GIOVANNI of Fruttuaria (John the Man of God). — Benedictine abbot who lived in the first half of the 11th century, died at Fruttuaria around 1050. He first led an eremitical life but was drawn to the cenobitic life of the Blessed William of Dijon. In that abbey he devoted himself to study and piety, in which he particularly distinguished himself. Another of his gifts was great prudence, which he demonstrated especially as superior at Fruttuaria, of which he was the first abbot.
To G. has been attributed the authorship of a very well-known and valuable little work, attributed to St. Bernard since the 12th century: 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 even in later centuries. It is intended for the formation of novices and young monks, to whom it inculcates the practice of virtues in the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict. The monastic and moral virtues and their opposing vices are carefully and accurately analyzed, revealing in G. a thoughtful author and a good connoisseur of souls. There is a certain tendency toward austerity, and his vision of 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, the ideas of G. exercised their beneficial influence in those places that followed the usages of that monastery.