John of Fruttuaria (John Man of God)

JOHN OF FRUTTUARIA (John Man of God). - Benedictine abbot who lived in the first half of the 11th century, died at Fruttuaria around 1050. He first led a hermit's life, but was drawn to the cenobitic life of Bl. William of Dijon. In this abbey he lived devoted to study and to piety, in which he distinguished himself in a particularly notable way. Another of his gifts was a great prudence, which he demonstrated above all as superior at Fruttuaria, of which he was the first abbot.

The authorship of a very well-known and valuable little work, attributed to St. Bernard from the 12th century onward, has been claimed for G.: the Tractatus de ordine vitae et morum institutione. This little work, which had several editions, exercised great influence on the spirituality of the time and also in the following centuries. It is intended for the formation of novices and young monks, in whom it instilled the practice of the virtues cultivated in the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict. The monastic and moral virtues are analyzed with care and exactness, as are the opposing vices; this reveals in G. a very reflective author and a good knower of souls. He has a certain tendency toward austerity, and his vision of the regular life is rather severe. From the Piedmontese abbey of Fruttuaria, which was a center of monastic reform in northern Italy and in a great number of German abbeys, G.'s ideas exercised their beneficial influence in those places that followed the customs of that monastery.

Ambrogio Mancone