Saint Sturmius

His virtue and talents soon determined the religious who composed the community to send him to receive Holy Orders, once he had reached the age prescribed by the canons; as soon as he was raised to the dignity of the priesthood, he believed himself obliged to fulfill the duties appropriate to this state, by devoting himself to preaching, and by conferring holy baptism upon those whom he had instructed and withdrawn from the error in which they were previously. He applied his care equally to those who were plunged into vice and the blindness of paganism, and to those whom he had already won for Jesus Christ or who were working to attain perfection in the supernatural ways. He inveighed powerfully against those who disturbed the public peace; and he had a particular talent for reconciling those who harbored hatred for one another. He neglected nothing to abolish the ancient customs of the pagans and to show the deplorable state of those who were guided only by superstitious rules, which subjected them to the empire of demons.

Having spent a few years in these praiseworthy occupations, he was touched by a very ardent desire to retire into some desert, where he could attend to God alone in the exercise of contemplation; he communicated his design to his former master Saint Boniface and begged him to facilitate the means for him to execute it; this enlightened superior, having well examined the motives that moved this wise religious, granted him what he wished; which made him immediately decide to go and hide in the forest called Buchonia, in a place named Hersfeld or Hirschfeld, where there was, it is said, a small church. It was there that our Saint, accompanied by two other religious whom he had chosen, began to lead the most rigorous life of the ancient solitaries, by macerating his body with fasts, vigils, and other austerities suitable to the kind of life he had undertaken.

He resolved, according to the advice of Saint Boniface, with whom he conferred several times, to form a religious community. He chose a place that seemed to him very convenient for building a monastery; it was near the river Fulda; Saint Boniface procured for him the protection of Carloman, King of the Franks, who facilitated the means for him to succeed in his enterprise; he ceded to him, for this purpose, the land of an estate that was called Eichlohé; he added to it, moreover, an extent of four thousand paces of the land that was around it. All the neighboring lords also contributed to this good work, and Saint Sturme, with these powerful aids, built with ease the famous monastery called Fulda from the name of the river near which i monastère appelé de Fulde Monastery founded by Sturmius, a major religious and political center. t is built. It is located in the diocese of Mainz, between Franconia, Hesse, and Thuringia. This famous abbey has since become the mother of several other houses that have given great prelates to the Church and that have rendered themselves commendable both by science and by piety. Saint Boniface dedicated the church of this monastery under the title of Saint-Sauveur, and, having been made Bishop of Mainz two years after this dedication, he took pleasure in taking refuge in this holy place, to relax from his fatigues and the painful cares of the episcopate, by attending quietly to the two exercises of contemplation.

Saint Sturme, with the consent of Saint Boniface, was elected the first abbot of this house, for which he prescribed the Rule of Saint Benedict. The religious lived with such great fervor that they resolved to abstain from wine and any other beverage that could intoxicate; they worked with their hands to provide for the needs of the monastery and could not bear for any stranger to come and help them in the most difficult tasks of their house. They absolutely forbade the entry of their church to all women and submitted themselves to the observance of a great number of other very austere rules which caused them to be regarded as the most perfect religious of their time and whose conduct others sought to imitate in other monasteries, even the most regular ones. To succeed better in this, they were willing, at the request made to them, to send some of their subjects to these other houses, to better introduce there by their holy examples the exact regularity of the Rule of Saint Benedict, which they professed and to which they even added several other practices of extraordinary mortification.

Saint Sturme, whose zeal was always increasing and who meditated continually on the most suitable means that tend toward perfection, resolved, with the good pleasure and by the counsel of his great master, Saint Boniface, to go and visit the most famous monasteries of Italy, to recognize their way of life, to note their holiest observances, and to add them to those he had already prescribed in the Abbey of Fulda; having therefore had himself accompanied by two religious, they executed this design, and while edifying all the houses through which they passed by their good examples, they also found, for their part, food for their souls in the conduct of the most perfect religious whose modesty, regularity, austerity in all their actions, and extreme fidelity not to relax in anything they admired. Our holy superior did not fail to go also to Monte Cassino, to recognize everything that was practiced there; finally, this ver y wise abbo Mont-Cassin Reference monastery for the Benedictine Rule. t, having gone as far as Rome, returned full of new insights and animated by a zeal even more ardent than before to the monastery of Fulda, well resolved to introduce there, with his ordinary prudence and gentleness, what could perfect the first Rule that he had already caused to be observed until then.

