Blessed Eberhard

The family of Blessed Eberhard was bienheureux Eberhard Friend of Bennon present at his death. one of the most illustrious in Swabia, as much for its antiquity as for its wealth. This prince must have been, according to the opinion of several historians, a cousin of Hermann, Duke of Swabia and Alsace. Such an illustrious origin paved his way to ecclesiastical dignities, and he was appointed provost of the Strasbourg cathedral; but dazzled by the splendor of the grandeurs of this world, he became indifferent to the duties of his office and allowed himself to be dominated by ambition and vain glory. The Lord often urged him to return to Him, whether by the example and solicitations of his colleagu e and Bennon Founding monk of Einsiedeln and Bishop of Metz in the 10th century. friend Bennon, whose life we provided on August 3rd, or by salutary inspirations, which came from time to time to disturb him in his overly worldly life: but he remained inaccessible to the attractions of grace and always continued the same way of life.

The virtuous Benno Bennon Founding monk of Einsiedeln and Bishop of Metz in the 10th century. n had just given the example of the deepest self-denial by retiring into solitude. This sudden retreat, his renunciation of the world, and above all his austerities, had made a vivid impression on the minds of the canons of the Strasbourg Cathedral. Driven by a motive of curiosity, Eberhard resolved one day to visit his friend, and appeared with all the display of pomp and vanity in the dreadful wilderness that the latter inhabited in Switzerland. Bennon received him as a solitary. Eberhard, at the sight of this man, whom the austerities of penance had not broken, felt moved and troubled: this slave of the world and its follies, who had tasted until then only false and deceptive pleasures, could not recover from his astonishment: he had expected to find in Bennon a man whose austere virtue had absorbed everything that recalled their former friendship, and he found in him the same friend, whose tenderness and amiability had only increased since their separation: he had expected reproaches from Bennon for having continued a life so little in harmony with the duties of his state; but Bennon is an indulgent friend, who forgives the frailties of human nature for the wanderings of the moment, and who has only bowels of mercy for a victim of human respect and the prejudices of his birth. Finally, Eberhard had only imagined the eremitic life as a sad and painful existence, deprived of all enjoyment, and he finds in Bennon a man who enjoys a kind of happiness unknown to himself, and who savors ineffable delights in the midst of earthly privations. All these considerations militate strongly in his soul; grace completes its work, and Eberhard, as if struck by a ray of light, recognizes his wanderings, abjures them, and devotes himself to everything.

days to the practice of Christian virtues and to all the rigor of penance. What was then the joy of Bennon? He affectionately clasped his friend in his arms, exhorted him to break all the ties that bound him to the earth and to come share with him his happiness and his mortifications. Eberhard promised him and immediately renounced his dignity; he signaled the sincerity of his resolution at once by acts of beneficence and used the great wealth of which he was in possession to improve the lot of the fervent disciples of Bennon. The humble chapel gave way from then on to a beautiful church, built in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and the modest cells of the cenobites were changed into a rich abbey, which has since become so famous for the regularity that has always reigned there, the number and holiness of its religious, and the immense donations that several monarchs granted it. But the charity of Eberhard shone forth even more during a great famine, which ravaged Burgundy, Alsace, and Upper Germany in 942: he had a large provision of grain collected, which he distributed to the desolate peoples. It appears that he was named abbot of the monastery that owed its existence to him, and Hermann Contract informs us that he governed this house from the year 934 until 957 or 958, the time of his death. He was buried near the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, next to Bennon, his friend and his brother. His memory has always been held in grea t venerati Einsiedeln Site of the monastery founded by Eberhard in Switzerland. on at Einsiedeln, and his name is found in several martyrologies. Some historians give him the title of saint.

Excerpt from the Saints of Alsace, by Abbot Hunckler.