GIOVANNI di FRUTTUARIA (GIOVANNI UOMO di DIO). — Benedictine abbot who lived in the first half of the 11th century and died at Fruttuaria around 1050. He initially led an eremitical life, but was drawn to the cenobitical life of b. Guglielmo di Dijon. In this abbey he devoted himself to study and piety, in which he distinguished himself in a particular way. Another of his gifts was great prudence, which he demonstrated above all as superior at Fruttuaria, of which he was the first abbot.
G. has been claimed as the author of a very well-known and valuable work, attributed to s. Bernardo since the 12th century: the Tractatus de ordine vitae et morum institutione. This little work, which went through several editions, exercised considerable influence on the spirituality of the time and of the following centuries. It was intended for the formation of novices and young monks, in whom it inculcated the practice of the virtues lived in the spirit of the Rule of s. Benedetto. The monastic and moral virtues, as well as the opposing vices, are analyzed with care and precision; this reveals in G. a highly 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 exerted their beneficial influence in those places that followed the customs of that monastery.