family could even be read as an allusion to the saint's role as intercessor and his explicit threat to cease his support for King Theuderic.125

In the last two miracles (the vultures and the shared harvest) a remarkable shift takes place. Once claimed by a saint, a space becomes off-limits independent of his physical presence in it. Columbanus does not need to return to ensure that his ban is still working. Moreover, it is clear that his prohibitions are generally valid, not just for those who heard them directly: telling a bear to stay away is enough to make vultures do the same. In this way the saint's authority (or his charisma, speaking in Weber's terms) is disconnected not only from his own person but also from those who directly interact with him. The harvest miracle serves as a meta phor for the necessity of creating a Christian landscape in which secular and monastic claims can be peacefully integrated. In Jonas's narrative, Columbanus's interactions with animals that learn to respect the space seized by a saint form a perfect background for the conflict with Theuderic and Brunhild and also for the good fortune of King Clothar IL-which allows us to proceed to Lesson 3.

Lesson 3. Clothar II and Theudebert II: What to Do When the Saint Is Leaving

In Jonas's Vita Columbani, evil kings who threaten a vir Dei, refuse to follow his advice, or violate monastic space lose their power and their life. Good kings, however, who are obedient to the saint and respect and support his monasteries earn a glorious and fortunate reign. Clothar II, originally king of Neustria, unified all Frankish kingdoms under his rule by killing almost every survivor among Brun

121 Ibid. 1.17, p. 181. Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 12.2, p. 712, tells a similar miracle story, which has, however, a different theme: dogs hunting a boar do not dare to enter the septa quae circa

cellulam erant belonging to the hermit Aemilianus. Here the miracle leads Brachio, the owner of the

dogs, to convert to monastic life. 122 Vita Columbani 1.27, p. 216. 123

Berschin, Biographie (above, n. 6), 2:32-34, regards the bad human company that is worse than

wolves as a metaphor for rebellious monks. 124 On the holiness of the saint's possessions, see also Vita Columbani 1.22, p. 203. 125 See above, n. 74.



544 Jonas of Bobbio hild's offspring. 126 Although far from a paragon according to some saints' lives,127 for Jonas, Clothar serves as an example of a good king, clearly constructed as a mirror image of Theuderic II and Brunhild. Just as Jonas exploited their well known fate in order to show the effects of inappropriate behavior toward the saint and his monastery, he used Clothar's victory and successful reign by depicting them as the effects of an appropriate attitude toward saint and monastery. Char ters and hagiographic texts show that Clothar, his son Dagobert I, and members of their royal courts did become fervent supporters of Columbanian monasticism.128

Jonas tells how, on his way to exile, Columbanus predicted Clothar's victory and reign over all Frankish kingdoms.129 The king receives the saint after his ex pulsion from Burgundy with the same friendliness and support as the other Mer ovingian kings had done before. For Clothar, however, the saint is like a heavenly gift ( "velut caelestem munus"). The expression munus appears in similar contexts on four other occasions in the Vita Columbani.130 Clothar asks him to stay in his realm ("intra sui regni terminos") if he wished ("prout voluerit").131 Columbanus does not accept this offer and announces that he will continue his peregrinatio, but he takes the opportunity to criticize the king's moral and political behavior. Unlike Theuderic, Clothar obediently improves his conduct and treats the saint as a valuable adviser. After Theuderic and Theudebert wage war with each other, Columbanus recommends Clothar not to take sides at all, prophesying that he would gain both their realms within three years. When the saint decides to leave Clothar's realm, the king does not try to stop him; he even provides safe passage when Columbanus chooses to cross into the realm of Theuderic's brother Theudebert II (t 612).132

At this point Jonas's Clothar is the only king who understands that profiting from a saint does not depend on his physical presence in the realm. Columbanus stays in contact with Clothar until his death and continues to provide the king with prophecies and moral advice. However, at the moment Clothar gains power over all the Frankish kingdoms, he sends Eustasius (t 629), the prior of Colum banus's main foundation, Luxeuil, to Bobbio (the saint's last foundation) in order to persuade Columbanus to return. Columbanus takes this attempt to bring him back into Clothar's sphere of influence as an opportunity to teach the king a last and decisive lesson on how to treat a monastery appropriately. In Jonas's account this lesson is combined with the report of Columbanus's death:

126 Vita Columbani 1.29, pp. 219-20; and Fredegar, Libri chronicarum 4.42, pp. 141-42. See also

Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms (above, n. 94), pp. 141-42. 127 Vita Rusticulae 9-15, pp. 344-46; and Vita Lupi ep. Senonici 9-11, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH

SSrer. Merov. 4:181-82. 128 On the role of Dagobert in Merovingian hagiography, see Graus, Volk (above, n. 53), pp. 399

401; Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms, pp. 192-96; and Christoph Wehrli, Mittelalterliche ?berliefe rungen von Dagobert L, Geist und Werk der Zeiten 62 (Bern, 1982), pp. 106-39.

129 Vita Columbani 1.20, p. 198. 130 Ibid. 1.24, p. 207. See also 1.24, p. 207: "Inventum ergo optatum munus gratificabat"; 1.30, p.

223: "Gratissimum munus rex velut pignus foederis viri Dei ovans receipit . . ."; 2.8, p. 244: Gun

doenus receives Columbanus's successor Eustasius "velut gratissimum munus"; and 2.12, p. 259: ". . .

velut munus gratum ovans monasterii mater Burgundofara recepit." 131 Ibid. 1.24, p. 207. 132 Ibid. 1.24-25, pp. 207-8.



Jonas of Bobbio 545

After that he released him [the messenger] with the order to return to Clothar; he in structed him to please the royal ears with the following responses: that he [Columbanus] would not return at all; his only demand was that he [the king] should place his com panions who live at Luxeuil under royal support and protection. He [also] sent a letter full of remarks of severe reproach to the king. The rejoicing king received this most gracious gift [munus, again] as a guarantee of the pact with the holy man and did not forget his [Columbanus's] petition. He was zealous to fortify the above-mentioned mon astery with all his protection, enriching it with annual tributes and extending its bound aries in all directions, as was the wish of the venerable Eustasius, and out of love for the holy man he took all pains he could to support the people living there.

Furthermore, the blessed Columbanus ended his blessed life after the circle of a year was completed in the above-mentioned monastery of Bobbio, and after his soul was separated from his limbs, he gave it back to heaven on the ninth day before the calends of December [21 November].133

Some expressions in this passage, such as "mulciri imperat aures" and "petitioni," recall the language used in charters of immunities and episcopal exemptions.134 It is possible, though not provable, that Jonas here drew on a charter granted to Luxeuil that is now lost. Strikingly, Jonas has more to say about how Columbanus successfully demanded and defined the king's responsibilities for his monastic community than about the death of the saint, which is mentioned in passing ("porro"). He gives the impression that the vir Dei himself was not really needed anymore and so was allowed to leave the stage quietly at the moment the mon asteries under his rule had received the material support and protection they de served. This impression is supported by how the story continues in the second book of the Vita Columbani.

