John of Gorze

Saint John of Gorze, a holy monk, was born around 900 at Vandières near Pont-⁠à-⁠Mousson in Lorraine, into a wealthy family well known in the district. He was a monk, diplomat, administrator and monastic reformer, abbot of the monastery of Gorze, and reposed on 7 March 974 (according to a Western calendar, around 975).

His parents sent him to the Benedictine monastery of Saint-⁠Mihiel at Metz, where his teacher was Hildebold, who had studied at Paris under Remigius of Auxerre. At twenty he had ties with prominent men of the region, among them Count Ricuin of Verdun and Dado, bishop of Verdun. As an administrator of estates, he renounced his wealth and made a pilgrimage to Rome and Monte Cassino. Finding no monastery with a strict enough discipline, he formed ties with like-⁠minded men such as Einald, formerly archdeacon of Toul. In 933 Bishop Adelbero of Metz asked John and Einald to restore the decayed monastery of Gorze, and John became a Benedictine monk there.

In 953 he was sent as ambassador of King Otto I to the Caliph Abd ar-⁠Rahman III of Córdoba, to stop the attacks of the adventurers based at Fraxinet. He reached Córdoba in 953 to 954, by way of Langres, Dijon, Lyon, Avignon, Barcelona, Tortosa and Zaragoza, and stayed there some years; he carried a letter and gifts, and the negotiations went through Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who persuaded him to send for another letter. In 960, on the death of Einald, he became abbot of Gorze. He died of natural causes. His life was written by John, abbot of Saint-⁠Arnoul at Metz. He is commemorated on 27 February, by the Western calendar (new style), as a saint of the undivided Church.