HUGH BONNEVAUX, ST.

Cistercian monk, abbot of Bonnevaux in Dauphiné, France; b. Châteauneuf d'Isère, France, c. 1120; d. 1194. He was born into the family of the counts of Châteauneuf and was a nephew of St. hugh of grenoble. About 1138 he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Miroir, near Louhans. When he became ill during his novitiate, he received a letter of encouragement from St. bernard. He was sent to the Abbey of Léoncel, near Saint-Jean-en-Royans, where he became abbot in 1162. In 1166 he was elected abbot of Bonnevaux, the mother abbey, and founded three daughter abbeys: Sauveréal (1173), Valbenoîte (1184), and Valcroissant (1188). During the Octavian schism (see antipope) his efforts led Emperor frederick barbarossa to recognize Pope alexander iii (1177) by the Peace of Venice. Hugh's grave, defiled (1576) during the thirty years' war, was recently discovered in the ruins of a small chapel built in his honor.

Feast: April 1 (Cistercians; Breviary of Valence since 1473 and in its Proper since 1884).

Bibliography: Sources. bernard of clairvaux, Epistola 322; Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne 182:527–528. frederick i barbarossa in e. martÈne and u. durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum (Paris 1717) 1: 585. alexander iii, Epistola, ibid. 1:1847. u. chevalier, Cartulaire de l'abbaye N.-D. de Bonnevaux (Grenoble 1889). m. a. dimier, Cartulaire de l'abbaye N.-D. de Bonnevaux (Tamié 1942). S. Bernardi vita prima, Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne 185–345. Exordium magnum, ibid. 1193–95. Literature. m. f. chuzel, Histoire de l'abbaye de Bonnevaux (Bourgoin 1932). m. a. dimier, Saint Hugues de Bonnevaux (Tamié1942); "Un Office rimé de saint H. de B.," Revue Bénédictine 68 (1958) 265–280. m. b. brard, Catholicisme 5:1018–19.

[m. a. dimier]