ADONE, saint. — Archbishop of Vienne, in the Dauphiné. Of noble family, born at the beginning of the ninth century, apparently in the diocese of Sens. The abbot Sigulf, a disciple of Alcuin, received him as a young boy into the abbey of Ferrières; after making his profession, he moved from there, at the request of Abbot Marcanto, to the abbey of Prüm in Lorraine. But having encountered opposition there from envious persons, he left and went to Rome (where he remained for five years), then to Ravenna and finally to Lyon, where he was given the parish of S. Romano (cf. Lupo di Ferrières, Epist., 122: PL 119, 595). Elected archbishop of Vienne in 859–60, he governed that see until his death (16 December 875).
A. was one of the most illustrious prelates of medieval France. Strong and pious, he restored ecclesiastical discipline and regulated the divine office, holding several synods for this purpose, whose acts have unfortunately been lost, except for a fragment of the one held in 870 (Mansi, XVI, 561 ff.). He vigorously opposed the divorce of Lotario II of Lorraine from Teotberga, and maintained frequent correspondence with Popes Niccolò I and Adriano II (cf. MGH, Epist., VI, 766: index, s. V. ADAMO). The Martyr. Romanum commemorates him on 16 December.
A. left us several historical and hagiographical writings: 1) A Chronicle divided according to the six ages of the world, from Adam to the year 869, based on Bede and others; from 814 onward, however, it is independent: in it A. shows how the various figures of the Old Testament are types of Jesus Christ; regrettable, however, are his historical falsifications designed to increase the importance of his own archiepiscopal see. 2) A reworking of the Passio s. Desiderii, bishop of Vienne in the sixth century. 3) The Vita s. Theuderii, founder of a monastery near Vienne in the sixth century. 4) A Libellus de festivissibus Apostolorum.
But A.’s famous work is his Martyrology, composed in Lyon before the year 859: a “historical” Martyrology, which was of great importance in the Middle Ages and, through Usuard, exerted considerable influence on the Martyr. Romanum—an influence, however, that Quentin calls “disastrous.” It is in fact certain that many dates, locations, identifications, and translations that have created difficulties in the history of the saints, particularly in Rome, are nothing more than inventions of A. Quentin himself demonstrated that the alleged Ancient Roman Martyrology, the Vetus or Parvum Romanum, is also a work of A.; in support of his inventions, he placed it at the beginning of his larger work.
Studies: J. Mabillon, S. Adonis elegium historicum, in Acta SS. Ord. s. Bened., IV, 11, Paris 1680, pp. 262–75, reproduced in PL 123, 9–22; BHL, nos. 82–83 and Suppl. p. 5; L. Duchesne, Faites épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 147–62 (catalogue of the bishops of Vienne), 201, 210; H. Quentin, Le Codex Bezae à Lyon? Les citations du Nouveau Testament dans le Martyrologe d'Adon, in Rev. Bénéd., 23 (1906), pp. 1–25; id., Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen âge, Paris 1908, pp. 400–681; id., La correction du Martyrologe Romain, in Analecta Bollandiana, 42 (1924), pp. 387–406; G. Morin, Dom Quentin sur les Martyrologes, in Rev. Bénéd., 25 (1908), pp. 232–35; W. Kremers, Ado von Vienne, sein Leben und seine Schriften, Bonn 1911; Martyr. Romanum, 587–88.