Before moving to this second part, I will briefly return to Columbanus's tournee royale and describe Columbanus's two remaining encounters with kings. Between Columbanus's departure from Clothar and his death, Columbanus meets first Theudebert II (t 612, king of Austrasia, brother of Theuderic II) and finally the Lombard king Agilulf (t 615). Both encounters play a minor role in the narrative, but the saint's confrontation with Theudebert II in particular provides some new insights into Jonas's view of the appropriate relationship between saints and

133 Ibid. 1.30, pp. 223-24: "Dimissum post haec ad Chlotharium remeare iubet talibusque responsis

regias mulciri imperat aures, seque retro repedare nullatenus ratum duceret; tantummodo poseer?, ut

sodales suos, qui Luxovio incolebant, regali adminiculo ac presidio foveret. Litteras castigationum effamine plenas r?gi dirigit. Gratissimum munus rex velut pignus foederis viri Dei ovans reeepit nee

eius petitioni oblivionis noxam preponit. Omni presidio supradictum monasterium munire studet, annuis censibus ditat, t?rminos undique, prout voluntas venerabilis Eusthasii erat, ?uget omnique conatu ad auxilium inibi habitantium ob viri Dei amorem intendit. Porro beatus Columbanus, expleto anni circulo, in antedictu caenubio Ebobiensi vita beata funetus, animam membris solutam caelo

reddidit VIIII. Kl. Decembris." 134

See, e.g., the 637 privilege for Rebais (above, n. 50), which is the oldest preserved, reasonably authentic charter granting rights to a Columbanian monastery and which explicitly refers to Luxeuil

as a model monastery, p. 39: "Et quia bonae indolis illustris viri Dadonis referendarii religiosa pos tulado nostrarum quippe aurium intima penetravit, quae et visc?rale pietatis affectu, ita cor intrinsecus

caritatis suae petitio mollivit, ut petita non conceder?, aut arte libentissime non implere, nostri duntaxat

animi irreligiosum fore putaretur."



546 Jonas of Bobbio

kings.135 If Jonas presents "Sigibert" as a good king, Theudebert is presented as bad because of his ignorance of how to deal with a vir Dei.136 His fate, presumably well known to Jonas's audience as well, is again depicted as the result of his disobedience toward the saint, though at first glance Theudebert seems to behave much better than his brother. Members of his court even become the most fervent supporters of Columbanian monasticism.137 But Theudebert does not have the appropriate understanding of how to deal with a holy monk, which Jonas illus trates with skillful use of terminology: as noted above, Clothar regarded Colum banus as a heavenly gift ("velut caelestem munus"); Theudebert regards Colum banian monks as loot ("preda" ).138 Columbanus's failure to find a suitable place for founding a monastery at the border of Theudebert's realm might be read as a statement on God's disfavor.139 Foreseeing the outcome of Theudebert's war with Theuderic, Columbanus strongly advises the king to resign and enter the priesthood voluntarily before being forced to do so. The king angrily refuses. Soon afterwards he is defeated by his brother and loses first his royal hair and then his life.140

2. THE ABSENT SAINT

The first book of Jonas's Vita Columbani illustrates how trying to keep and monopolize a holy man does not work, nor does expelling him. The only way to profit from a saint like Columbanus continuously is to support and respect his monastic foundations. Monastic communities, internally obedient to the regula and externally protected and respected by the powerful, are, as we learn from Jonas, in the long run much more useful than holy men. Jonas, however, not only states this fact but also provides the necessary explanation by linking his concept of a monastic space with the concept of the holy community.

135 The encounter between Columbanus and Agilulf does not add new aspects to the relation between

saint, monastery, and king. He as well receives the saint with due honor and offers him support leading to the foundation of Bobbio. See Vita Columbani 1.30, pp. 220-21. On the role of the Lombard king's Arianism, see Walter Pohl, "Deliberate Ambiguity: The Lombards and Christianity," in Christianizing

Peoples and Converting Individuals, ed. Guyda Armstrong and Ian N. Wood, International Medieval

Research 7 (Turnhout, 2000), pp. 47-58. 136 On the classification of Merovingian kings in historiography, see, e.g., Guy Halsall, "Nero and

Herod? The Death of Chilperic and Gregory's Writing of History," in The World of Gregory of Tours, ed. Mitchell and Wood (above, n. 85), pp. 337-50.

137 Vita Columbani 1.26, pp. 209-10, on Chagnerich, the father of Burgundofara, Burgundofaro, and Chagnoald, and on Autharius and Aigna, parents of Ado, Dado, and Rado; and 2.10, p. 252, on

Romaric. See Dierkens, "Prol?gom?nes" (above, n. 6), pp. 374-75; and Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life" (above, n. 4), p. 190. See also Vita Faronis 1.1, ed. Joseph van Hecke, in Acta sanctorum, October, 12 (Paris, 1867), p. 609.

138 Vita Columbani 1.27, p. 211: "lam enim multi fratrum post eum ex Luxovio v?n?rant, quos velut ex hostium preda recipiebat. Pollicitusque est Theudebertus se repperire intra suos t?rminos loca venusta et famuli Dei ad omni oportunitate congrua proximasque ad predicandum nationes undique haberi." See also above, p. 544.

139 Vita Columbani 1.27, pp. 214-17. See also Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life," pp. 204-5. 140 Vita Columbani 1.28, pp. 217-19. See also Gregory of Tours, Decem libri historiarum 5.14,

pp. 207-8, on Merovech's being tonsured.



Jonas of Bobbio 547

Sanctity by Obedience

At first glance Jonas explains his "transfer of sanctity" mainly by describing situations of conflict and cooperation with secular rulers. This rather tumultuous establishment of a new type of monasticism, however, is paired with a more silent transition taking place inside the monastic community. On numerous occasions Columbanus is depicted as a powerful miracle worker: a healer, an exorcist who gives solace or brings about God's punishment. In addition to those traditional and mostly biblically inspired miracles confirming Columbanus's status as a vir Dei, Jonas recounts a number of unusual miracle stories, involving the community of monks and showing the power of their prayer.

The very first miracle Columbanus performs is in fact already an act of cooper ation with his community. When the saint is requested to cure a sick woman and a monk of his community, he orders his monks to join him in prayer.14' On another occasion he tells his fellow monks to pray for the healing of a blind man.'42 Soon afterwards Columbanus asks his community to pray for the benefit of a patron.143

Besides miracles based on collective prayers, Jonas also describes miracles per formed by individual monks by order of the saint. Wandering in the wilderness, Columbanus prays to find a well, but he asks one of his monks to hit a rock with a stick to start the water running (as Moses did).144 On the basis of this miracle Jonas makes it clear to his readers that obedience and faith alone give rise to miracles.145 On another occasion the monks have to gather the harvest in the rain. Columbanus places four trustworthy monks at the corners of the field to disperse the clouds. Those monks, not Columbanus himself, save the harvest.146 The reason for the community's ability to perform miracles is made explicit

again in two other miracles. A group of sick monks are healed after carrying out the saint's order to go to work despite their illness.147 Not Columbanus but their unconditional obedience to the saint heals them.148 The same unconditional but

141 Vita Columbani 1.7, p. 164: "Humili et anxio corde poscenti noluit vir sanctus denegare solamen; adhibitis simul fratribus, pro ea Domini misericordiam deprecatur."

