lundi 16 décembre 2013

Saint ADON de VIENNE, archevêque et confesseur


Saint ADON de VIENNE

Adon, né vers l'an 800, était d'une des familles les plus riches et les plus nobles du Gâtinais, au diocèse de Sens. Ses parents, qui étaient fort religieux, le formèrent à la piété dès son enfance. Ils le mirent dans le monastère de Ferrières en Gâtinais, afin qu'il y apprît en même temps les sciences et les saintes maximes du christianisme. Il y donna des preuves de la vivacité de son esprit, et de la solidité de son jugement. Il joignait à ces heureuses qualités une grande docilité et un amour tendre pour la religion. Ses maîtres voyaient avec plaisir qu'il faisait tous les jours de nouveaux progrès. Quelques-uns de ses amis, animés de l'esprit du monde, cherchèrent à lui inspirer la passion des hommes et des plaisirs ; ils applaudissaient à ses talents, et l'exhortaient à entrer dans la carrière où l'appelait sa naissance. Mais il découvrit les pièges qu'on lui tendait, et sentit le danger du parti qu'on lui proposait. Pour rompre entièrement avec le monde, et se consacrer sans retour au service de Dieu, il prit l'habit dans le monastère de Ferrières.

Il était encore jeune, lorsque Marcuard, abbé de Prùm, qui avait été lui-même moine de Ferrières, le demanda pour enseigner les saintes lettres à ses religieux. Adon, en inspirant l'amour de l'étude à ses disciples, leur apprenait en même temps à éviter l'écueil où la science conduit quelquefois, et à profiter pour leur sanctification des connaissances qu'ils acquéraient. Son objet principal était de faire de vrais serviteurs de Dieu. Mais il plut au Ciel de l'éprouver pour perfectionner sa vertu.

Après la mort de Marcuard, la jalousie lui suscita des ennemis. Ils employèrent contre lui les outrages et la calomnie, et le chassèrent de Prùm[1]. Il alla visiter les tombeaux des apôtres à Rome, et passa cinq ans dans cette ville. De là il vint à Ravenne. Il y trouva un ancien martyrologe dont il tira copie, et qu'il publia vers l'an 858, avec des additions et des corrections. Il donna aussi une chronique, avec les vies de saint Didier et de saint Chef.

A son retour d'Italie, il vint à Lyon, et s'y arrêta quelque temps. Saint Rémy, archevêque de cette ville, le retint auprès de lui, et le chargea du gouvernement de la paroisse de Saint-Romain, près de Vienne, après avoir obtenu le consentement de l'abbé de Ferrières. C'était le célèbre Loup, dont nous avons un recueil de lettres, et plusieurs petits traités. Il prit avec zèle la défense d'Adon contre ses ennemis, et le siège de Vienne étant devenu vacant, notre Saint fut élu pour le remplir. On le sacra au mois de Septembre de l'année 860. Le Pape Nicolas lui envoya le pallium, avec les décrets d'un concile de Rome, lesquels avaient pour objet de remédier à différons abus qui s'étaient glissés dans plusieurs églises de France.

Le même Pape écrivit encore à notre Saint quatre autres lettres, sur divers sujets. On lit entre autres dans la seconde, que les églises subordonnées ne doivent pas s'écarter dans leurs usages de ce qui se pratique dans l'église de Rome[2]. Il reçut en outre plusieurs autres lettres flatteuses, notamment du Roi Charles, qui lui témoignait beaucoup de considération.

Adon ne changea rien à sa première manière de vivre ; il conserva la même humilité, la même modestie, le même amour pour la mortification. Il annonçait avec un zèle infatigable les vérités du salut. Sa coutume était de commencer ses instructions par ces paroles : « Écoutez la vérité éternelle qui vous parle dans l’Évangile, ou, écoutez Jésus-Christ qui vous parle, etc. ». Son clergé attirait sa principale attention ; il n'admettait aux saints ordres que ceux qu'il avait bien éprouvés et bien examinés ; il exigeait qu'ils réunissent à la science toutes les vertus qui caractérisent les vrais ministres de Jésus-Christ. Il fit aussi de sages règlements pour la décence du culte public. La réformation des mœurs parmi le peuple était encore un objet dont il s'occupait avec beaucoup de zèle. Il avait soin que ceux qui se présentaient pour être mariés ou pour recevoir les autres sacrements, fussent suffisamment instruits des principes du christianisme. Il travaillait sans relâche à bannir toutes les pratiques vicieuses, et tous les abus qui pouvaient porter atteinte à la pureté des mœurs. Ses exemples ajoutaient une nouvelle force è ses instructions.

