Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg

Around the year 960, the Rugi or Rani, who inhabited a part of Pomerania, between the Oder and the Wipper, a nd the islan île de Bugen Island in the Baltic Sea inhabited by the Rugians. d of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, requested preachers of the Gospel. Under the reign of Louis the Pious, some monks from New Corvey had undertaken to preach Jesus Christ to this pagan nation; they effected several conversions in different Slavic provinces and built, on the island of Rügen, an oratory in honor of Our Lord and Saint Vitus, whom they honored as their patron; but these happy beginnings did not last: the Rugians returned to their idols. By a singular oddity, they added Saint Vitus to their false gods and built him a temple. These peoples had always shown a very great aversion to Christians and especially to the priests of the Christian religion. They were therefore acting only out of hypocrisy when they later asked to be instructed in the truths of the Gospel. Emperor Otto I, convinced that they had a true desire to convert, received their envoys with joy and designated as their bishop Liburtius, a monk of Saint Alban in Mainz. Liburtius having died shortly after this nomination (961), Adelbert was chosen to replace him, and consecrated bishop of the Rugians (962). Otto provided him with everything necessary for the accomplishment of this holy work, and Adelbert departed with a certain number of missionaries; but he found hearts very little disposed to receive his teachings. Several of the priests who had accompanied him were massacred, and the others had great difficulty escaping with the bishop. Despairing of success, they returned to their monasteries.

However, Otto, desiring to reward the zeal and virtues of Adelbert, appointed him abbot of Wissembou abbé de Wissembourg Predecessor of Saudrade at Wissembourg, who became Archbishop of Magdeburg. rg, in the diocese of Speyer, in Lower Alsace, on the Lutter river. The holy man maintained, through his wisdom and example, regularity in this abbey, which from then on became one of the most famous in the empire: he was the father of his monks and the angel of peace of the abbey. Rejoicing at having had the opportunity to return to a monastery, he expected to have nothing more to occupy the rest of his days than to work on his own sanctification with his monks in silence and retreat, when divine Providence came to tear him from his rest to make him traverse a wider field. It drew him from his solitude to raise him, around the year 970, to the see of Magdeburg. Emperor Otto, finding hi L'empereur Othon Holy Roman Emperor, brother of Bruno of Cologne. mself in Rome, requested Pope John XII to erect pape Jean XII Pope reigning at the time of Eberhard's death. the see of Magdeburg into a metropolis and to give it as suffragans the bishops of Merseburg, Meissen, Zeitz, Havelberg, and Brandenburg. The Pope consented, and Adelbert departed from Wissembourg to go and take possession of his Church. He was received there with all possible demonstrations of respect. The Empress Saint Adelaide, who had l earned to know sainte Adélaïde Empress and spiritual disciple of Adalbert. the merit of the holy man, chose him as her spiritual director and followed him to Magdeburg, in order to benefit until the end of her days from the counsel of the worthy prelate. But Adelbert left this world before the death of this pious princess.

Animated by apostolic zeal, Adelbert brought the knowledge of Jesus Christ to a great number of Slavs, who were still plunged in the darkness of error. He had several churches built and gave them pastors capable of instructing a newly converted people. He established an admirable order in the chapter of his cathedral, founded by Emperor Otto I, and admitted only men commendable for their knowledge and piety. The Lord favored him with the gift of prophecy, and he always led the life of an Apostle during his episcopate. He was occupied with visiting the diocese of Merseburg when he was struck by the illness tha t led him Mersebourg Place of death of Saint Adelbert. to the grave. After celebrating Mass in Merseburg, he felt his strength failing him. He had recourse to the sacraments of the Church, which he received with great piety, and died on June 20, 981. His cult persisted in Magdeburg until the time of the Reformation, at which time all monuments relating to the saints were destroyed in that city.

[APPENDIX: NOTICE ON THE ABBEY OF WISSEMBOURG.]

The Abbey of Wissembourg, which has just been mentioned, owes its origin to Dagobert I, King of France, or, according to other historians, to Dagobert II, King of a part of Austrasia, including Alsace, who gave it considerable property. It was later raised to the dignity of a princely abbey, along with those of Murbach, Fulda, and Kempten, and its abbot, a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, had a voice and seat at the Germanic Diet. An ancient charter, discovered by Bruschius in the archives of Speyer, designates as its first abbot Principius, later Bishop of Speyer under the reign of Dagobert II, which proves that this abbey existed before that prince.

From its inception, the Abbey of Wissembourg was a center of science and knowledge of all kinds, and history particularly notes, in the 9th century, a religious figure whose merit is not sufficiently known, even to the scholarly world. We speak of the famous monk Otfrid, who, moine Otfrid Monk and poet famous for his translation of the Gospel into Old High German. born on the banks of the Rhine and gifted by nature with the happiest dispositions, retired while still very young to Wissembourg to devote himself to study under the famous masters who then shone in that house. From Wissembourg, he went to Fulda to benefit from the lessons of Rabanus Maurus, who was then at the head of the school of that abbey. Upon his return to Wissembourg, he was promoted to the priesthood and placed in charge of the monastery's schools. This position still left him time to compose several works, which have carried his name to posterity. He acquired the reputation of being one of the most learned men of his time and held the titles of philosopher, rhetorician, poet, and theologian.