142 Ibid. 1.21, p. 200: "Videns ille fidem, omnes poscet, ut pro ceco orent. ..." 143 Ibid. 1.22, p. 204: "'Sine', inquid, 'se scire, fratrumque coetum adunare, ut simul positi pro

largitricem Dominum precarentur simulque grates r?f?rant conditori. . . .'" 144 Ibid. 1.9, p. 168. Cf. Num. 20.8-11. A similar miracle is described in Gregory the Great, Dialogi

2.5, p. 152-54. For another delegated miracle, see Vita Columbani 2.2, pp. 233-34. 145 Vita Columbani 1.9, p. 168: "Nee inm?rito misericors Dominus suis sanctis tribuit postulata, qui

ob suorum praeceptorum imperio proprias crucifixerunt voluntates, tantum fidem pollentes, quae eius

misericordiae postulaverint, impetrare non dubitant. ..." A similar statement can be found in Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum 3, prologue, p. 672.

146 Vita Columbani 1.13, pp. 173-74. Jonas may have been inspired by a miracle story in Gregory of Tours, Decem libri historiarum 4.34, p. 167.

147 Vita Columbani 1.12, p. 173. A comparable message is expressed in the fish miracle in 1.11,

pp. 171-72: Columbanus's monks succeed in catching fish only at exactly the place indicated by the

saint. 148 Cf. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 681 (trans. Eisenstadt, p. 28): "It is the fate of cha

risma, whenever it comes into the permanent institutions of a community, to give way to powers of

tradition or of rational socialization. This waning of charisma generally indicates the diminishing

importance of individual action. And of all those powers that lessen the importance of individual

action, the most irresistible is rational discipline." (Italics are mine.)



548 Jonas of Bobbio somewhat hasty obedience prevents beer from being spilled when a monk too quickly follows the call of his master and forgets to close the tub of a beer vessel.149

In most hagiographic texts written before the Vita Columbani, including those Jonas mentions as sources of inspiration, the communities around a saint are described as witnesses and passive recipients of a saint's miraculous power and teaching.150 Columbanus's fellow monks clearly play a different role-and they have to since otherwise the monastery would not fulfill its function. By means of their obedience to the saint's precepts and rule, they become active participants of the miraculous.

In the first book of the Vita Columbani both concepts of sanctity-the sanctity of a holy man and that of the community-coexist, but Jonas shows on several occasions that the saint's physical presence is unnecessary as long as his monks follow his orders. The first things Columbanus does after founding Annegray and Luxeuil are to appoint representatives, give his monks a regula, and leave the community to become a hermit.'5' In the course of the first book of the Vita Columbani Jonas plays repeatedly with variations on the theme of the absent saint. Columbanus regularly withdraws from his community,'52 refuses restrictions on his mobility,"3 turns invisible,154 is exiled (although unsuccessfully),"' and con tinues his peregrinatio until his death. The last two animal miracles in particular show that the saint's physical presence is separate from the effects of his sanctity.156 All the references to the absent saint culminate in Columbanus's spectacularly

149 Vita Columbani 1.16, pp. 179-81. 150 The same is the case for the Verba seniorum, the Historia Lausiaca, and the Historia monacho

rum. An important exception and possibly a precursor of the Vita Columbani is the Vita patrum lurensium, a text written as the regula for Saint-Maurice d'Agaune. (See above, p. 528.) Here as well

the community is described as taking over the saint's ability to perform miracles. See Vita patrum lurensium 51, pp. 294-96; 114, p. 358; and 148, p. 398. These passages are discussed in Albrecht

Diem, "Organisierte Keuschheit-organisierte Heiligkeit: Individuum und Institutionalisierung im fr?

hen gallo-fr?nkischen Klosterwesen," in Das Charisma: Seine Funktionen und symbolische Repr?sen tation in Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften, ed. Pavlina Rychterova, Stefan Seit, and Raphaela Veit,

forthcoming (Berlin, 2007). See also Diem, Experiment, pp. 311-12; and Brown, Authority and the

Sacred, p. 60. The question of collective performance of miracles certainly deserves further investi

gation. The biblical basis is Luke 10.1-20, Matt. 10.1-42, and Mark 6.7-13. 151 Vita Columbani 1.10, p. 170: "Dedit gubernatores praepositus, de quorum religione nihil dubi

tabatur. His ergo in locis monachorum plebes constitu?as, ipse vicissim omnibus intererat regulamque, quam tenerent, Spiritu sancto repletus condedit, in quam, qualis et quantae disciplinae vir sanctus

fuerit, prudens lector vel auditor agnoscit." See also Columbanus, Ep?stola 4.4, ed. and trans. Walker, Columbani Opera, pp. 28-30. Similarly Gregory of Tours, Decem libri historiarum 7.1, pp. 323-27; Liber vitae patrum 9.3, pp. 704-5; 18.1, p. 734; and Eugippius, Vita Severini 4.6-7, pp. 186-88.

Columbanus giving a regula could be regarded as a form of disciplining charisma as it is described in

Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 681-82 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 28-29). 152 Vita Columbani 1.8-9, pp. 166-68; 1.10, p. 170; 1.11, pp. 170-72; 1.12, p. 172; 1.17, p. 181;

1.27, p. 216; and 1.28, p. 218. 153 Ibid. 1.19, pp. 188 and 191; 1.20, p. 193; 1.22, p. 204; 1.23, pp. 205-6; and 1.24, p. 207. Cf.

Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 112-14; and Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 141 (trans.

Eisenstadt, p. 50). 154 Vita Columbani 1.8, p. 167; and 1.20, p. 194. 155 Ibid. 1.20, pp. 196-98. 156 See above, pp. 542-43.



Jonas of Bobbio 549

unspectacular death at the end of book 1157 and in the fact that the Vita Columbani continues, despite Columbanus's definitive absence. Most hagiographic works stress at this point the continuous presence of the

saint in his relics and give accounts of postmortem miracles. Jonas tells a different story: "If anybody would like to know his strength (strenuitatem), he should find it in his teaching (dictis). And his relics are preserved buried at this place [Bobbio],

where they are potent as well in the splendor of power (et virtutum decore pollent) through the Lord Christ who deserves glory in eternity. Amen."'158 Even if we read "virtutum" as a reference to postmortem miracles,159 it is clear that Jonas regards Columbanus's dicta as more important than the virtutes of his relics. More than half of the second book talks about Bobbio, but Columbanus's relics are never mentioned. Instead, the second book focuses on the deeds of Columbanus's suc cessors and heirs and shows how his regula (or: his transformed charisma) was preserved and defended despite the fact that he had left the stage.

Columbanus's Successors: The Abbots

Book 2 of the Vita Columbani has an entirely different character from the first book and a rather heterogeneous structure.160 It consists of three blocks of nar ratives set in the monastery of Bobbio (the lives of the abbots Athala and Berthulf and the miracles of the monks of Bobbio), one section on Eustasius and the Col umbanian monastic network, and a series of miracle stories related to Burgun dofara's (t 657) foundation Faremoutiers, the first female Columbanian com munity.161 It is not certain whether the text was indeed originally arranged in the form presented in Krusch's edition, since none of the early manuscripts contains

157 Jonas's remarkably short description of Columbanus's death and burial is the more striking when

compared with the very extensive accounts of the death of Athala, in Vita Columbani 2.6, pp. 238

40; of Eustasius, 2.10, pp. 256-57; and of the monks Agibod and Theudoald, 2.25, pp. 290-92. Most

of the miracle stories of Faremoutiers are related to dramatic death scenes as well. See 2.11-20,

pp. 258-76. 158 Ibid. 1.30, p. 224: "Cuius strenuitatem si quis nosse vellit, in eius dictis repperiet. Reliquiaeque

eius eo habentur in loco conditae, ubi et virtutum decore pollent pres?le Christo, cui est gloria per omnia s?cula seculorum. Amen."

