ADON, Saint. - Archbishop of Vienne, in the Dauphiné. Of a noble family, born at the beginning of the 9th century, in the diocese, it seems, of Sens. By the abbot Sigulf, a disciple of Alcuin, he was received as a youth into the abbey of Ferrières, whence, after making his profession, he passed, at the request of the abbot Marcant, to that of Prüm in Lorraine. But having found there opposition on the part of the envious, he withdrew from it to go to Rome (he remained there five years), then to Ravenna and finally to Lyon, where he held the parish of St. Romanus (cf. Lupus of Ferrières, Epist., 122: PL 119, 595). Elected in 859-60 archbishop of Vienne, he governed that see until his death (16 Dec. 875).
A. is one of the most illustrious prelates of medieval France. Strong and pious, he restored ecclesiastical discipline and regulated the divine office, holding various synods to this end, whose acts have unfortunately been lost, except for a fragment of that of 870 (Mansi, XVI, 561 ff.). He energetically opposed the divorce of Lothair II of Lorraine from Theutberga, and maintained frequent correspondence with the pontiffs Nicholas I and Adrian II (cf. MGH, Epist., VI, 766: index, s. v. Ado). The Martyr. Romanum commemorates him on 16 Dec.
A. has left us various historical and hagiographical writings: 1) A Chronicle divided into the six ages of the world, from Adam to the year 869, on the basis of Bede and others; but from 814 onward it is independent: A. shows therein how the various personages of the Old Testament are types of Jesus Christ; deplorable, however, are his historical falsifications intended to enhance the importance of his own archiepiscopal see. 2) A reworking of the Passio s. Desiderii, bishop of Vienne in the 6th century. 3) The Vita s. Theuderii, founder of a monastery near Vienne in the 6th century. 4) A Libellus de festivissibus Apostolorum.
But A.'s famous work is his Martyrology, composed at Lyon before the year 859: a "historical" Martyrology, which was of great importance in the Middle Ages, and, through Usuard, had great influence on the Martyr. Romanum: an influence, however, that Quentin calls "disastrous." It is established in fact that many dates, locations, identifications, and translations, which have created difficulties in the history of the saints, particularly in Rome, are nothing other than inventions of A. The same Quentin has demonstrated that the supposed Ancient Roman Martyrology, the Vetus or Parvum Romanum, is also the work of A., which he placed at the head of his major work in support of his inventions.
Bibliography3 works
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, nn. 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.