Bobo of Voghera

Saint Bobo, also called Bobon or Bobone, was a Frankish warrior and pilgrim from Noyers (Noghiers) in Provence, who died in the year 986 at Voghera in Lombardy. The Church remembers him on 22 May as a soldier who laid down his arms and lived as a pilgrim, in the service of widows and orphans.

His life is known from the Vita sancti Bobonis, an anonymous biography. According to it, Bobo built a castle on a hill facing the Muslim fortress of Fraxinet and led the Christians of Provence to victory in a battle fought in a year the sources do not give. In the midst of the fighting he went through a mystical experience and vowed that, if victorious, he would renounce war and become a pilgrim, devoting his life to the care of orphans and widows.

After the death of his brother, Bobo set out on pilgrimage to Rome and reposed at Voghera in Lombardy. There he is honoured as a saint.

Bobo is commemorated in both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches. In popular tradition he is the patron of cattle: it is believed that he guards them from disease and makes the herd increase.