159 Herbert Haupt translates "et virtutum decore pollent" as "durch h?ufige Wunder ausgezeichnet" (adorned with frequent miracles). See Jonas of Bobbio, Erstes Buch vom Leben Columbans, trans.

Herbert Haupt, in Quellen zur Geschichte des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts, ed. Herwig Wolfram, Ausge w?hlte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters 4a (Darmstadt, 1982), p. 497.

160 There are several early-medieval hagiographie works preserved in two books, but there is no

general pattern of separation. In the case of the Vita Radegundis and the Vita Caesarii the books were

written by different authors. In Audoin's Vita Eligii, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:663

742, the second book marks the transition from a secular to a clerical existence. The Vita Sadalbergae

separates the saint's vita (1-18) from the description of the end of her life (19-30, still including lots

of her deeds in life). In later periods the second book (often a later addition) usually contains miracle

stories or postmortem miracles (e.g., Vita/De virtutibus Geretrudis, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer.

Merov. 2:453-74; VitalMiracula Austrigisili; Vita/Virtutes Fursei, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer.

Merov. 4:434-49; and VitalMiracula Leutfredi, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 7:7-18). 161 On Bobbio: Vita Columbani 2.1-6, pp. 230-40, deeds of Athala; 2.23, pp. 280-86, deeds of

Berthulf; and 2.24-25, pp. 286-94, miracles of the monks of Bobbio. On Eustasius and the network

of Luxeuil: 2.7-10, pp. 240-57. On Faremoutiers: 2.11-22, pp. 257-79; see also 2.7, pp. 241-43; and 2.10, p. 253.



550 Jonas of Bobbio all parts of the second book. Therefore it has been suggested that different versions may have been arranged for different monasteries.162

The question of whether there was an "original" second book of the Vita Co lumbani and what it looked like certainly deserves more thorough investigation, preferably combined with a study of the manuscript transmission of other saints' lives related to the Vita Columbani or inspired by Jonas's work.163 For the prob lems raised here, however, the matter is not of immediate relevance, as long as the possibility of differently shaped second books is kept in mind.

If we assume that the section on Athala (t 625/26) and the section on Eustasius belong together (as the prologue of the Vita Columbani suggests),'64 Colum banus had two successors, who, as I will subsequently show, inherited different parts of Columbanus's legacy. Athala, abbot of Columbanus's burial monastery, Bobbio, is the only person in the second book who is called vir Dei,165 a title applied no fewer than ninety-five times to Columbanus himself.166 Moreover, Athala is the only protagonist of the second book who performs a significant number of miracles. Each of Athala's miracles, however, can be identified as a variation on a miracle previously performed by Columbanus himself,167 sug gesting that Athala has to be regarded as a sort of secondhand vir Dei who honestly follows his master's vestigia.'6' Though inheriting Columbanus's ability to perform miracles, Athala can be described neither as a "holy man" nor as a charismatic person. His qualities as a good pastor, skilled organizer, and relent less negotiator are described in an extensive list.169 Moreover, Jonas describes his

162 Rohr, "Hagiographie" (above, n. 4), pp. 243-44. On the structure of the second book, see also

Berschin, Biographie (above, n. 6), 2:37-38; and Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life" (above, n. 4), pp. 192

201, who defends Krusch's edition. See also Mich?le Tosi's edition, Vita Columbani et discipulorum eius (Piacenza, 1965). Tosi published a different version of the Vita Columbani based on an early

manuscript unknown to Krusch. In this version, the chapters on Faremoutiers are left out. 163 A methodological model is provided in Rosamond McKitterick's studies on the manuscripts of

Carolingian historiographie texts in her History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge,

Eng., 2004). 164 In his prologue to the Vita Columbani, p. 147, Jonas announces a work in two parts in which

the second part contains "discipulorum eius Athalae, Eusthasi vel ceterorum quos meminimus vitam." 165 Athala is called vir Dei twenty-two times in Vita Columbani 2.1-6, pp. 230-40. 166 No early-medieval saint is called vir Dei more often than Columbanus. See also Berschin, Bio

graphie, 2:33, n. 33, referring to the unpublished Ph.D. thesis by Ursula Meinhold, "Columban von

Luxeuil im Frankenreich" (Marburg, 1981), p. 50, n. 8 (which I have not been able to see). 167 In Vita Columbani 2.2, pp. 233-34, Athala prevents the monastery's mill from being destroyed

by a flood by giving his staff to one of his monks to use for changing the current of the river Bobius.

Cf. Exod. 14.21-30. A similarly constructed Mosaic miracle is found in Vita Columbani 1.9, p. 168:

Columbanus orders one of his monks to hit a rock with a stick to find a well. Cf. Num. 20.8-11. In

2.3, p. 235, Athala fixes a thumb that was cut off, as Columbanus did in 1.15, p. 177. In 2.4, pp. 235

36, Athala heals a boy dying from fever, as Columbanus did in 1.7, p. 164. Columbanus's miracles

also form a model for most of the other miracles of Bobbio told at the end of the Vita Columbani. See

below, pp. 554-55. 168 See Vita Columbani 2.1, p. 230: "Cumque ergo venerabilis Columba de hac luce migrasset, eius

in locum Athala suffectus est omni religione laudabilis, cuius post magistrum virtutes clarae fulserunt . . . per vestigia magistri secutus."

169 Ibid. 1.4, p. 236: "Erat enim his vir gratus omnibus, singularis fervoris, singularis alacritatis,

singularis caritatis in peregrinis, in pauperibus; noverat et superbis resistere et humilibus subditus esse,

sapientibus condigna rependere et simplicibus mystica aperire; in solvendis ac opponendis questionibus



Jonas of Bobbio 551 achievements in reorganizing and refurnishing the monastery of Bobbio shortly before his death.170 Athala shares his qualities as a monastic manager with Eustasius and Berthulf

(t 638/39), the other main protagonists of the second book. Yet neither Eustasius nor Berthulf is called vir Dei. None of them (or Burgundofara) is notable for performing spectacular miracles.171 None of the four continues Columbanus's as cetic lifestyle or has his prophetic abilities. None of them is in the same precarious and privileged outsider position that enabled Columbanus to make palaces shake or to throw food and vessels at a king's head.172 All of them come from families deeply involved with Frankish politics; certainly Berthulf and probably Eustasius as well had a political past.173 Instead of being fierce critics of the immoral deeds of the powerful and saints who make a king tremble, Columbanus's successors are sedulous negotiators and business partners of kings,174 noblemen,175 and popes176 for the sake of their monastic communities. As such, they represent an entirely different type of saint, much more a qualified officeholder (Amtstrdger, to speak in Weberian terms) than a charismatic person.

