About Warriors and Monks: Pons, Abbot of Cluny
Pons, born to a noble family in the south of France in 1075, is given to the Saint Pons Monastery at the age of four by his father. His parents never visit him, and this embitters his feeling towards his family. As a Benedictine monk he thrives in the monastery as a devotee of the Order’s rules, working, praying, and studying.
Reaching adulthood, he falls in love with Primavera, a woman in the nearby village, but the Church’s renewed enforcement of celibacy endangers their relationship.
He excels in his role managing the library and supervising the scribes at the monastery and is promoted to the largest Benedictine abbey at Cluny, France. He must travel across France to reach his new role. It is a lawless time when people of the land are threatened with violence as they cultivate their fields or journey on pilgrimage. Traveling monks are compelled to become warriors, defending themselves with farm tools and walking staves.
Within several years, Pons is elected by the monks as Abbot of Cluny Monastery. As soon as he assumes the abbacy, he discovers the financial problems at Cluny and must travel to Spain to convince the king, their greatest benefactor, to resume their donations to the monastery. On his journey, he must fight brigands and thieves as well as cope with the intimate advances from the queen.
The local nobles are jealous of his power and spread lies about him to the Pope. Pons is leader of Cluny Abbey, which has over a thousand satellite monasteries with 10,000 monks. Thus, Pons rivals the Pope’s religious power and influence, and he frequently is in conflict with the Pope’s religious directives.
During these challenges, he must continue the construction of the new church at Cluny, planned to be the largest Christian church in Europe.
After repeated conflict with the Pope, he makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and joins the crusade to save Jerusalem. On the Venetian ship to the Holy Land, he meets an Irish monk, and they join a troop of Polish knights. When they reach the Levante, Pons must fight alongside Christian knights and soldiers and experiences firsthand the violence of the crusades.
His religious views have soured by what he saw in the Holy Land, and he returns to Europe. Pons visits his mother in France before returning to Cluny. Life changing surprises await him there.
Buy the book, and follow the author on social media:
Author Bio:
Have you ever wanted to live in another time and place in history? Have you imagined what it would be like to take the place of an ancestor? Michael A. Ponzio’s lifelong experience reading books on history combined with his love for family and travel has inspired him to bring these visions alive, by writing a series of “Ancestry Novels.”
Since childhood, Mike Ponzio has read books about ancient history. He traded books and stories with his father, Joseph E. Ponzio, and they discussed the origins of the family surname. Mike traveled around the Mediterranean to Europe, Asia, and Africa, visiting many of the locations he would later write about. He continues to travel and write Ancestry Novels which he imagines may have taken place during the lives of ancient ancestors.
Mike met his wife, Anne Davis, in 1975 at a University of Florida karate class. Since that time both have taught Cuong Nhu Martial Arts. With John Burns, they wrote and published six instructional books on martial arts weapons. Mike retired in 2015, after working as an environmental engineer for thirty-seven years. Anne and Mike have raised four sons. They are all engineer graduates, following in the footsteps of their Davis and Ponzio grandfathers.
Ancestry Novels by Michael A. Ponzio.
The title characters are historical. For each novel in the series, the story is complete and can be read alone. However, characters of the novels are connected across generations.
The Ancient Rome Series (Lover of the Sea):
Pontius Aquila: Eagle of the Republic
Pontius Pilatus: Dark Passage to Heaven
Saint Pontianus: Bishop of Rome
Warriors and Monks Series:
Ramon Pons: Count of Toulouse
1066 Sons of Pons: In the Wake of the Conqueror
Warriors and Monks: Pons, Abbot of Cluny