Sa vie était fort austère ; il se traitait en tout avec une grande sévérité, et les ecclésiastiques attachés à sa personne avaient ordre de l'avertir de ses moindres fautes. S'il était inflexible envers les pécheurs opiniâtres, il recevait avec bonté ceux qui se convertissaient sincèrement. Il regardait les pauvres comme ses enfants ; il pourvoyait à tous leurs besoins ; il fonda des hôpitaux où ils étaient admis et entretenus à ses dépens. Pour achever de caractériser Adon, nous dirons qu'il connaissait parfaitement tous ses devoirs, et qu'il n'y en avait aucun qu'il ne remplît avec la plus grande fidélité. Il parut avec éclat dans divers conciles ; il en tint lui-même plusieurs à Vienne pour maintenir la pureté de la foi et des mœurs. Mais les actes de ces conciles sont perdus, et il ne nous reste plus qu'un fragment de celui qui fut tenu par le Saint en 870.

Lorsque le Roi Lothaire, dégoûté de la Reine Thietberge, voulut la renvoyer, Adon s'éleva contre ce divorce, et fit au prince les plus fortes représentations pour l'en détourner. Il eut beaucoup de part aux affaires publiques qui se traitèrent de son temps, et la religion trouva toujours en lui un zélé défenseur. Le Pape Nicolas I, Charles-le-Chauve et Louis de Germanie l'estimaient autant pour sa prudence que pour sa sainteté, et déféraient avec confiance à ses avis. Mais l'embarras des affaires ne nuisait point à son recueillement. Il priait avec la même persévérance et s'assujettissait aux mêmes mortifications. Il aimait à lire les vies des Saints, afin de se pénétrer de leur esprit, et de s'exciter à imiter leurs actions. Il mourut le 16 Décembre 875. Il est honoré dans l'église de Vienne, et nommé en ce jour dans le martyrologe romain.

Cette vie mortelle est un pèlerinage rempli de peines, de difficultés, de dangers ; nous avons à traverser un désert que mille routes détournées rendent presque impraticable, et où nous avons beaucoup à craindre des bêtes féroces qui se rencontrent de toutes parts. La multitude de ceux qui s'égarent devant nous est souvent le plus grand danger dont nous soyons menacés ; nous suivons leurs traces sans réflexion, nous nous égarons avec eux, et nous finissons par nous précipiter dans cet abyme où brûle un feu qui ne s'éteindra jamais. La seule route qui soit sûre, est étroite ; elle paraît semée de ronces et d'épines, et n'est fréquentée que par un petit nombre d'âmes courageuses : mais elle mène au bonheur. Parmi ceux qui y entrent, il en est encore plusieurs qui s'en écartent, et qui ont le malheur de se perdre. Voulons-nous un guide assuré ? Ouvrons les yeux à la lumière de la révélation, écoutons Jésus-Christ, marchons sous la direction de son esprit, laissons-nous conduire par ses maximes et ses exemples. Il est la voie, la vérité et la vie. C'est en suivant cette règle que les Saints ont échappé aux dangers qui les environnaient comme nous. Ils semblent nous crier : « La voie étroite est celle où nous avons marché ; vous devez y marcher après nous. » Quel motif de consolation et d'encouragement que de les avoir sans cesse devant les yeux ! Chacun d'eux nous dit avec saint Paul : Imitez-moi, comme j'ai imité Jésus-Christ. Le souvenir de leurs combats nous soutiendra, la vue de leur couronne nous animera, leur exemple en un mot nous empêchera d'être submergés dans le torrent rapide de ce monde. Quoi de plus propre à nous consoler dans cette vallée de larmes, que de penser que nous avons les mêmes moyens qu'eux pour obtenir la gloire dont ils jouissent ? Nous touchons en quelque sorte à ce moment. La vie la plus longue est bien courte : à chaque heure, l'éternité peut commencer pour nous. Pourrions-nous soupirer après le bonheur des Saints, sans les aimer, sans les honorer, sans penser fréquemment à eux ?