In Jonas's narrative it is striking that although Athala inherited Columbanus's ability to perform miracles, and ruled his burial place, it is not he who becomes Columbanus's main successor but Eustasius, who as a saint is depicted as a rather bleak figure.177 Not the thaumaturge but the obedient and capable organizer, Jonas

sagax, adversus hereticorum procellas vigens ac solidus, fortis in adversis, sobrius in prosperis, tem

peratus in omnibus, discretus in cunctis. Redundabat amor et timor in subditis, redolebat doctrina in

discipulis; nullus iuxta eum vel merore tediebatur ?eque nimia letitia extollebatur." 170 Ibid. 2.5, p. 237: "Septa monastirii densat, tegumenta r?nov?t, omnia roborat, ut, si abeat, nihil

inbecille dimittat; v?hicula quiete fovet, libros ligaminibus firmat; suppellectilia ablui, dissuta adsui,

corrupta conponi, calciamenta parari, ut omnia praesto sint, iubet." 171 The only miracles Eustasius performs are acts to support the Columbanian network. He heals

Burgundofara and Sadalberga, who both became founders of Columbanian monasteries, and Agilus,

presul of the important Columbanian monastery Rebais. See Vita Columbani 2.7-8, pp. 241-45.

Berthulf drives out two demons and heals a leper. See 2.23, pp. 284-85. 172 Ibid. 1.19, p. 189. Cf. Brown, "Rise and Function," pp. 106 and 130-35; and Weber, Wirtschaft

und Gesellschaft, pp. 269 and 656 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 254 and 21). 173 Vita Columbani 1.20, p. 196; and 2.23, pp. 280-81. An excellent description of the role of

Columbanian monasticism in Merovingian politics is given by R?gine Le Jan, "Convents, Violence, and Competition for Power in Seventh-Century Francia," in Topographies of Power, ed. de Jong et al.

(above, n. 55), pp. 243-69. See also Dunn, Emergence (above, n. 6), pp. 166-67; Prinz, "Columbanus"

(above, n. 6), pp. 77-80; Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms (above, n. 94), pp. 192-94; and idem, " Vita

Columbani" (above, n. 6), pp. 76-77. 174 Vita Columbani 2.7, pp. 241-43, esp. p. 241: ". . . paterno affectu et aequo iure subditas mona

chorum regebat catervas. Evenit, ut pro communi necessitate ad regem Chlotharium pergeret. ..."

Nevertheless, Eustasius enjoys the king's "love and veneration"; see 2.9, p. 246. See also ibid. 2.23,

pp. 281-82. 175 Ibid. 2.7-8, pp. 241-43. 176 Ibid. 2.23, pp. 282-83. 177 There is a striking contrast between Jonas, who explicitly mentions Columbanus's appointment

of Eustasius as his successor (ibid. 1.30, p. 222, and 2.7, p. 241), and Columbanus himself, who

appointed Athala to replace him during his exile (Columbanus, Ep?stola 4.2, p. 26). See also Stancliffe,

"Jonas's Life," pp. 203-4. It is possible that there was an ongoing conflict between Luxeuil and Bobbio over the true heritage of the saint. One of the intentions of the Vita Columbani may have been to

reconcile the two monasteries and to keep Columbanian monasticism unified. One indication of that



552 Jonas of Bobbio

tells his audience, is entrusted to establish and to defend the Columbanian mo nastic network with Luxeuil as its center.178 Bobbio remains peripheral, despite Columbanus's grave and all the miracles still happening there. Just like all the other Columbanian foundations, it receives its first abbots from Luxeuil.179

The main achievement of Athala, Eustasius, and Berthulf is keeping up and defending the regula outlined by their magister Columbanus and (especially in the case of Eustasius) founding new monasteries on the basis of the Regula Colum bani. 180 While Jonas credits Columbanus with establishing and defending the mon astery as a protected and inaccessible place of power, his successors earn their merits by defending the regula against new threats: Athala applies the disciplina regularis to a group of monks who challenge his authority and leave the monas tery.181 Illicitly crossing the monastic boundaries in this direction is described as just as much an offense as violating the monastic space from outside.182 Eustasius defends his understanding of the instituta magistri in his fierce battle against Agres tius, a monk who powerfully challenged the monastic practices of Luxeuil and

managed to gain influence in several Columbanian foundations.'83 Berthulf, fi nally, defends the disciplina against a bishop's claims of controlling the monas teries in his diocese.'84 At least in the cases of Athala and Eustasius, God shows his favor by bringing the respective antagonists to a cruel end.185 Nevertheless,

could be Jonas's somewhat forced statement on the love and harmony between Eustasius and Athala

in Vita Columbani 2.23, p. 281, and the author's emphasis on Agrestius's fruitless attempts to divide

Eustasius and Athala in 2.9, pp. 247-48. The tension between Luxeuil and Bobbio might have resulted

in Jonas's Solomonic decision to give Luxeuil and Eustasius a leading position within the Columbanian

network while paying much more attention to Bobbio and its abbots in the narrative itself. 178 Luxeuil is undoubtedly the "headquarters" of Columbanian monasticism, though the monastery

itself plays a subordinate role in the second book of the Vita Columbani: it is mainly the place Eustasius

leaves or returns to. Consequently Jonas never calls Eustasius abbas Luxoviensis; instead he is de

scribed as governing the "subditas monachorum . . . catervas" (plural!). See Vita Columbani 2.7, p. 241. On the monastic network of Luxeuil, see also Diem, "Was bedeutet regula Columbani}"

pp. 71-75 (with further references). 179 See Vita Columbani 2.1, pp. 230-31; and 2.23, p. 281. 180 Both the first and the second books describe numerous monastic foundations ex regula Colum

bani: 1.14, pp. 175-76, Palatium/St. Paul, near Besan?on; a monastery at the river Novisona; a nun

nery at Besan?on; 1.26, pp. 209-10, Juarre and Rebais; 2.7, p. 243, Faremoutiers; 2.9, pp. 252-53,

Remiremont; and 2.10, p. 255, Solignac and two nunneries at Paris, Notre-Dame de Sales and Jouet sur-1'Aubois. See also Dierkens, "Prol?gom?nes" (above, n. 6), pp. 376-78; and Prinz, Fr?hes M?nch tum (above, n. 6), pp. 121-51.

181 Vita Columbani 2.1, pp. 231-32. 182 The theme recurs in the miracle stories of Faremoutiers. See Vita Columbani 2.19, pp. 271-75.

Implicitly it is also present in the story Jonas told about himself. When he left the monastery in order to visit his parents, he got seriously ill. Only returning to the monastic confines restored his health.

See 2.5, pp. 237-38. 183 Ibid. 2.9-10, pp. 246-54. On the conflict with Agrestius, see Stancliffe, "Jonas's Life," pp. 203

17; and Ian Wood, The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400-1050 (Harlow,

2001), pp. 36-37. See also Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 681-82 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 28

30), on the role of discipline in the processes of institutionalization. 184 Vita Columbani 2.23, pp. 281-83. 185 See ibid. 2.1, pp. 231-32, and 2.19, pp. 273-75, on God's punishment of those who left the

monastery; and 2.10, pp. 253-54, on the end of Agrestius and his followers. See also 2.24, pp. 288-89, on the punishment of Arians who attacked a monk; and 2.25, p. 290, on the punishment of pagans who attacked a monk.



Jonas of Bobbio 553

neither Athala nor Eustasius nor Berthulf exercises miraculous power (or charis matic authority) in order to achieve his goals as Columbanus did. Instead they rely on good arguments, church councils, and papal charters.

