John of Gorze

Saint John of Gorze
Abbot
Born	900 Vandières, Meurthe-et-Moselle
Died	March 7, 974
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	February 27

Saint John of Gorze (Jean de Gorze, John of Lorraine) (ca. 900—March 7, 974) was a Lorraine-born monk, diplomat, administrator, and monastic reformer.

John of Gorze was born at Vandières near Pont-à-Mousson to parents who were wealthy and well known in the area. His father had married late in his life to a woman much younger than he. They had three children together. John's parents were able to provide for his education, and he studied at the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Mihiel in Metz. The tradition of scholarship was strong here; John's instructor was Hildebold, who had studied at Paris under Remi d'Auxerre (Parisse, La vie de Jean, 7-8).

At the age of twenty, he had already formed relationships with powerful figures of the region, including Count Ricuin of Verdun, and Dado, bishop of Verdun. He became a Benedictine monk at the Gorze Abbey in 933 after renouncing his wealth as an administrator of landed estates and making a pilgrimage to Rome and Monte Cassino.

Having found no monastery with a strict enough discipline, John had formed relationships with like-minded men, such as Einald, formerly archdeacon of Toul. In 933, Bishop Adelbero of Metz () (929-962) had asked John and Einald to restore and reform the decayed monastery of Gorze. Einald became abbot and John became his principal assistant. The number of monks at Gorze increased, and the Gorze reform movement spread to other monasteries. In 950 Pope Agapetus II asked monks from Gorze to restore discipline in the monastery of St. Paul in Rome.

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