GIOVANNI DI RÉOMÉ, SANTO - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. VI, p. 375

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

JOHN of Réomé, St. – Abbot, b. ca. 450 in Dijon, d. at St-Jean de Réomé-en-Auxois (Langres) ca. 18 Jan 544.

Article illustration — JOHN of Rimini – St. Clare and Francesca da Polenta. Detail from the frescoes in the presbytery of the church of S. Maria in Porto Fuori – Ravenna.

At the age of twenty he withdrew into the solitude of Réomé, where, after some companions joined him, he founded a monastery to which he gave the Rule of St. Macarius, and which later took his name. After visiting several local monasteries he returned convinced that he could not govern and fled to Lérins. Eighteen months later, at the request of the bishop of Langres, he returned to his foundation, was elected prior, and immediately restored the flourishing of piety and discipline. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of monastic life in France. Feast: 28 Jan.

Bibl.: The life, composed about 559 by Abbot Jonas of Bobbio at the monks’ request during a brief stay at Réomé, is found in Acta SS. Januarii, III, Paris 1863, pp. 470-84; critical ed. by B. Krusch in MGH. Script. rerum Merovingic., III, pp. 502-17; school ed.: id., Ionae Vitae sanctorum... Johannis ecc., Hanover 1905, pp. 321-44. Celestino Testore