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[English Version] Wearmouth-Jarrow, von Benedict Biscop 674 und 682 gegründete, von König Ecgfrith ausgestattete Benediktinerklöster in Northumbria. Nach Benedicts Tod (wohl 690) übernahm Abt Ceolfrith beide Klöster. Mit rund 600 Mönchen und umfangreicher Bibliothek z.Z. Bedas Venerabilis, des berühmtesten Mönchs in J., herausragendes geistiges Zentrum. Zerstörung während der Däneninvasion 867–870, nach 1070 Wiederbegründung, abhängig von Durham, 1536 aufgelöst. Bedeutende Baureste sind erhalten. Lutz E. v. Padberg Bibliography Historia abbatum auctore Beda, i…

[English Version] Palladius, Keltenbischof. Bf. in Irland, wohl aus Gallien stammend. Sein Wirken bleibt v.a. wegen frühzeitiger Vermischung mit der Mission Patricks im Dunkeln. Die Chronik Prospers von Aquitanien (MGH.AA 9, 473) erwähnt P. 429 als Irlandmissionar und dann 431 als ersten Bischof der christl. Iren. In Rom meinte man wohl, das Christentum in Irland, das dort schon Ende des 4.Jh. Fuß gefaßt hatte, sei durch den Pelagianismus (Pelagius/Pelagianer) gefährdet. Zu dessen Bekämpfung wurde …

[English Version] (gest. um 750; Fest 3.11.). Wohl aus dem nördlichen Gallien stammend (Meaux?), zielte sein Wirken im Frankenreich weniger auf Mission als auf Festigung des christl. Glaubens. Nach 721 an den Gründungen Pfungen und Reichenau (um 724) beteiligt, verwirklichte P. in Murbach (727) sein auf Vorbilder des irofränkischen Mönchtums zurückgehendes Ideal der monastischen Peregrinatio als Abt und Bischof. 730 gründete er Kloster Hornbach. Die in dessen Umfeld 870/880 entstandene Vita weist …

[English Version] (Fest 17.3.), gilt als Apostel Irlands. Angaben zu P.s Leben und Werk sind, auch wegen frühzeitiger Vermischung mit dem Keltenbf. Palladius, unsicher. Der Beginn seiner Mission wird mit 432/460, sein Tod mit 461/491 angesetzt. Als echt gelten P.s Selbstzeugnisse, die Confessio und Epistola militibus Corotici. Danach wurde der Brite P. mit ca.15 Jahren von Piraten nach Irland verschleppt. Nach sechs Jahren gelang ihm die Flucht nach Britannien. Aufgrund einer Vision kehrte P. zu d…

[English Version] (gest. März 713; Fest 1.3.), angelsächsischer Missionar, Mönchsbf. und Abt von Kaiserswerth. Informationen beruhen allein auf Bedas Kirchengesch. (V 11), der S. den 690 mit Willibrord zur Mission ins Frankenreich gekommenen Mönchen zurechnet. S.s Beziehungen zu Wilfrith von York lassen jedoch vermuten, daß seine Klosterheimat Ripon war und er im freien Friesland missionierte. Der dortige Umbruch durch Radbod nach 679 erzwang einen Wechsel. Spätestens 686 von Wilfrith zum Bf. gewe…

[English Version] Sachsen, Stamm. Entstehung wie Verfassung der S. liegen im dunkeln und werden daher kontrovers diskutiert. Ihre angeblich erste Erwähnung durch den Geographen Ptolemaios um 150, der sie dem linkselbischen Norddeutschland zuwies, ist wohl Folge einer Textverderbnis. Sichere Nennung bei Julian Apostata 356, der von einem räuberischen, die Küsten unsicher machenden Volk sprach. Anzunehmen ist ein spätestens seit dem 3.Jh. aktiver Stammesbund, der sich kriegerisch und durch Bündnisse …

[German Version] The origin and makeup of the Saxons are shrouded in darkness and have therefore been hotly debated. The supposed earliest mention of them by the geographer Ptolemy c. 150, placing them in northern Germany west of the Elbe, is probably the result of textual corruption. There is a reliable mention by Julian the Apostate, who speaks of a marauding people making the coastlands unsafe. We may picture them as a tribal alliance, from since the 3rd century at the latest, spreading southea…

[German Version] (c. 480, Salency – before 561; feast day: Jun 8), came from the Frankish-Roman nobility of Vermandois. He fought paganism during his 15 years as bishop of St. Quentin/Noyon, and is buried in Soissons (St. Médard). Already as a priest he performed miracles. Through an early cult (Médard hymn by King Chilperich; oldest vita after 602), he became a popular patron saint (in 70 places in France; he is considered the helper of peasants). Lutz E. v. Padberg Bibliography MGH.AA 4/2 BHL 5863–5874 K.H. Krüger, LMA VI, 1993, 443f. St. Médard. Trésors d'une abbaye royale, 1996.