SOURCE : Alban Butler : Vie des Pères, Martyrs et autres principaux Saints… – Traduction : Jean-François Godescard.
[1] Les couvents de Ferrières et de Prùm avaient alors de fréquentes relations ensemble. On envoyait souvent des moines de la première de ces abbayes à Prùm, pour y apprendre l'allemand, langue qui n'était pas moins nécessaire en France, dans l'état des choses de cette époque, si on en croit Loup de Ferrières, Epist. 70 et 71.

[2] Ces lettres se trouvent dans la Coltection de conciles de Labbe, tome VIII, ainsi qu'une cinquième, d'Anastase le Bibliothécaire, sur la mort du Pape Nicolas. On possède encore un fragment d'une lettre de Nicolas, dans laquelle il reproche au saint archevêque d'avoir permis, contrairement aux canons, au sous-diacre Albëric de se marier. On trouve dans la même Collection de conciles deux lettres du Pape Adrien II à Adon, dans la première desquelles le Pape, accusé par notre Saint de s'être écarté des décrets de son prédécesseur, justifie sa conduite.

SOURCE : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/adon_de_vienne.htm

 Saint Adon de Vienne

Archevêque de Vienne ( 875)

Moine bénédictin qui, chassé de son monastère de Trèves, s'en fut à Rome puis à Lyon et devint évêque de Vienne en Dauphiné où il rédigea l'un des premier 'martyrium'. Il joua un rôle dans la politique religieuse de son temps. Du Pape Nicolas Ier, nous avons une lettre à saint Adon où l'évêque de Rome écrit à l'évêque de Vienne 'son très saint confrère'.


À Vienne, alors dans le royaume de Provence, en 875, saint Adon, évêque, qui fut moine auparavant et composa un Martyrologe, où il inscrivit pour chaque jour des éloges de saints.

Martyrologe romain

 SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saints_265.html

St. Ado of Vienne

 An archbishop and scholar, St. Ado was born in Sens and educated at the Benedictine abbey of Ferrieres. Abbot Lupus Servatus, an outstanding humanist of the time, trained St. Ado, and was impressed with the obvious holiness of the young man.

A noble by birth, St. Ado renounced his inheritance and became a Benedictine, in time assigned to the monastery of Prum, near Trier, Germany.

St. Ado’s holiness made him enemies, and he was forced to leave Prum. He went to Rome on a pilgrimage and remained there for two years. He then went to Ravenna, where he found an old copy of the Roman Martyrology. Using this, St. Ado wrote a new version, published in 858.

In Lyons, St. Ado was welcomed by St. Remigius, the archbishop. He served as a pastor in Lyons until 860, when he became the archbishop of Vienne, appointed by Pope Nicholas I. St. Ado reformed the clergy in Vienne and wrote the lives of St. Desiderius and St. Theuderis.

He also opposed the actions of Lothair II, the king of Lorraine, who tried to set aside his lawful wife to marry his mistress. Lothair bribed officials to get a divorce from his queen, Theutberga, but was undone when St. Ado went to Rome and denounced the plot to the pope. St. Ado remained in Vienne until his death in 875.

