Athanasius (Speyer)

Athanasius , also Anatharius , was Bishop of Speyer in the first half of the 7th century and is the third official in the official census. Little is known of his life.

Lore

Athanasius is listed in the oldest Speyer bishop list , the Schäftlarner list , which was created between 1078 and 1088 in the Schäftlarn Abbey , as the 1st bishop "Anatharius". However, the group of the first eight bishops there is incomplete and not chronological. The document does not name the predecessor Hilderich at all, although he is guaranteed by the Paris Council of 614.

Wilhelm Eisengrein (1544–1570) describes him in his “Speyerer Chronik” in 1564 as a “saint” and as “the best shepherd of the flock of the Lord, who through his peoples who still languished in pagan darkness” healthy doctrine enlightened and converted. ”He was selected according to the recently passed Paris Council resolutions, which prescribed that the pastoral office should only be conferred on men“ who know how to guide the people by piety and good example, no less than seriousness and severity. "

According to tradition, Athanasius is said to have been the court chaplain of King Dagobert I , at whose court a lively religious life flourished and Bishop Arnulf von Metz exercised great influence.

Under the episcopate of Bishop Athanasius, the church of Speyer experienced a mighty upswing and the first Merovingian cathedral was built on the high bank of the Rhine , which was consecrated to the Virgin Mary and the martyr Stephanus . When the imperial tombs were opened in the current cathedral around 1900, remains of the foundations and pillars of the previous building were found, which are visible and accessible to today's visitors to the imperial tomb, which was built in 1906. Accordingly, the previous Merovingian building by Bishop Athanasius must have been a stately, spacious church. Apparently as a result of his personal relationship with the bishop, King Dagobert had a Benedictine monastery built on today's Germansberg in Speyer, on the ruins of a Roman temple of Mercury, which St. Germanus was the patron of. This church went under in the 19th century and the seminary of the Diocese of Speyer is currently located there , during the construction of which in the 1950s the remains of the old church were excavated (stone coffins, floor tiles, etc.) that are exhibited there today.

In addition, King Dagobert I founded the monastery of St. Michael Klingenmünster in the Speyer diocese around 626 and gave the episcopal chair a large winery in Schlettstadt in Alsace.

literature

• Sigmund Joseph Zimmer : Article Speyer ; in: Wetzer and Welte's Church Lexicon or Encyclopedia of Catholic Theology and its auxiliary sciences , Volume 11; Freiburg: Herder'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, 1882–1903
• Jakob Baumann: History of the Bishops of Speyer , The Pilgrim , born in 1906
• Ludwig Stamer : Church history of the Palatinate , Volume 1, Speyer, 1936
• Hans Ammerich : The Diocese of Speyer and its history , Volume 1: From the beginnings to the end of the Salier period (1125) ; Kehl am Rhein 1998, ISBN 3-927095-36-2 , p. 20
• Thieme / Sommer / Wolfe: The big book of styles , volume 5: The Romanesque , Reinhard Welz, Vermittler Verlag e. K. Mannheim, 2005, ISBN 3-938622-53-9 ( scan of the chapter on early Christianity in Speyer )

Web links

• Joachim Specht: Athanasius. In: Saarland biographies. 

predecessor	Office	successor
Hilderich	Bishop of Speyer around 625	Principius