Caesarius of Speyer

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Coat of arms of the Franciscan Order

Caesarius von Speyer (* 2nd half of the 12th century in Speyer ; † around 1239 in Italy) was a companion of St. Francis and the first provincial of the German province of the Franciscan order .

Live and act

Caesarius studied theology in Paris and worked as cathedral preacher in Speyer . He was a student of the dean of the cathedral Konrad von Speyer , who later became the bishop of Hildesheim . When some women in his hometown took off their jewelry after his sermons, the angry men thought he was an Albigenser and wanted to burn him as a heretic ; Magister Konrad brought him to safety.

The Franciscan Church in Speyer (far right, marked 4) after an engraving by Matthäus Merian

As a subdeacon , Caesarius stayed in the Holy Land from 1217-2020 , where he joined the Franciscan order following a sermon given by Elias of Cortona , the first provincial of Syria. Here he met St. Francis of Assisi, returned with him to Italy in 1220 and was appointed at the General Chapter in 1221 to be responsible for the Franciscans sent to Germany. The Franciscan chronicler Thomas von Celano († 1260) was one of his closest collaborators . Simon von Collazzone († 1250), who was venerated as a blessed man , also belonged to her group. From Augsburg they founded monasteries on the Danube and in the Rhineland . One of the first convents in the home of Caesarius was the Franciscan monastery in Speyer , which was founded by Bishop Konrad III. supported by Scharfenberg , branches were also set up in Worms and Mainz . In 1222 Caesarius headed the first German provincial chapter of the province of Teutonia in Worms , which was already divided into a Rhenish province ( Provincia Rheni ) and a Saxon province ( Provincia Saxonia ) in 1230 . In 1223 the religious returned to Italy. Here he helped St. Francis with the drafting of his rule Regula bullata .

In the same year Caesarius asked the founder of the order at the General Chapter to release him from his work as Provincial of Teutonia and then lived as a hermit in Umbria . Later, as opposition leader in the poverty dispute , General Minister Elias von Cortona had him imprisoned. While trying to escape he was killed by a brother. After him the Franciscans, who insisted on the strict interpretation of the rules of the order, called themselves Caesarians or observants . They are today's Brown Franciscans .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas von Celano in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
  2. ↑ Website on the Franciscan monastery in Mainz ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klosterlexikon-rlp.de
  3. ^ Franz Xaver Remling : Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria , Volume 1, p. 233, Neustadt an der Haardt, 1836; (Digital scan)
  4. ^ Heinrich Boehmer, Friedrich Wiegand: Analects for the history of Franziskus von Assisi , Volume 4 of: Collection of selected sources, New Series , 1961, ISBN 3161189612 , p. XV; [1]
  5. ^ Christian Gotthold Neudecker : General Lexicon of Religious and Christian Church History for all Confessions , Volume 1, Ilmenau, 1834, p. 330 u. 331; (Digital scan)
personal data
SURNAME Caesarius of Speyer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Provincial of the German Province of the Franciscan Order
DATE OF BIRTH between 1150 and 1200
PLACE OF BIRTH Speyer
DATE OF DEATH around 1239
Place of death Italy