Today's saintAll livesDecember saints
AO

Devotional card

St. Ado of Vienne

Saint-specific image not yet available.

This devotional card is shown because a saint-specific image is not yet available.

Saints and feasts

St. Ado of Vienne

Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor

Ado was a monk, teacher and compiler of a martyrology before becoming archbishop of Vienne. Butler remembers his preaching, formation of clergy and care for the poor.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Written work: A martyrology
Butler records Ado’s compilation without requiring acceptance of every historical detail in it.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 16, “Saint Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor,” pp. 291-298.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 16, “Saint Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor,” pp. 291-298.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 16, “Saint Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor,” pp. 291-298.

Ado received his education and religious formation at Ferrières. He later taught at Prüm, where Butler emphasizes his concern that religious learning should shape the life of the person who studies it. After trials in that community, he travelled to Rome and spent time in Italy.

His literary work included a martyrology, a chronicle and accounts of earlier saints. He was subsequently called to govern the church of Vienne. There he gave close attention to preaching, the examination and formation of clergy, and the conduct of the Church’s public worship.

Butler also remembers the hospitals and relief provided for poor people through his care. Public responsibilities did not displace the prayer and study of saints’ lives that had formed him as a monk. He died on December 16, 875, and his remembrance continued in the church of Vienne.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

The reading identifies Ado’s work as a compiler without treating every historical detail in his martyrology as independently established.

Carry this reading into prayer

Act of Charity

Ask God for love of Him and your neighbor, and carry this reading into your own life.

Pray now →

Keep reading

Nearby saint lives

Move through the calendar without leaving the saint library. These nearby feast-day lives help keep the reading trail connected.

Previous feast

St. Adelaide

December 16

Next feast

St. Olympias

December 17

Browse December saintsBrowse all saint livesGo to today's feast
More prayers, novenas and litanies

More devotions

Continue in prayer

Choose a connected devotion or a clearly labeled general prayer.

Choose a novena

Find a novena for your intention

Browse existing novenas by the need you want to bring to prayer.

Choose a novena

Pray with all the saints

Litaniae Sanctorum

Invoke the communion of saints with the traditional Latin Litany of the Saints.

Pray the Latin litany

Keep learning

What is prayer?

Read question 1099 and its complete answer in the Baltimore Catechism.

Read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5