Bobuleno di Bobbio

Who they were

Boboleno, originally from Athens, came to know Saint Columbanus and was among the monks who followed him to found the abbey of Bobbio in 614, which became one of the most important monastic centres of medieval Europe. On the death of Saint Bertulf in 641 he was elected the fourth abbot of Bobbio, governing it until his own death around 652-653, and from 643 he was the abbey's first mitred abbot.

He is remembered as the reformer who brought Benedictine observance into the Columbanian rule at Bobbio, softening some of its disciplinary rigours and blending Italian and Irish monastic traditions; in 643 he obtained papal protection for the monastery from Pope Theodore, and under him the community grew to some 250 monks and opened one of the first schools for boys from outside the monastery. His relics were found in the crypt of St Columbanus in 1478, and he is venerated locally in the Bobbio area of the diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, with his feast kept on 16 December.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Fourth abbot of Bobbio, reformer who introduced Benedictine observance there; feast 16 December.