Our holy abbot was always the first to observe what he proposed to others, and demonstrated in his own person the ease with which one could practice the most difficult things; far from the Rules he enforced discouraging applicants from seeking a place in his monastery, people flocked there from all sides, and persons of distinction even brought their wealth to provide the means to feed a greater number of religious. Saint Boniface, who always took a great interest in the works of his disciple, Saint Sturme, also obtained from Pope Zachary that the monastery of Fulda should depend only on the Holy See, and this great prelate resigned some time later from the bishopric of Mainz and the oversight he had over the other churches of Germany, to return to Frisia to continue the initial functions of his apostolate and satisfy the holy zeal he had to bring back to the true faith those who had strayed from it. Before his departure, he declared that he chose the church of Fulda as the place of his burial: which was carried out, for, three years later, having been martyred in the Low Countries, his body was brought back to the place he had designated.

After the death of this illustrious prelate, God, wishing to test the virtue of Saint Sturme, permitted him to be attacked and thwarted in his designs and in the reputation he had acquired; and what is peculiar is that divine Providence willed that it should be Saint Lull, successor to Saint Boniface in the bishopric of Mainz, who would be the persecutor of our holy abbot; here is how. Those who were for the prelate made him understand that Saint Sturme was too ardent and too enterprising, and that he had given bad impressions and caused distrust among his religious. Three false brothers of the abbot's monastery, hoping for some protection from the bishopric against their superior, with whom they were dissatisfied, joined this prelate and even went to find Pepin, who was King of France, to tel l him Pépin King of the Franks whose accession to the throne was supported by Burchard. that their abbot was not in his interests and that he was not devoted to the service of His Majesty. Upon these false accusations, the king, surprised by what he was assured, sent Saint Sturme into exile in the famous monastery of Jumièges, in the diocese of Rouen. Our Saint remained the monastère célèbre de Jumièges Place of exile for Sturmi in Normandy. re for two years, during which he always received all kinds of esteem and kindness from the religious of this monastery, who recognized the signal virtue of this great servant of God.

The absence of the holy abbot did not fail to cause change in the monastery of Fulda: some wished to leave their state, others claimed that they must go and better inform the monarch; others, more prudent, took the path of resorting to God, who holds the hearts of kings in His hand; prayers and fasts were therefore held for this purpose; and although Saint Lull had already placed another superior named Marc in the monastery of Fulda, nevertheless, the religious having carried their complaints to Pepin, God, who had heard their prayers, permitted this prince to do justice to their rightful complaints and to allow them to elect an abbot from the body of the community; it was one of the wisest disciples of Saint Sturme, named Preszolde, who was chosen for this function; he acquitted himself very wisely, by reuniting all spirits and omitting nothing to procure the return of their former abbot. Indeed, shortly after, the king had Saint Sturme come to his court, whose distinguished merit he learned of more and more every day; he wished for him to remain in his palace with the other ecclesiastics who served his chapel, until he had disposed of his fate in another manner. In this interval, the king, having found the holy abbot who was alone in prayer in the palace chapel, showed him kindness, conferred with him, asked him why his religious had accused him to his person, and what reasons he had had for not being affectionate toward him; to which the holy abbot replied, with great wisdom, that he was a sinner, but that he had never undertaken anything, nor done anything against the interests and service of His Majesty. The king then told him that he prayed to God to forgive him if he had offended him, but that he wanted him to always have, in the future, a great share of his benevolence.

This interview and this conversation of Pepin with Saint Sturme had happy consequences; for the religious of Fulda, having learned that their first abbot had returned to the good graces of the sovereign, had no difficulty in obtaining his return and his reinstatement in his office; and not only did the king grant them this favor, but he also confirmed them in the privilege that Pope Zachary had granted them, and gave great testimonies of a new protection to the holy abbot. Saint Sturme was received with extraordinary respect and joy by his religious in his monastery of Fulda; the superior who held his place returned to him all the authority he had; the holy abbot resumed knowledge of all affairs and the state of the temporal and the spiritual. He revived the initial fervor that he had introduced before his absence; he increased the cells of the religious; he embellished the church with several very rich ornaments; he brought the river Fulda into the enclosure of the monastery, for the greater utility of the offices that were performed there.

His history notes that experience having made him know that the initial austerity he had tried to introduce had been found little bearable for the common of the religious, who are not all equally strong, the holy abbot had judged it appropriate to cut back something from it to make the Rule milder and in that more conformable to that of Saint Benedict, which he intended to follow; he therefore granted the use of wine, and this permission was confirmed by a council. The wise conduct of this holy superior, and the moderation he used after returning to the house of Fulda, attracted such a great number of subjects that the community was composed of at least four hundred religious, without counting the servants; it is for this reason that King Pepin, and even after him his son Charlemagne, made great donations to this monastery, as much to provide for t he nourishm Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. ent of the religious as to mark the esteem and singular respect they had for him who was its worthy superior.