Born about 800, in the diocese of Sens; d. 16 December, 875. He was brought up at the Benedictine Abbey of Ferrières, and had as one of his masters the Abbot Lupus Servatus, one of the most celebrated humanists of those times. By his brilliant talents and assiduous application Ado gained the esteem of his masters and schoolmates, while his ready obedience, deep humility, and sincere piety foreshadowed his future holiness. Though urged on all sides to enter upon a career in the world, to which his nobility of birth and great intellectual abilities entitled him, he consecrated himself entirely to God by taking the Benedictine habit at Ferrières. When Markward, a monk of Ferrières, became Abbot of Prüm near Trier, he applied for Ado to teach the sacred sciences there. His request was granted. Soon, however, certain envious monks of Prüm conceived an implacable hatred against Ado, and upon the death of Markward, turned him out of their monastery. With the permission of his abbot, Ado now made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he remained five years. He then went to Ravenna, where he discovered an old Roman martyrology which served as the basis for his own renowned martyrology published in 858, which is generally known as the "martyrology of Ado". At Lyons he was received with open arms by the Archbishop, St. Remigius, who, with the consent of the Abbot of Ferrières, appointed him pastor of the Church of St. Roman near Vienne. In 860 he became Archbishop of Vienne, and a year later received the pallium from Nicholas I. By word and example he began reforming the laxity of his priests, and he gave them strict orders to instruct the laity in the necessary doctrines of Christianity. His own life was a model of humility and austerity. When Lothaire II, King of Lorraine, had unjustly dismissed his wife Theutberga and the papal legates at the Synod of Metz had been bribed to sanction the King's marriage to his concubine Waldrada, Ado hastened to Rome, and reported the crime to the Pope, who thereupon annulled the acts of the synod. Besides the "Martyrology" mentioned above Ado wrote a chronicle from the beginning of the world to A.D. 874, "Chronicon de VI ætatibus mundi", and the lives of St. Desiderius and St. Theuderius. Ado's name is in the Roman martyrology and at Vienne his feast is celebrated on 16 December, the day of his death.

Sources

Butler, Lives of the Saints, 16 Dec.; for his praise Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened. (1680), IV (2), 262-275; Ebert, Gesch. der lat. Litt. des Mittelalters (1880), II, 384-387; Lechner, Martyrologium des Benediktiner-Ordens (Augsburg, 1858); H. Achelis, Die Martyrologien ihre Geschichte und ihr Wert (Berlin, 1900). For his martyrology P.L., CXXIII, 9 sqq.


Ott, Michael. "St. Ado of Vienne." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 16 Dec. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01145b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Richard E. Cullen.


Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01145b.htm


December 16

St. Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor

From his life collected by Mabillon, t. 6. Act. Ben. p. 281. See Ceillier, t. 19, p. 247.

A.D. 875

ADO was born in the diocess of Sens, towards Gatinois, about the year 800, and was of one of the richest and most noble families of that country. It was the principal care of his religious parents to seek tutors, masters, and companions who should concur together by their maxims, example, interior spirit, and prudent and earnest instructions to form the morals of their son, and inspire into his soul the most tender and perfect sentiments of Christian piety. All this they happily found in the monastery of Ferrieres in Gatinois, at that time famous for learning and discipline. The pregnancy of his wit, the solidity of his judgment, his assiduity at his studies, and, above all, his humble obedience and docility, and his sincere piety, gained him the esteem and affections of the abbot Sigulph, and all his masters; and engaged them to redouble their care and attention in lending him every assistance to adorn his mind with all useful science, and to form the most perfect Christian spirit in his heart. Their pains were abundantly recompensed by the great progress which he made. Many great and powerful friends sought, by soothing flatteries, and by setting before him the lure of worldly honours and pleasures, to engage him in the career which his birth and abilities opened to him. But the pious young nobleman was not to be imposed upon by specious words or glosses. He saw clearly the dangers which attended such a course, and the cheat of that false blaze of shadowy greatness which seemed to surround it; and, dreading lest in such a state any thing could cause a division in his heart, or slacken his ardour in the entire consecration of himself to the divine service, he took the religious habit in that house, resolving never to serve any other master but God alone.

