DONATO di BESANÇON, saint. - Monastic legislator, d. before 660. Son of Duke Waldelen, he was a monk at Luxeuil and later became bishop of Besançon. Yet even on the episcopal throne he lived as a monk and devoted himself to the development of monastic life.
Through his efforts two new monasteries arose in his episcopal see: upon that of S. Paolo he imposed the observance of the two Rules of s. Benedetto and s. Colombano, something not uncommon at that time. For the nuns of the monastery founded by his mother (Jussas-Moutier), he himself drew up a new Rule, based on those of s. Colombano, s. Cesario, and above all s. Benedetto, which was gaining ever wider acceptance precisely at that time. D.’s Rule (Sancti Donati episcopi Vesontianensis Regula ad Virgines), largely a repetition of the Benedictine one, is in PL 87, 273-98.
D. died on the 7th inst., the day on which he is commemorated in the Benedictine Martyrology, but the year is unknown.