Jonas must have been aware of the differences in his depictions of Columbanus and of the saint's successors. I would assume that the sharp contrast between the vir Dei Columbanus and those claiming to inherit and defend his regula in the second and third generation forms in fact a key element of the story Jonas wanted to tell his audience: Columbanus was undoubtedly a saint in the tradition of An tony and the other early monastic fathers. But he was better than those holy men since he established an institution that kept his power and teachings alive-so much so as to make the saint himself and those of his kind dispensable. Monas teries under the rule of those whom Jonas describes as Columbanus's worthy successors took over the most important qualities the saint had (especially the ability to perform intercession) without sharing his rather unpleasant habits (such as moving to neighboring areas, sniffing around in the ruler's bedroom, getting involved with politics, or dying). Merovingian hagiographic texts give the impression that Jonas quite success

fully managed to establish this shift. Most monastic founders described in hagi ographic works written after the Vita Columbani follow the model of Colum banus's successors instead of sharing the quality of a vir Dei in the tradition reaching from Antony to Columbanus.186 The difference between Columbanus and Eustasius-or between the first and the second book of the Vita Columbani marks a watershed in the conceptual development of monastic sanctity. The vir Dei modeled after the early monastic fathers died a silent death with Columbanus.187

186 This is already the case in Jonas's own Vita lohannis. On this text see Diem, "An Iro-Egyptian Monk" (above, n. 101). For saints with a political past, see, e.g., Vita Agili 1.16-17, pp. 316 and 322; Vita Aigulphi abbatis Lerinensis 5.7, ed. Jean Mabillon, in Acta sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti,

2:656-72; Vita Ansberti 4-5, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:621-22; Vita Aridii 5, ed.

Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 3:583; Vita Arnulfi 4-7, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov.

2:433-35; Vita Audomari 4, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:755-56; Vita Ebrulfi 3-7, ed. Jean Mabillon, in Acta sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, 1 (Paris, 1668), p. 345; Vita Ermen landi 1, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:685-86; Vita Filiberti 1-2 and 6, ed. Wilhelm

Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:584-85 and 587-88; Vita Geremari 2-3, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH

SS rer. Merov. 4:628; Vita Germani Grandivallensis 1, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:33; Vita Romarici 4, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:222; and Vita Wandregisili 7, ed. Bruno

Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:16. More examples are provided by Graus, Volk (above, n. 53), p.

362, nn. 344-47, and pp. 365-68. For royal involvement in monastic foundations, see, e.g., Vita

Droctovei 3, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 3:538; Audoin, Vita Eligii 1.15-17, pp. 680

83; Vita Filiberti 23, p. 596; Wetti, Vita Galli 21, pp. 267-68; and Vita Walarici 14, pp. 165-66. A

striking example of hagiography covering up conflicts between a saint and society is shown by a

comparison of Boniface as he appears in his lives and in his letters: his hagiographie appearance is

clearly much less contentious than his actual life. See Wood, Missionary Life, pp. 62-63; and Mayke de Jong, "Bonifatius: Een Angelsaksische priester-monnik en het Frankische hof," Millennium: Tijd

schrift voor Middeleeuwse Studies 19 (2005), 5-23, at pp. 15-23. See also Paul Fouracre, "The Origins of the Carolingian Attempt to Regulate the Cult of Saints," in The Cult of Saints, ed. Howard-Johnston and Hayward (above, n. 2), pp. 143-65, at pp. 155-56.

187 This observation holds true mostly for monastic saints. There are several examples of late Mer

ovingian saintly bishops and priests who retained qualities of a holy man and freely criticized rulers,

e.g., in Vita Amandi 17, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:440; Vita Arnulfi 17-18, pp. 439



554 Jonas of Bobbio But this is not the end of the story. As Jonas shows us, the true heirs of Columbanus are in fact not even the capable monastic managers but the Columbanian monks (and nuns) themselves-and here Jonas continues the motif of the community's taking over the saint's miraculous power.

Columbanus's Heirs: Monks and Nuns

In most of the extant manuscripts the Vita Columbani ends on a strangely quiet note with a series of miracles performed by ordinary monks at Bobbio-at first glance an unusual end for a narrative full of dramatic conflicts that changed the course of history. Jonas starts this last section of the Vita Columbani by stating that "the virtues of numerous monks shine out and therefore we think it right to set down certain tales relating to them."'88 There is no chronological reason to place the miracles of Bobbio after the "Life of Berthulf." Therefore I would assume that this was a deliberate decision by Jonas, especially since all miracles refer in some way to the life of Columbanus himself. None of them is just a miracle for the sake of the miraculous. For example, the priest Blidulf, sent by Athala to Pavia, provokes an argument with the Arian Lombard duke Arioald (t 615), who there upon promises a reward to anyone who kills Blidulf. Blidulf is beaten to death but miraculously rises. When Arioald offers his excuses, Blidulf refuses to accept his gifts just as uncompromisingly as Columbanus acted when refusing Theu deric's gifts.189 Jonas follows with a similar story about the monk Meroveus, who is sent to Tortona by his abbot. On the way he sets fire to a temple, following the example of Columbanus, who destroyed a huge barrel of beer that was used for pagan rituals.190 The adherents of the temple beat Meroveus up and throw him into a river, unsuccessfully trying to drown him. Everyone involved in the attack on the monk is punished by God except for those who proceed to the monastery in order to do penance.19'

In the next episode Jonas describes the exemplary death of the monk Agibod. Just as in two death scenes in the miracles of Faremoutiers, Agibod dies sur rounded by his fellow monks; he sees heaven and eternal happiness awaiting him and returns to life to tell his brothers about his experience. The remarkable part is not the story itself 192 but Jonas's explicit statement that the monk's salvation is a direct result of his exemplary life and especially the fact that from early youth he was living according to the disciplina regularis under Columbanus.193

40; and in the Vita Richarii sacerdotis Centulensis primigenia 1.6, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer.

Merov. 7:447-48, cleverly rewritten by Alcuin in order to teach Charlemagne a lesson. See Alcuin, Vita Richarii 11, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:395-96.

188 Vita Columbani 2.24, p. 286: "Plerumque etenim monachorum experti sumus virtutes flagrare, et ideo ratum ducimus, ut ex his aliqua interseramus" (trans, by Ian Wood, in Medieval Hagiography, ed. Head, p. 127).

189 Vita Columbani 2.24, pp. 286-89. 190 Ibid. 1.27, pp. 213-14. 191 Ibid. 2.25, pp. 289-90. 192 There are other descriptions of visits from the hereafter in the miracles of Faremoutiers. See, e.g.,

ibid. 2.11, pp. 258-59; and 2.12, p. 261. 193 Ibid. 2.25, pp. 290-91: "Aliorum etenim monachorum in supradictu Ebobiense coenubio felicem

vitam felicioremque exitum vidimus peregisse, qui diversa per exhortatione superstitum exeuntes de



Jonas of Bobbio 555 The last three miracles point again to Columbanus's own miracles, in a manner

similar to the miracles of Bobbio's first abbot, Athala. A monk called Baudachari us works in a vineyard. Joined by thirty other monks, he performs a food miracle, turning some leftover bread into an amount of food sufficient to feed all the monks. He does this despite the warning of his supervisor and shows that every pious monk can multiply food, as Columbanus did.194 Another monk imposes on a fox the rule not to touch the grapes of the monastery's vineyard. This recalls Columbanus's instruction to bears and other animals on respecting the saint's space and property. In this case, however, the fox is disobedient and dies imme diately after having taken the first grape into his mouth.195 In the final miracle Leubardus and Meroveus are fortifying the vineyard on the order of their abbot ("ex abbatis imperium [sic]"). Intending to move an entire tree trunk, they throw themselves to the ground and pray for strength. Armed with their faith, they are able to move the trunk easily.'96 This last miracle can as well be read as a variation on an event in Columbanus's lifetime when the sick monks of Luxeuil regained strength only because of their unconditional obedience to the abbot.