The saint was yet young when Marcvard, abbot of Prom, who had formerly been himself a monk of Ferrieres, begged of the abbot of Ferrieres as the greatest of favours that Ado might teach the sacred sciences in his monastery. The request could not be refused. Ado so taught as to endeavour to make his hearers truly sensible that if studies, even of morality and religion, entirely terminate in a barren knowledge of those truths, without acquiring the interior habits, sentiments, and dispositions which they inculcate, though they may sometimes be serviceable to others, they are not only useless, but pernicious to those who are possessed of them. Science, without advancing at the same time in humility and virtue, serves only to heighten vanity, and to swell and puff up the mind. For men who study only to furnish themselves with materials to shine in conversation, and to fill their heads with a set of notions which never sink deep into or influence the heart, fall into an overweening conceit of themselves, and are as much under the bias of pride as worldly libertines are enslaved to an inordinate love of riches, honour, or pleasures. Our saint, therefore, instructed his scholars how to form rules for the conduct of their lives, to examine into themselves, to subdue their passions, and, by conversing continually in heaven, to put on a heavenly spirit. Thus he laboured to make all that were under his care truly servants of God; and it pleased God to suffer him to fall under grievous trials, that by them he might complete the work of his own sanctification, and the entire sacrifice of his heart. After the death of Marcvard, he was, through envy and jealousy, expelled the house, treated with great contempt, and oppressed by outrageous slanders. Ado took this opportunity to visit the tombs of the apostles at Rome, and stayed five years in that city. From thence he removed to Ravenna, where he found an old Martyrology, of which he took a copy, which he improved by many additions and corrections, and published about the year 858. 1 He also compiled a chronicle, and wrote the lives of St. Desiderius and St. Chef. When he returned out of Italy, he made a halt at Lyons, and St. Remigius, archbishop of that see, detained him there, and, having obtained leave of the abbot of Ferrieres, gave him charge of the parish church of St. Romanus, near Vienne. The celebrated Lupus, who had been chosen abbot of Ferrieres, and who is well known by his hundred and thirty letters, and several little treatises, became his zealous advocate, and, the see of Vienne falling vacant, he was chosen archbishop, and consecrated in September, 860. The year following he received the pall from Pope Nicholas, with the decrees of a Roman council, the purport of which was to check certain disorders which had crept into several churches in France.

Ado’s promotion made no change in his behaviour: he was still the same humble, modest, mortified man as when in a cloister, and endeavoured to inspire his flock with the like sentiments and dispositions. He was indefatigable in pressing the great truths of salvation. He usually began his sermons and exhortations with these or the like words: “Hear the eternal truth which speaks to you in the gospel;” or, “Hear Jesus Christ, who saith to you,” &c. It was a principal part of his care that all candidates for holy orders should be rigorously examined, and he would be present at these examinations. He regulated the public service of the church with much zeal and wisdom, and made strict inquiry into the conduct of all those who were called to serve in the ministry of the altar, not only with regard to their progress in sacred learning and the regularity of their manners, but also with regard to their spirit of devotion and assiduity in constant prayer. The saint laboured without intermission for the reformation of manners, and establishing good discipline among the people. He took great care that all that were ignorant of the principles of Christianity should be forbid to be sponsors at baptism, or to be joined in matrimony, or admitted to any of the sacraments till they were better instructed. By his vigilance no quarter was given to all those who indulged themselves in any vicious practice, in pleasures that enervate the soul, or in amusements and diversions which are dangerous to innocence. What enforced his instructions, and gave them weight and efficacy, was his example. His life was most austere; he was in everything severe to himself, and all the clergymen that were about him were enjoined to apprize him of the least slip in his behaviour. Though he was inflexible towards obstinate sinners, and employed every means to bring them to repentance, when he found them sincerely desirous to return to God, he received them with the greatest tenderness and indulgence, imitating the Good Shepherd, who came down from heaven to seek the lost sheep, and carried them back to the fold on his shoulders. By his care the poor were every where tenderly assisted with every corporal and spiritual comfort and succour they could stand in need of, and many hospitals were raised for their reception and entertainment at his expense. It was his earnest desire to see all Christians seriously engaged in the noble contest, which of them should best fulfil his obligations in their full extent, which are all reduced to those which tie him to his Creator; for on a man’s concern for them depends his regard for all others. Religion alone can make mankind good and happy; and those who act under its influence are steady in the disinterested pursuit of every virtue, and in the discharge of every duty, even towards the world, their families, and themselves. To sum up the whole character of this good prelate in two words, Ado knew all the obligations of his post, and discharged them with the utmost exactness and fidelity. He distinguished himself in many councils abroad, and held himself several councils at Vienne to maintain the purity of faith and manners; though only a fragment of that which he celebrated in 870 is extant. When King Lothaire sought pretexts to divorce his queen, Thietburge, our holy prelate obliged him to desist from that unjust project; and he had a great share in many public transactions, in which the interest of religion was concerned. For Pope Nicholas I., King Charles the Bald, and Lewis of Germany had the greatest regard for him, on account of his prudence and sanctity, and paid a great deference to his advice. In the hurry of employments his mind was as recollected as if his whole business lay within the compass of his own private concerns. The multiplicity of affairs never made him the less constant in prayer, or less rigorous in his mortifications. To read the lives of the saints, and to consider their edifying actions, in order to imbibe their spirit, and quicken his own soul in the practice of piety, was an exercise in which he always found singular comfort and delight, and a great help to devotion; and, like the industrious bee, which sucks honey from every flower, he endeavoured to learn from the life of every saint some new practice of virtue, and to treasure up in his mind some new maxim of an interior life. From thus employing his thoughts on the saints, studying to copy their virtues, and affectionately and devoutly honouring them in God, he happily passed to their glorious society, eternally to enjoy God with them, on the 16th of December, 875, having been bishop fifteen years, three months. He is honoured in the church of Vienne, and named in the Roman Martyrology on this day.

