Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donatus
DONATUS, Saint (fl. 829–876), bishop of Fiesole, was an Irishman of noble birth. In consequence of the outrages of ‘bands of violent men,’ probably the Danes, he made up his mind to go abroad as a pilgrim. Arrived on the continent he wandered about visiting the basilica of the apostles and other sacred places. At this time the church of Fæsulæ, now Fiesole, had been attacked and plundered by the Normans, and was without a bishop. The people had assembled in the church, praying that a bishop might be sent to them, when the steps of Donatus were divinely guided to Fiesole. As he entered the church the bells pealed and the lamps burst forth into light miraculously. The people inquired who the stranger was, for though small of stature his aspect bespoke high intellectual gifts. They heard that his name was Donatus, and then perceiving that their prayers were answered, insisted that he should be their bishop.
The church of Fiesole had suffered much in its property and prerogatives from the emperors, and the Normans had destroyed its charters. Donatus applied for redress to the emperor, Louis, son of Lothair, who in 866 granted his request. A confirmation of this grant was obtained subsequently by Donatus from Charles the Bald at Placentia, with the condition annexed that any one who infringed it should pay the church thirty pounds of gold.
These statements are made in the life of Donatus, edited by the Bollandists, from ‘the great Manuscript of the Chronicles of the Church of Fiesole;’ but other sources must be consulted for his date. His election to the episcopate of Fiesole must have been subsequent to 826, for in that year a Roman council was held under Eugenius II, at which Grusolphus, bishop of Fiesole, was present. But in 844, when Louis, son of Lothair, was consecrated by Sergius II as king of the Lombards, Anastasius, the Roman librarian, records that Donatus was present as bishop of Fiesole. He was again present at the council of Ravenna, held by Pope Nicholas in 861 or 862, and if, as stated above, he held communication with Charles the Bald, 875–7, he must have been alive in 875 or 876.
In the council of Florence, 877, Zenobius was bishop of Fiesole. The period of Donatus's episcopate must therefore lie between 826 and 876. His epitaph, said to be his own composition, states the duration of his episcopate as forty-seven years; assuming 876 as the date of his death, Donatus probably became bishop of Fiesole in 829.
He is described as incessantly occupied either in prayer or in study, or labouring for the welfare of his church. He was also a diligent teacher, affording gratuitous instruction to his pupils, and ‘putting into metrical form the wise words of the sages.’ In his work he associated with him his brother Andrew and his sister Brigid. She was patroness of a church near Fiesole, and her festival fell on the same day as that of her famous namesake, St. Brigid of Kildare. In the preface to the ‘Life of St. Brigid of Fiesole,’ published by the Bollandists, a poem of Donatus is given. It describes the wealth of his native land and its happiness and glory. Colgan was of opinion that he was a bishop before leaving Ireland, but the matter seems involved in some doubt. His day is 22 Oct., which is also the day of another Donatus, likewise a bishop in Italy, with whom he has been sometimes confounded. The latter, however, who was brother of St. Cathaldus of Tarentum, was bishop of Lecce, and has been gravely assigned to the year 173!.
[Ughelli's Italia Sacra, ed. Coletti, iii. 213; Bollandists' Acta Sanct. 22 Oct. ix. 648, &c.; Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. iii. 280; Stuart's Hist. of Armagh, p. 605.]