JOHN of Gorze. – Benedictine abbot and reformer, born at Vandières (Pont-à-Musson) at the beginning of the 10th century; he studied at Metz and at St-Mihiel, but with little profit. Still an adolescent, he was orphaned by 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 taken on by a neighbouring nobleman as parish priest of his church. In this office he came to know and frequently visited the female monastery of St Peter’s at Metz, and through contact with the cloistered life and the good observance of those nuns he matured within himself the monastic vocation, which he pursued with ardour together with other companions. With them he undertook a journey to southern Italy, stopping for some time at Montecassino, then returning home 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 at that time reduced to the utmost extremity, even materially. G. held the office of cellarer there, then in 945 that of doorkeeper, in 949 that of prior, and finally in 967 he was elected abbot.
Exceptionally strict with himself, he was instead indulgent towards his monks, whom he led with wise and cautious energy to great material and spiritual prosperity. Soon the fame of his virtues spread beyond the walls of the cloister; he was entrusted with some delicate tasks even before he became abbot: in 953 Otto the Great sent him to the caliph ‘Abd ar-Rahmān. With his firmness and energy, G. achieved results that others entrusted with the same mission before him had been unable to obtain.
The name of G. of Gorze is chiefly associated with the monastic reform that he introduced first into his own monastery and then spread to about 70 abbeys; thus it became the centre of the revival of monastic life in Germany. This reform was based on a return to the primitive observance of the Rule, but it added certain austerities not proper to the spirit of St Benedict. All the same, it gained ever more ground in Germany and in Belgium, and even in Rome. More than to the reform of Cluny, it should be linked to that of Lorraine, which includes the reforms of Brogne and of Richard of St-Vanne, as well as that of Gorze. The duration of the latter spanned 200 years. G. died at Gorze on 7 March 976. His memory in the Benedictine Martyrology is instead on 27 February.