This mortal life is a pilgrimage, full of labours, hardships, and perils, through an inhospitable desert, amidst numberless by-paths, and abounding with howling wild beasts. And the greatest danger frequently is the multitude of those who go astray before us. We follow their steps without giving ourselves leisure to think, and are thus led into some or other of these devious broad roads, which unawares draw all that are engaged in them headlong down the dreadful precipice into eternal flames. Amidst these, one only narrow path, which seems beset with briers and thorns, and is trodden by a small number of courageous souls, leads to happiness; and amongst those who enter upon it, many in every part fall out of it into some or other of the devious tracts and windings which terminate in destruction. Amidst these alarming dangers we have a sure guide: the light of divine revelation safely points out to us the strait way, and Christ bids us follow him, walk by his spirit, carefully tread in his steps, and keep always close to his direction. If ever we forsake his divine guidance, we lose and bewilder ourselves. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Many saints have followed this rule, and escaped all dangers, who seem to cry out to us: “this is the right way: walk you in it.” Can we have a greater comfort, encouragement, or assistance than to have them always before our eyes? The example of a God made man for us is the greatest model which we are bound continually to study in his divine life and precepts. Those who in all stations of the world have copied his holy maxims and conduct, sweetly invite us to this imitation of our divine original: every one of them cries out to us, with St. Paul: 2 Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ. Their example, if always placed before our eyes, will withhold us from being hurried away by the torrent of the world, and its pernicious maxims, and the remembrance of their heroic conflicts, and the sight of the crowns they now enjoy, will be our comfort and support. What can give us greater joy in this valley of tears than to think often on the bliss which these glorious conquerors already possess, and on the means by which they attained to it? We ourselves press close after them, and even now are not far from the same glory; for we live on the borders of it. The longest life is very short: and every moment in it may, by the least unexpected incident, ingulf us suddenly in the abyss of eternity, and remove us into the society of these glorious saints. Can we desire this bliss, and not love, honour, and always bear them in mind?

Note 1. The best edition of Ado’s Martyrology was that of Rosweidus, before Monsignor Georgi, secretary to Benedict XIV. favoured us with a new one far more correct, and enriched with notes and useful dissertations. [back]

Note 2. Cor. xi. 1. [back]

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume XII: December. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.




Sant' Adone di Vienne Vescovo


Sens, c. 800 - 875

Entrato nell’abbazia di Ferrieres-en-Gatinais, dopo anni di vita monastica venne proposto da S. Remigio quale vescovo di Vienne dove rimase fino alla morte. Importante vescovo della Francia Medievale, restaurò la disciplina ecclesiastica e regolò l’ufficiatura divina tenendo vari sinodi ed esercitando una benefica influenza sulla vita politica del tempo.

Etimologia: Adone = signore, padrone, dall'ebraico

Emblema: Bastone pastorale

Martirologio Romano: A Vienne in Burgundia, nell’odierna Francia, sant’Adone, vescovo, che da monaco fu eletto vescovo e onorò degnamente la memoria dei santi componendo un martirologio.

