The Saints: St. Donatus of Fiesole

Died C. 876

Feast – Oct. 22

According to tradition, this bishop was one of many Irishmen who criss-crossed Europe in the early Middle Ages. He arrived in Fiesole, Italy, from Rome just as the see became vacant and was tapped to become bishop. Supposedly he was a teacher in service to the Frankish kings; there is a record, from 850, of his giving a church and hospice, St. Brigid’s at Piacenza, to the abbey founded by St. Columban at Bobbio. Reportedly St. Andrew of Fiesole was his Irish traveling companion, but there is no real evidence for Andrew’s existence.