Jonas's monumental work begins with the deeds and miracles of a great vir Dei whose main achievement was to gather, organize, teach, and institutionally protect a community of monks following his rule. The life ends by telling how these monks perform miracles just as Columbanus did himself. For the reader there might be no better proof that Columbanian monastic communities indeed inherited the holy man's sanctity and power. A similar observation may be made for those manu scripts in which book 2 does not end with the Bobbio miracles but with the section on Faremoutiers. In this version the Vita is completed with a series of miracles of "ordinary nuns," which certainly deserve more attention than can be given here. These miracles have a function in the narrative similar to the Bobbio miracles: to show in practice how a holy community and each member following the saint's rule could take over his virtus. One of the many examples proving this point for the Faremoutiers miracles is the story of the recluse and nun Gibitrudis, who is not only asked by her own father for intercessory prayer to restore his health but who also successfully prays for the recovery of her own abbess, Burgundofara. A nun praying for the healing of the abbess is a complete reversal of the roles estab lished in the first book.197 Especially the death stories among the Faremoutiers

miracles show that following the saint's regula not only qualifies each member of a Columbanian monastery to successful intercessio but also ensures that they will complete their lives like a saint in paradise. Breaking or neglecting his rule im mediately endangers both earthly and future life.198

If we compare the evidence on monastic life in late Merovingian and Carolingian sources with the Latin texts on late-antique desert communities or the first mo

hac luce exempla reliquerunt. . . . Fuerat enim his a pueritia sub regularis disciplinae norma eruditus, sub beato Columbano e saeculo conversus. ..."

194 Ibid. 2.25, pp. 292-93. See also 1.11, p. 172; 1.14, p. 175; and 1.22, pp. 203-4. 195 Ibid. 2.25, p. 293. 196 Ibid. 2.25, pp. 293-94. 197 Ibid. 2.12, pp. 260-61. 198

See, e.g., ibid. 2.11, p. 257: "Meminisse lectorem velim me superius fuisse pollicitum de coenubio



556 Jonas of Bobbio nastic foundations in Gaul (texts available in Carolingian monastic libraries),199 we encounter two different worlds. Carolingian royal monasteries served as cen ters of political power, intellectual productivity, and landmarks in a sacred land scape.200 Desert monks and the earliest monastic saints in Gaul were depicted as ascetic warriors fleeing the civilized world or as charismatic troublemakers chal lenging royal power. Not only did the monastic lifestyle change profoundly in the course of four hundred years but concepts of sanctity and the forms in which mon asteries were integrated into political and ecclesiastical structures also changed. These different monastic worlds, however, were connected by texts. Written ac counts of the desert fathers and of early monasticism in Gaul (and Italy) preserved their authority and determined both the language and the narrative repertoire of monastic texts throughout the Middle Ages, in spite of changed circumstances and new monastic identities.201 The desert fathers remained a touchstone of monastic reform in and beyond the Carolingian period.202

The transformation process leading to the emergence of a monastic ideal that became determining for future centuries is closely connected with the rise of new, "post-Roman," political and social structures. Jonas's Vita Columbani marks one of the most important turning points in this development. The author de scribes the transformation of a concept of sanctity pleasantly congruent with Peter Brown's models of a holy man (or, on a more abstract level, Max Weber's char ismatic person) to a concept of a socially integrated holy community claiming to perpetuate the power of its founding saint. This process may be regarded as a specific variant of the Weberian transformation and "routinization" of charisma yet one adding the aspects of community and space (or possibly: institution) as bearers of a transformed charisma.203

supra memoratae Burgundofarae, quern Evoriacas vocant, quemque ex regula beati Columbani omni

intentione et devotione construxerat, quanta et qualia inibi rerum sator ob famularum suarum hor

tamina dignatus est demonstrare miracula. Cum iam duce Christo multarum puellarum secum aduna

tam sub regulari reteneret disciplina cohortem . . ."; and 2.11, p. 259, the lesson from the death and

journey to the hereafter of Sisetrudis: "Hanc primam huius coenubii exhortationem Dominus famu

labus suis voluit demonstrare, ut ceterae, quae superstites essent, omni intentione ad cultum religionis

aspirarent." 199

E.g., Rufinus's Historia monachorum, the various collections of the Apophthegmata patrum, the

works of Sulpicius Severus and John Cassian, the Vita patrum lurensium, or the Liber vitae patrum of Gregory of Tours. See also Diem, Experiment, pp. 34-119 and 339-93.

200 Mayke de Jong, "Carolingian Monasticism: The Power of Prayer," in The New Cambridge Me

dieval History, 2: C. 700-c. 900, ed. Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge, Eng., 1995), pp. 622-53

and 995-1002. Two recent exemplary studies: Matthew Innes, State and Society in the Early Middle

Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400-1000, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th ser., 47 (Cambridge, Eng., 2000), on Lorsch; and Janneke Ellen Raaijmakers, "Sacred Time, Sacred Space:

History and Identity at the Monastery of Fulda (744-856)" (dissertation, University of Amsterdam,

2003), on Fulda. 201 One of the last products of the monastic world of late antiquity even became the central pro

grammatic monastic text of the Middle Ages: the rule that, for unclear reasons, is ascribed to Benedict, the legendary founder of Montecassino.

202 See C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the

Middle Ages (London, 1984). 203 Cf. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 142-43 and 654-55 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 54 and

20-21).



Jonas of Bobbio 557

The transformation itself, however, appears to be much more complicated than Weber's models would suggest since it is basically the text itself that provides access to (and maybe even shapes) the "pure charisma" that forms the basis of all claims to dispose of a holy institution. To reduce this fact to merely a variation on a well-composed theme is certainly inappropriate because Jonas's "invention" of the monastery as holy community and holy space is much more than just one attempt to perpetuate charisma. Many aspects of Columbanus's "regula" as it was formulated by Jonas became a self-evident part of monastic life, for example, intercessory prayer, the concept of the monastery as a locus sanctus, and the in accessibility of the monastic enclosure. It is therefore arguable that the Vita Co lumbani was at least as formative for Western monasticism as the Regula Benedicti.

Jonas depicts Columbanus as the last late-antique holy man, who uncompro misingly promotes ascetic values and demands full obedience, not only to his person but also to his rule. He starts his activities in a world defined by political instability, fratricide, moral decline, political despotism, abandonment of Chris tian norms, and poor maintenance of secular and ecclesiastical offices, including

monasticism204-a world urgently in need of a holy man who is willing and em powered to improve it. That is at least the impression Jonas wanted to give us. The institutionalization of sanctity, its transfer from the holy man to a monastic institution depending on support and respect of the powerful, is a development related to the increase in political stability. Columbanian monasticism arose be cause things improved politically, but in Jonas's view the political situation im proved only because of the rise of Columbanian monasticism. Columbanus dies when the Gauls are unified under a king who listens to the saint's advice and supports monastic foundations organized around the saint's doctrina or regula. Kings, noblemen, and bishops, previously relentless competitors for power (as we know from Gregory of Tours's work), are now inspired by the "Regula Colum bani" to become peaceful partners for the sake of the holy. Columbanian mon asteries are, as we know not only from Jonas's narrative but also from foundation charters, immunities, privileges, and saints' lives,205 meant to be founded in acts of cooperation in which not only kings are involved but everybody exercising power.206 Mighty families such as the Burgundofarones or the family of Dado, Rado, and Ado propagate the Regula Columbani in their respective positions as monks, abbots, abbesses, bishops, high court officials, or noble monastic founders. They show that his monastic ideal is by no means confined to the monastery itself.