Nessuna memoria di Santo è prevista per questo giorno, ma il nuovo Calendario della Chiesa, con le vicende che hanno accompagnato la sua revisione, non sempre facile, ci incoraggia a parlare di un Santo, ricordato a questa data, che ha un posto importante proprio nella storia interessantissima dei Martirologi, cioè degli elenchi dei Santi e dei Martiri secondo l'ordine del Calendario.

1 primi Martirologi ebbero carattere locale, limitato cioè ai Santi di una certa Chiesa, e vennero redatti come calendari: ad ogni giorno corrispondeva il nome di un Santo, o meglio di un Martire, e nulla più.

Presto però si tentarono Martirologi " generali ", con Santi cioè di tutti i paesi, elencati secondo la data della morte. Il più antico fu quello siriaco, e il più complesso quello attribuito, a torto, a San Girolamo. Poi si passò ai Martirologi " storici ", nei quali, accanto al nome del Santo, si davano notizie della sua vita e della sua morte.
Nell'Alto Medioevo, i più celebri furono quello inglese del venerabile Beda e quello lionese del monaco Floro.

Ma i Martirologi di Beda e di Floro non erano completi. Alcuni giorni erano rimasti senza un Santo, e i monaci che iniziavano l'Ufficio quotidiano con la lettura dell'" elogio " di un Martire, in quei giorni si trovavano imbarazzati. Adone pensò così di completare il Martirologio, dando ad ogni giorno il suo Santo. Poi aggiunse altri nomi anche ai giorni che già ne avevano uno. Finalmente, trovandosi in mano un ampio materiale agiografico, pensò di rimpolpare le scarne notizie sui Santi con " estratti più numerosi e un po' più lunghi ".

Adone era francese, nato nella contea di Vienne, da nobile famiglia. Accolto giovinetto nel monastero di Ferrères, non vi restò a lungo, per dissapori con l'Abate. Fu a Roma, a Ravenna, e finalmente si fissò a Lione, centro di studio sui Martirologi.

Imparato il mestiere, lo mise rapidamente in opera, preparando frettolosamente il suo nuovo Martirologio. Purtroppo, alle buone intenzioni non corrisposero altrettante buone attuazioni. Per riempire i vuoti, egli si valse di una folla di personaggi, spesso degni della santità, ma più spesso sconosciuti, tratti dall'Antico e dal Nuovo Testamento e dalle opere di molti scrittori sacri. La sua fu anche un'opera di carità verso i fedeli. Infatti scriveva: " I fratelli più deboli, e quelli che hanno meno mezzi di lettura, troveranno qui, sul conto dei Martiri, tutto un insieme di letture riassunte, e avranno così, in un volume di piccola mole, l'equivalente di ciò che altri sono obbligati a cercare con fatica tra molti libri ".

Per allungare e colorire gli " elogi ", ricorse a tutte le fonti accessibili, buone o cattive. Peggio ancora, confuse e spezzettò le notizie già poco sicure; ripeté e mescolò i nomi; equivocò sulle località e sulle date, e aggiunse di sua iniziativa molti particolari che gli premevano.

Nonostante questi difetti, o forse proprio grazie a questi difetti, l'opera di Adone ebbe molto successo. Si diffuse rapidamente, soprattutto nelle comunità benedettine. Non piacquero però i commenti troppo lunghi che il monaco Usuardo ridusse all'essenziale. Il Martirologio di Adone, così sveltito, si diffuse ancor più largamente, propalando anche inesattezze storiche e fantasie devote.

Per fortuna i meriti di Sant'Adone non si limitarono a questa, e ad altre simili, opere di storico. Eletto Arcivescovo di Vienne, nel Delfinato, resse quella chiesa con ferma autorità in tempi di contese politiche. Morto nell'875, pochi secoli dopo era tra i Santi. E bisogna dire - a scanso di sospetti maliziosi - che egli venne incluso nei Martirologi da compilatori più scrupolosi di quanto non fosse stato egli stesso!

Fonte:
Archivio Parrocchia