[German Version] Western Germanic tribe on the coast of the North Sea, whose independent development was curtailed by the Frankish conquest (Franks) in the 8th century. Nonetheless, the Frisian sense of community surived (Frisian law; the guiding principle of Frisian ¶ freedom since the 11th cent.). Free peasants defined the society, strengthened by significant trade based in Dorestad. The first missionary efforts under the Frankish king Dagobert (d. 638/39) failed as did an independent mission by Wilfrith of York (678/79) and Wictberc…

[German Version] A Frankish royal dynasty of the 5th to the 8th centuries (Franks/Franconia), whose first representatives, kings Chlod(g)io and Merovech (after whom the chronicler Fredegar mistakenly named the dynasty, confusing him with the mythical ancestor Mero), made their appearance in the middle of the 5th century. They ruled over the Salian Franks and were recognized by the Romans as foederati around 448. Merovech's successor Childerich (died 481/482), a sub-king in Tournai, ascended to power by means of alliances with northern Gallic army command…

[German Version] (died after 768), from the Frankish house of Matto, a pupil of Boniface, was a teacher first in Fritzlar Monastery, then as deacon. Probably in 753 he became bishop of Würzburg, and may have resigned in 768. His date of death (794?) is uncertain. Together with Bishop Lullus of Mainz he commissioned the Vita Bonifatii. Lutz E. v. Padberg Bibliography A. Wendehorst, Das Bistum Würzburg, vol. I, 1962, 25–30 K. Lindner, Untersuchungen zur Frühgeschichte des Bistums Würzburg, 1972, 215–217 S. Schipperges, Bonifatius ac socii eius, 1996, 117f. (Ger.)

[German Version] ( Jul 25, 975 – Dec 1, 1018), bishop of Merseburg (1009–1018) and chronicler. From the family of the counts of Walbeck and related to Emperor Henry II, Thietmar was educated in Quedlinburg and Magdeburg. In 1002 he became provost of Walbeck Abbey. Made bishop of Merseburg by Henry II in 1009, he worked hard to restore his bishopric. The original manuscript of his chronicle, written between 1012 and 1018, still survives; it is the pragmatic work of a church politician seeking to se…

[German Version] (died March 713; feast day Mar 1), Anglo-Saxon missionary, monastic bishop and abbot of Kaiserswerth. All we know about him comes from the Ecclesiastical History (V 11) of the Venerable Bede, who lists Suidbert among the monks accompanying Willibrord on his mission to the kingdom of the Franks. Nevertheless his ties to Wilfrith of York suggest that his home abbey was Ripon and that he evangelized in independent Frisia. The anti-Christian policy of King Radbod after 679 forced a change of plans. Consecrat…

[German Version] (c. 634–709), an Anglo-Saxon of noble birth, with a checkered career. In 648 he ¶ became a monk at Lindisfarne, from 653 to 658 he was in Lyon and Rome, in 661 he became abbot of Ripon, and between 664 and 669 be became bishop of York. Expelled in 678, with interruptions – trips to Rome in (678–680, 704/705) and incarceration (after 681) – he was bishop of Selsey, Leicester, and Hexham. He is noteworthy as a founder of monasteries (including Ripon, Hexham, Selsey, and Oundle), the first missiona…

[German Version] Patrick is known as the apostle of Ireland. Information about his life and work is uncertain, not least because he was confused early on with the Celtic bishop Palladius. The beginning of his mission has been dated between 432 and 460, his death between 461 and 491. His personal writings, the Confessio and Epistola miltibus Corotici, are considered genuine. From them we learn that Patrick, a Briton, was carried off to Ireland by pirates when he was about 15. After six years he succeeded in escaping to Britain. A vision inspired him to…

[German Version] (Roman Eboracum), capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, then the Viking kingdom of York, the later county of Yorkshire, and the archbishopric. Its strategic location led to its establishment as a Roman legionary camp around 71 ce. It was in York that Constantine the Great was proclaimed emperor in 306. The city went into a decline after 380 but became the royal capital of Edwin of Northumbria, who was baptized in 627; Paulinus was made bishop and the first cathedral was built. Under the powerful bishop W…

[German Version] (658 – Nov 7, 739), Anglo-Saxon missionary, archbishop of the Frisians in Utrecht. Educated in the abbeys of Ripon and Rathmelsigi, Willibrord went to Frisia as a missionary in 690 (Germanic peoples, Mission to the). As a member of Pepin’s retinue in Rome, he requested a papal commission in 692; in 695 he was consecrated archbishop by Pope Sergius I (taking the name Clement). Willibrord also evangelized among the Hedenen and in Thuringia. As abbot he provided the abbey of Echterna…

[German Version] Benedictine monasteries founded in Northumbria by Benedict Biscop in 674 and 682, with support from King Ecgfrith. After Benedict’s death (probably in 690), Abbot Ceolfrith headed both monasteries. With some 600 monks and an extensive library in the time of the Venerable Bede the most famous monk of Jarrow, the double foundation was an outstanding intellectual and spiritual center. Destroyed during the Danish invasions (867–870), Jarrow was refounded after 1070 as a cell of Durham…

[German Version] Whitby Abbey, originally Streanaeshealh, Benedictine abbey on the coast of Yorkshire, founded as a double monastery in 657 by King Oswiu of Northumbria. Under Hilda, its first abbess, it became a cultural and educational center. To resolve the differences in practice between the Roman and Irish churches (Ireland: II), in 664 the Synod of Whitby decided on Roman observance for the Anglo-Saxon church, appealing to the authority of Peter. Destroyed by the Danes in 867, Whitby was ref…

[German Version] The period of missions to the Germanic nations extends from the emergence of the Arian Gothic churches (Goths, Arius) in the 4th century to the Christianization of Sweden in the 12th. The time scale makes understanding difficult, as does the lack of a generally accepted concept of the Germanic nations. One thing is certain: the Christianization of the Germanic nations represents the central element of the continuity that links the ancient world and the Middle Ages. It was in the course of this process that the medieval West came to be constituted ¶ as a single cultural en…