One of the principal objects of Otfrid's study was to perfect and enrich the language of his country, which was Theotisc or Teutonic. This studious monk made almost supernatural efforts to gain acceptance for his language, which cost him infinite labor. In a letter to Liutbert of Mainz, he complains of the harshness of the idiom in which he wrote and the difficulty he experienced in overcoming the obstacles of the Teutonic language, which was ill-suited for poetry. In it, he reproaches the writers of his century for preferring to write history in Latin rather than in their mother tongue.

One cannot contest Otfrid's honor of having been the first known writer among the ancient Germans to have set any part of the Holy Scripture into rhymed verse. The care he took to cultivate the Teutonic language inspired his compatriots with a noble emulation to imitate him. He set the most striking features of the life of Jesus Christ into verse. This poetry was different from that of the Greeks and Romans in that it was rhymed and was not measured by feet composed of long and short syllables, but simply by the number of syllables.

Charlemagne had a particular taste for the Teutonic language, and Einhard reports to us that this prince gave Teutonic names to the twelve months of the year, and that, to facilitate the study of the same language, he began to compile a grammar.

Otfrid's most considerable work, as well as his most known and esteemed, is his translation of the Gospel, in rhymed verse and in five books. The author paraphrases it, following the Vulgate, in the most beautiful passages of the Gospel, to which he often adds short moral and sometimes historical reflections, drawn mostly from the works of Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Augustine. He chose these passages so well that they form a continuous history from the birth of Jesus Christ to his ascension: piety breathes throughout this poem. Detached pieces could be sung, which made them spread more easily among the public and contributed to the decline of profane and obscene songs.

The dedicatory epistle is of a singular invention: it is a kind of double acrostic, whose verses, divided into quatrains, begin and end with the same letters, and these first and last letters form, on either side, this Latin inscription: *Luthovico orientalium regnorum regi sit solus aterna*. It is thus that the poets of the 9th century delighted in multiplying the mechanical difficulties of art for the pleasure of overcoming them.

The Abbey of Wissembourg gave rise to the town of the same name. Discipline and piety flourished in this monastery, but several disorders crept in towards the end of the 13th century. The negligence of the abbots was so great that, during the 14th century, several of its finest estates were alienated. Finally, matters had reached such a point that in 1470 Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine, believed it his duty, in his capacity as bailiff of Alsace, to take vigorous measures to restore discipline and the spirit of Saint Benedict there. For this purpose, he brought in two holy abbots from Mainz and Bamberg and, with the consent of the town authorities, led them to the abbey; but his hopes were disappointed. At the moment when the congregation was assembled in the church to hear a famous preacher, the people, who were taking the side of the religious, rose up against the count and the two abbots, under the pretext that they were seeking to molest monks against whom there was nothing to reproach. The tumult grew to such an extent that the two abbots were forced to flee and lock themselves in the sacristy. The monks took advantage of the disorder and fled into the town; but the magistrate brought them back to the monastery the next day. The count, whose authority had been so gravely disregarded by the inhabitants of Wissembourg, appeared at the head of an army to punish the guilty. It was not, however, until a year later that he managed to restore order in the abbey, by sending the monks who had most opposed the proposed reform to other houses. This return to order was not of long duration: Clement VII then converted the abbey, in 1524, into a chapter of canons. After the death of Rudiger, who had been its last abbot, the Bishop of Speyer obtained, in 1545, from Pope Paul III and Emperor Charles V, permission to irrevocably unite the title of Provost of Wissembourg with that of his bishopric. From that time on, this chapter consisted of a provost (who has effectively always been the Bishop of Speyer), a dean, a cestos, and twelve canons.

There was also formerly another collegiate church in Wissembourg, which had been founded during the 11th century by Abbot Luithard, in honor of Saint Stephen. It was destroyed in 1325, during the Peasants' War.

This town likewise possessed two preceptories, one of which belonged to the Teutonic Order and the other to the Knights of Malta.

The Augustinians established themselves in Wissembourg in 1279. Their house was sold to the town in 1526, and it was converted into a civil hospice: the town having been ceded to France, Louis XIV re-established the Augustinians in their former monastery in 1684.

The religious of the Order of Saint Francis were called to the same town in 1372; their convent, having been alienated when the town embraced the Reformation, was given in 1686, by order of the King, to the Capuchins, one of whom, since that time, has always served the parish.

The Dominicans built their monastery in 1288: in 1553 it was converted into a hospice; the convent of the daughters of the same Order was likewise suppressed.

We have borrowed this Life from the History of the Saints of Alsace, by Abbé Hunckler. — See Mabillon, Ann. ord. S. Benedicti, t. III, p. 128; Ann. Treviron., t. I; Tritham., Chron. Hirning., t. I; Hist. Riter. de la France, t. IV; Lagullio. Hist. d'Alsace, t. Ier, t. VI, p. 71; Hoffmann, De Gitafrida, monache Wissemb., Grundtäter, Hist. de l'Église de Strasbourg, t. v.