Berthold von Garsten

High tomb of St. Berthold in the Garsten collegiate church

Berthold von Garsten (* around 1090; † July 27, 1142 ) probably came from the family of the Bavarian cathedral bailiffs of Regensburg and counts of arches . He was the first abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Garsten, Upper Austria .

Live and act

He was first a Benedictine monk of St. Blasien in the Black Forest and then came to Göttweig Abbey as Prior in 1107 . He was commissioned by Margrave Ottokar von Steyr to expand the Garsten monastery . There Berthold became its first abbot in 1111 . As such, he was distinguished by piety , kindness, pastoral zeal and organizational talent. The monastery owed him an important economic and cultural heyday.

Berthold brought the Hirsauer Reform to Austria. He died in 1142 and is buried in the Garsten collegiate church.

Adoration

Soon after his death, he was venerated as a saint by the people. In the 13th century, the Bishop of Passau allowed Berthold to be inscribed in the register of saints on July 27th. The official recognition of the cult by Rome only took place in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Berthold's Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the former collegiate church and today's parish church of the Assumption of Mary in Garsten, with the burial place at the Berthold Altar.

His feast day is celebrated in the dioceses of Linz , St. Pölten , and Salzburg and with the Benedictines of the Austrian Congregation .

The patronage of the saints:

• Parish Church Scharnstein , Scharnstein, Upper Austria (built 1953/56)
• Berthold Chapel Scharnstein (Anton Stern Chapel), today the lower church of the parish church
• Sierninghofen-Neuzeug parish church , Sierninghofen near Sierning , Upper Austria (built in 1953)

literature

• Johannes Gartner, Life and Miracles of the Holy Abbot Berthold von Garsten (1110–1142) , Wels 2012, ISBN 978-3-902809-19-3
• J. Lenzenweger: Berthold von Garsten , 1958 (with Vita Bertholdi)
• Karl Lechner:  Berthold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 163 ( digitized version ).
• Heinrich von Zeißberg :  Berthold (Abbot of Garsten) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 521 f.2

Web links

Commons : Berthold von Garsten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography of St. Berthold. Parish Garsten, accessed on March 1, 2017.
2. ↑ Amato Pietro Frutaz : Confirmationis Cultus from Immemorabili Tempore Praestiti servo dei Bertholdo Primo Abbati Monasterii Garstensis OSB "Sancto" Nuncupato (+ 1142) 1: Positio Super Casu Excepto ex Officio Concinnata. 2: Relazione presentata all'Em.Mo Sig. Card. Arcadio Larraona, Prefetto della S. Congregazione dei Riti Dal RPD Relatore Generale sulla Seduta della Sezione Storica de. July 17, 1964. Rome 1964.
3. ^ Chronicle of the Garsten Parish: July 27, 1142. Garsten Parish in the Diocese of Linz, accessed July 7, 2018.
4. ↑ cf. also: Anton Stern Chapel renovated . In: Alpenbote, 1902. Digitized in the blog steyrerpioniere , 2012.
5. ↑ Sierninghofen-Neuzeug parish. sierning.at; Parish Church of St. Berthold. dioezese-linz.at