JOHN OF GORZE. - Benedictine abbot and reformer, b. at Vandières (Pont-à-Musson) at the beginning of the 10th century; he studied at Metz and at St-Mihiel, but with scant profit. Still an adolescent, he lost his father and was forced to take charge of the administration of his father's estates. After a quarrel with the other members of the family he was engaged by a neighboring nobleman as parish priest of his church. In this office he came to know and thereafter frequently visited the women's monastery of St. Peter of Metz, and through contact with the cloistered life and the good observance of those nuns the monastic vocation matured in him, which he followed with ardor together with other companions. With them he undertook a journey to southern Italy, stayed for some time at Montecassino, and then returned to his homeland with the intention of restoring monastic life to its most ancient observance. After many difficulties he and his companions obtained in 933 from the bishop of Metz the abbey of Gorze, founded by St. Chrodegang in 749 and in those times reduced to extreme hardship even materially. G. held there the office of cellarer, then in 945 that of porter, in 949 that of prior, and finally in 967 he was elected abbot.
Exceptionally strict with himself, he was instead indulgent with his monks, whom by his wise and cautious energy he brought to great material and spiritual prosperity. Before long the fame of his virtues spread beyond the walls of the cloister; certain delicate tasks were entrusted to him even before he was abbot: in 953 Otto the Great sent him to the caliph 'Abd ar-Rahmān. G. by his firmness and energy succeeded in obtaining results that other envoys before him for the same mission had been unable to achieve.
The name of G. of Gorze is above all linked to the monastic reform that he introduced in his monastery first, and that then spread to about 70 abbeys; it thus became the center of the rebirth of monastic life in Germany. This reform was based on the return to the primitive observance of the Rule, but it added austere practices not proper to the spirit of St. Benedict. Nevertheless it gained ever more ground in Germany and in Belgium, and even in Rome. More than to the reform of Cluny it must be connected to that of Lorraine, which comprises the reforms of Brogne and of Richard of St-Vanne, besides that of Gorze. The duration of the latter spans 200 years. G. d. at Gorze on 7 March 976. His commemoration in the Benedictine Martyrology is instead on 27 February.
Bibliography5 works
Ambrogio Mancone