Chanon, Juan

CHANON, JUAN. - Benedictine of Montserrat (not correctly called Chanones), b. at Mirepoix (southern France) in 1489, died a holy death at Montserrat on 8 June 1568. After a brief period of pastoral care, in 1521 he became a monk at Montserrat. In this abbey he was formed in the ascetic school begun by Abbot Garcia de Cisneros, who had given a decisive impulse to the renewed monastic life there too, under the influence of the reform of St. Benedict of Valladolid.

C. was devoted to a life of strict monastic observance: he imposed on himself harsh fasts and absolute abstinence even in cases of serious illness. He also spent some time in one of the hermitages in the surroundings of the abbey. For many years confessor of the pilgrims, he was held in great esteem also by St. Ignatius of Loyola, who chose him as his confessor on the occasion of his stay at Montserrat following his conversion, and later still went to him and submitted to him his first written Exercises.

C. collaborated greatly in the reform of monasticism in Spain, carrying out the delicate task of master of novices in various monasteries. Together with Fr. de Chaves (v.) he was sent to Portugal, and there he first held the same office, then was for a short time abbot of a Cistercian monastery, a post he left shortly afterward to return to Montserrat. In the Benedictine Martyrology his memory is kept on 8 June, and also on 8 May and 25 June.

Ambrogio Mancone