204 Vita Columbani 1.5, p. 161; and 2.1, p. 230. 205

See, e.g., Vita Amati, pp. 215-21; Vita Desiderii Cadurcae Urbis episcopi, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 4:563-602; Audoin, Vita Eligii, pp. 634-742; Vita Germani Grandivallensis,

pp. 33-40; Passio Praeiecti, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5:225-48; Vita Romarici,

pp. 221-25; Vita Sadalbergae, pp. 178-94; and Vita Walarici, pp. 160-75. 206 See Diem, "Was bedeutet regula Columbani}" See also Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 270

(trans. Eisenstadt, p. 257). His description of the commercial class creating charismatics as an act of

emancipation could be transposed to the group of Frankish noble families supporting Columbanus

and receiving power at the court at the same time: "... an additional factor was the dissatisfaction

arising from the unrealized political aspirations of a rising commercial class which, having acquired wealth through economic activity, was now challenging the old warrior nobility. It was the function

of the aisymnete to resolve the conflicts between classes and to produce a new sacred law of eternal

validity, for which he had to secure divine approbation."



558 Jonas of Bobbio The question of how exactly this picture responds to reality should be investi

gated in another study. There might be, for example, a close connection between the (comparatively peaceful) rise and rule of the Carolingians and the role mon asteries in the tradition of Columbanus played in their politics.207 The rough and violent political world described by Gregory of Tours and by Jonas himself 208 seems to have been replaced or at least extended by a more subtle political rep ertoire in which founding monasteries, controlling saints and sanctity, and pro ducing powerful texts became suitable alternatives to violence.209 But that is cer tainly not the last word to be said about this topic. Though Jonas's Vita Columbani may be regarded as an enormously influential

text, there is one aspect in which Jonas's idea of the transformation of sanctity failed to have continued influence and possibly went too far to be successful in his world. For Jonas and his contemporary Columbanian hagiographers, Col umbanian monasticism is not based on a cult of relics. Instead it is built on an abstract, not even necessarily codified, regula, on internal obedience, and on the supportive respect of the surrounding secular community.210 Sanctity (and the abil ity to perform intercessory prayer) was created by the community and localized within the monastic boundaries; it was enforced through discipline and rule. Relics were not regarded as necessary-despite the fact that Gallic monasticism before Columbanus provided enough models for power embodied in relics.211

This highly optimistic attempt to institutionalize sanctity exclusively on the ba sis of discipline, rule, and an idea did not last beyond two generations. From about 650 onwards, relics started to play a role within Columbanian monasteries and new monastic foundations-a role they would maintain throughout the Middle Ages. In particular, the monastic policy of Queen Balthild (t 680/81) was deter mined by shaping a synthesis between Columbanian monasticism and older forms of a relic-based monastic life, such as basilical monasteries.212 As early as a gen eration after lonas, the holy man returned-as holy bones.

207 See Fouracre, "Origins" (above, n. 186), pp. 156-65. 208 See also Graus, "Gewalt" (above, n. 76), pp. 65-85. 209 See de Jong, "Monastic Prisoners" (above, n. 98). See also Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft,

p. 288 (trans. Eisenstadt, pp. 288-89). 210

Julia M. H. Smith, "Women at the Tomb: Access to Relic Shrines in the Early Middle Ages," in

The World of Gregory of Tours, ed. Mitchell and Wood (above, n. 85), pp. 163-80, at pp. 167-68, sees a similar anti-relic attitude at the monastery of L?rins, Luxeuil's predecessor as the monastic

center in Gaul. 211 See also Brown, Cult of the Saints, pp. 86-105, on the roots of this practice of localizing sanctity

at the place of relics. The monastic cult of martyrs predates Columbanian monasticism. Gregory of

Tours, in his Liber in gloria martyrum, gives numerous examples, and Radegunde's monastery of

Poitiers had imported relics of the holy cross. More source references are provided by Petersen, "Dead

or Alive" (above, n. 23), pp. 92-94; and by Smith, "Women at the Tomb." According to Jonas, Columbanus himself paid tribute to the tomb of Martin at Tours. See Vita Columbani 1.22, p. 201.

212 Vita Balthildis B 9, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 2:493: "Preterir? vero non debemus,

quod per precipuas sanctorum basilicas, almi scilicet Dyonisii et domni Germani vel bead Medardi et

sancti Petri ac domni Aniani et sancti Martini, vel ubicumque eius potuit dinosci noticia, pontificibus seu abbatibus suadendo pro zelo Dei precepit et epistolas pro hoc eis direxit, ut sub sancto regulari ordine fratres in ipsis sanctis locis consistentes caste et sobriae vivere facerent." See also Nelson,

"Queens" (above, n. 63), pp. 38-44; and Eugen Ewig, "Das Privileg des Bischofs Berthefrid von

Amiens f?r Corbie von 664 und die Klosterpolitik der K?nigin Balthild," Francia 1 (1973), 62-114.



Jonas of Bobbio 559

As much as Jonas's Vita Columbani may indicate a turning point in the history of monasticism, with regard to both the cult of relics and sacralizing space in general, it has to be seen as just an episode in a very long process showing time and again the fluidity of these concepts. As Peter Brown and especially Robert Markus have shown, the rise of Christianity was in large part a struggle to estab lish a concept of localized sanctity out of a notion of Christian spirituality that regarded holy places or place-bound religion as pagan or Jewish.213 Originally, the "holy man" as depicted in Brown's first study on this topic served as a living argument against linking sanctity to a specific space. The cult of martyrs became an important instrument to reconcile Christianity with the "pagan" concept of sanctity bound to a place. Jonas's attempt to localize sanctity not by means of relics but by means of a holy community could be seen as just one of many at tempts to order the world and to establish power by giving space a meaning. Other attempts followed, and the question whether the remains of the living saints could play a role in these efforts continued to be a matter of debate and experiment throughout the Middle Ages.214

See also Dunn, Emergence (above, n. 6), pp. 168-69, on the cult of relics and self-sanctification of the

aristocracy in the later Columbanian monastic movement. 213 See Markus, "How on Earth Could Places Become Holy?" (above, n. 97) and End of Ancient

Christianity (above, n. 3), pp. 137-228. 214

See, e.g., Dominique Iogna-Prat, La maison Dieu: Une histoire monumentale de l'Eglise au moyen

?ge (v. 800-v. 1200) (Paris, 2006).

Albrecht Diem is a member of the Wittgenstein Project "Ethnische Identitaiten im friuh mittelalterlichen Europa" at the Institut fur Mittelalterforschung, Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna (e-mail: [email protected]).



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Monks, Kings, and the Transformation of Sanctity: Jonas of Bobbio and the End of the Holy Man