Charlemagne, having taken over the government of the kingdom after his father, did not wish to give lesser testimonies of his benevolence and esteem than his predecessor toward the holy abbot of whom we speak, and he was pleased to recognize him and take him as a mediator for the peace he made in the year 771 with Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria. He also employed him with great success in the great affair of the conversion of the Saxons, whom this prince had undertaken to make renounce the idolatry to which they had long been addicted; our pious abbot, following the praiseworthy zeal of his king, destined several religious to this beautiful work; they instructed those who were in ignorance and blindness, and gave baptism to those they had prepared to receive it; Saint Sturme even found a way to build several churches in their country, although we cannot deny that the barbarians, who remained in their obstinacy, greatly delayed the progress of these holy missionaries. These infidels, revolting equally against their prince and against the laws of the true God, forced Charlemagne to take up arms against them again and to go and subdue them once more in their country; he did so successfully; and, having submitted them to his royal authority by the force of arms, our holy abbot believed he should also return to the barbarians to make them resume the worship of the true God, by preaching to them again the mysteries of the true faith. He was resolved to execute this design, and he even traveled for this purpose to Heresburg, with some of his religious, to wait there for Charlemagne, following the order that this prince had given them; but divine Providence, disposing otherwise and contenting itself with the good will of our Saint, permitted him to be attacked by several infirmities which compelled him to return to Fulda, being accompanied by a physician of the king, named Wintar, who did what he could to restore his health; but it was in vain.

The holy abbot, who was not unaware that his end was near, had his religious assembled around him, and gave them a beautiful exhortation to animate them to virtue and to persevere in the observance of the Rule. He declared loudly that he forgave all those who had caused him pain during the time of his disgrace with King Pepin, and especially Saint Lullus, Bishop of Mainz, although he had always been opposed to him during his life.

This famous abbot, full of virtues and merit, died the following day, December 17, 779, being about sixty-seven years old. He was mourned not only by all his religious, but also by all the surrounding peoples, to whom he had been of great help in all their needs.

The reputation of this great servant of God has always been preserved, and everyone regarded him as a Saint; although it is not noted that his name appeared in the martyrologies composed after his death, one has nevertheless always been so convinced of his holiness that Pope Innocent II solemnly canoni pape Innocent II Pope reigning during the saint's lifetime. zed him while holding the Council of the Lateran in 1139; for this purpose, he sent a brief on April 19 to Conrad, who was abbot of the monastery of Fulda, and to all his religious.

It was John of Würzburg who, albeit long after, published the brief of Pope Innocent on the last Sunday of November 1439. He ordered that the feast to be celebrated would be a double office and a day of obligation in the diocese and in all places that were under the dependency of the abbey of Fulda.

The relics of the holy abbot were preserved in the church of this monastery: when they were raised from the ground in 1613, it was noted with astonishment, by the size of the bones, that Saint Sturme had been of gigantic stature.

There is a collection from Saint Sturme divided into two parts. The first contains the order of the office as it was performed at Monte Cassino on the principal feasts. The second part concerns the exercises practiced in the cloister. These writings are reproduced in volume LXXXIX of the Patrologia Latina.

The abbey of Fulda once had one of the most beautiful libraries, rich above all in precious manuscripts. A large part of these treasures perished in the Peasants' War and in the Thirty Years' War.

The Abbot of Fulda was a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Arch-Chancellor of the Roman Empress, and Primate of Germany and Gaul, to the point that he several times disputed precedence with the archbishops of Cologne and Magdeburg. He resided at Neuenhof. His jurisdiction extended to the towns of Fulda, Hammelburg, Bieberstein, Brückenau, Fürstenech, Haselstein, Makensell, Rockenstahl, Saleck, and Schildech, as well as the bailiwicks of Heralds, Rosenfeld, Ulmbach, Vogelsberg, and Weidenau. We see from history that the abbots of this monastery exercised great influence in the affairs of the German Empire at various times.

In 1752, Fulda was raised by the Holy See to the rank of a bishopric. In 1802, at the time of the deplorable secularization and by virtue of a singular arrangement, the Prince of Orange-Nassau, who became King of the Netherlands after the fall of Napoleon, received this diocese as partial compensation for the loss of his hereditary lands and possessions in the Netherlands.

After the Battle of Jena, Napoleon seized Fulda, gave it a provisional administration until 1810, when he united it—with the exception of the bailiwick of Herbstein, ceded to the Grand Duchy of Hesse—to the new Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, which fell to the Prince-Primate Karl von Dalberg. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 assigned it to the Electorate of Hesse.

We have preserved the account of Father Giry, after having reviewed and completed it.