Jón Ögmundsson

Jón Ögmundsson or Ögmundarson (; 1052–23 April 1121), also known as John of Hólar and St. Jón Ögmundarson or Ögmundsson , was an Icelandic Catholic bishop. In 1106, the second Icelandic diocese, Hólar, was created in the north of Iceland, and Jón was appointed its first bishop. He served as bishop there until his death.

Biography Jón was born in in the Fljótshlíð area of southern Iceland, the son of a priest. following ordination by the Pope in Rome. These two events are distinguished in the Icelandic annals: Jón was not "made a saint" by the Althing.

Jón never received as much veneration as the first Icelandic saint, Thorlak Thorhallsson, and was venerated primarily in the diocese of Hólar and at his birthplace, Breiðabólstaður in Fljótshlíð; relics were preserved at both these places.

Jóns saga A Latin life (vita) about St. Jón was probably written by the monk Gunnlaugr Leifsson of the monastery at Þingeyrar in the early thirteenth century. Composed nearly a century after Jón's lifetime, its historical value is dubious. It is a classic example of hagiography for a confessor saint, aiming to praise the saintly virtues of its subject rather than record accurate historical information. The Latin original has not survived, but it was translated into Icelandic (as Jóns saga, Jóns saga Helga ["Saga of Saint Jón"] etc.) shortly after its composition and revised on subsequent occasions.

Editions and translations Jóns saga Hólabyskups ens Helga. Ed. Peter Foote. (Copenhagen: Editiones Arnamagnæanae Series A vol. 14, 2003) Biskupa sögur I (Íslensk Fornrit XV). Eds. Sigurgeir Steingrímsson, Ólafur Halldórsson, and Peter Foote. (Reykjavík: 2003). "Saga of Bishop Jón of Hólar", in Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology, ed. Tom Head. (NY and London, Garland: 2000) 595–626. Paperback edition by Routledge: 2002. pp. 595–626. (A partial translation.) The Saga of St. Jón of Hólar, ed. and trans. by Margaret Cormack and Peter Foote (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2020)