Donatus of Jura

Who they were

According to a hagiographical Life that modern scholars judge historically thin, Donato was born at Orléans, was ordained deacon and then priest, and after a pilgrimage to St Martin's tomb at Tours felt drawn to a more perfect life. He travelled south to Provence and settled as a hermit at the foot of Mont Lure, near Sisteron, alternating penance with a quiet apostolate among the local country people.

Legend tells of a pagan named Celsus who persecuted him but was converted after his daughter was miraculously healed by Donato. He remained close to the neighbouring monastic world, especially his friend Abbot Mario of the monastery of Val Bénoit (Bodon), who attended him at his death, around the year 535. His tomb near his hermitage on Mont Lure became a place of pilgrimage, and a Benedictine monastery was built there in the twelfth century; his feast, 19 August, is kept in the Roman Martyrology and in the dioceses of Gap, Digne, Grenoble and Orléans.

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

Sixth-century hermit of Mont Lure near Sisteron in Provence, remembered for penance and a rural apostolate; feast 19 August.