Jonas of Orléans

Ionas Aurelianensis

Biography

Jonas was probably born around 760 in Aquitaine, where he was raised, educated in the humanities and where he received the tonsure. In the 780s, he was already staying at Charlemagne’s palace. He undertook a trip to Asturias between 783 and 794, probably sent by the sovereign on a fact-finding mission. Jonas was a member of the court of Louis the Pious when he was king of Aquitaine. When Louis became emperor, Jonas remained in Aquitaine as adviser or tutor to his son Pepin. He had to flee in 817. He became Bishop of Orleans in 818 in place of Theodulf, and often played the role of the emperor’s envoy in ecclesiastical disputes. He was very active in the synods of his time, notably at the Council of Paris in 825 in the Iconoclast controversy; at the Paris Council in 829 on the relationship between the powers governing society; at the synod of Worms in 833, at the Council of Thionville in 834 and finally at the synod of Aachen in 836. He devoted the last years of his episcopate to the restoration of his diocese. He died between December 840 and September 843.

Considered in his time as an indisputable literary authority, he left us a treatise on the Iconoclast controvery, and two Mirrors, treatises of moral and spiritual edification: the Instruction for Lay People and Instruction for Princes, addressed to King Pepin I of Aquitaine.