Jonas of Bobbio

Jonas accompanied Bertulf on a journey to Rome to persuade Pope Honorius I to exempt Bobbio from episcopal jurisdiction, and make the abbey immediately subject to the Holy See.

In fulfillment of a promise made to the monks of Bobbio during a short return visit to the monastery in 639, he wrote between 640 and 643 his principal work, the Life of St. Columbanus.

To comply with a request made by the monks on this occasion he wrote the life of their founder, Jean de Réôme.

The other works of Jonas are lives of the abbots Attala and Bertulf of Bobbio and of the abbess Burgundofara of Evoriac (modern Faremoutiers).

Bede incorporated the lives of Eustace, Attala, and Bertulf into his Ecclesiastical History, while Flodoard turned that of Columbanus into hexameter verse.